“Unprecedented” UK public support for the introduction of taxes on plastic

20 Aug 2018 --- The UK public have expressed strong support for the use of taxes in reducing plastic waste, the Treasury has reported. A total of 162,000 responses were received to its recent call for evidence on how tax can be used to reduce plastic waste, which the treasury note as being the highest response rate in its history. Last week, France also announced plans for the introduction of a plastic tax to come into effect in 2019.

The Chancellor, Philip Hammond, has reiterated the department’s commitment to take action through the tax system to reduce the amount of single-use plastic waste. The views received will help inform and shape the government’s approach ahead of this year’s Budget.

Measures which received noteworthy public support and are being considered include using the tax system to:

• Encourage greater use of recycled plastic in manufacturing rather than new plastic.
• Discourage the use of difficult to recycle plastics, like carbon black plastic.
• Reduce demand for single-use plastics such as coffee-cups and takeaway boxes.
• Encourage further recycling as opposed to incineration.

“Tackling the scandal of plastic pollution is one of our top priorities and we know the public is right behind us. I’ve been overwhelmed by the public support and the responses we’ve received will be invaluable as we develop our plans for using the tax system to combat this,” says Robert Jenrick, Exchequer Secretary.

This work forms part of the government’s overall commitment in its 25 Year Environment Plan to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste. It builds on the recently announced £20 million (US$25.5 million) plastics innovation fund – to support the production of sustainable and recyclable plastics – and follows the £61.4 million (US$78 million) announced by the Prime Minister to be invested in tackling plastic in the world’s oceans.

How has the industry responded?
UK environmental solutions company Veolia has responded to the news positively: “We all want to increase the amount the UK recycles and a simple tax incentive could be used to encourage recyclable materials and designs for products and discourage the use of harder to recycle options, such as black plastic and polystyrene yogurt pots.”

Black plastics and harder to recycle plastics have come under fire recently, with research highlighting that almost a third of household plastics are not recyclable. Arguably, a tax could incentivize companies to seek alternative, easier to recycle, materials. Although, Viridor and Faerch Plast have developed a process by which recycled black plastic can be converted into new food grade packaging. However, the challenge remains that black is the only color that cannot be easily scanned by recycling machines and sorted, meaning this can unnecessarily hinder the recycling process.

The Veolia statement also expresses the importance that clear labelling could play on packaging, “a simple green dot for example - so consumers know what can be easily recycled, a revision of the existing Packaging Recovery Note (PRN) system to remove the advantage given to export and a simple deposit-return system for plastic and aluminum cans.”

“The setting of ambitious targets, such as a minimum percentage of recycled content in packaging, will ensure plastic recycling increases dramatically over the next five years to ensure a more circular and sustainable future,” the spokesperson concludes.

Last week the French government announced that from 2019 products sold in unrecyclable plastic packaging would cost up to 10 percent more. Speaking with French newspaper Journal du Dimanche, Brune Poirson, Secretary of State for Ecological Transition said that, “Declaring war on plastic is not enough. We need to transform the French economy. When there's a choice between two bottles, one made of recycled plastic and the other without, the first will be less expensive.”

The UK has made some strides in its approach to recycling and plastic waste, considering the introduction of a levy on coffee cups and a potential ban on plastics straws, stirrers and cotton buds. Earlier this month, The City Corporation of London has launched its Plastic Free City campaign in an attempt to reduce single-use plastics across the Square Mile. The campaign is targeting both big businesses as well as individuals. The pledge is wide-ranging, from stopping the use of plastic straws, cups or cutlery to registering as a water refill site. The move comes after research found four in five Generation Z workers expect employers to proactively tackle single-use plastics.

Furthermore, The UK plastics pact is a collaborative initiative that brings companies together to work toward a circular economy, bringing together business from across the entire plastics value chain with UK governments and NGOs to tackle the scourge of plastic waste. It was signed by more than 40 major players in the food and non-food industry, including leading UK retailers, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, Aldi, Lidl, M&S and Waitrose. The pact pledges the following by 2025:100 percent of plastic packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable; 70 percent of plastic packaging recycled or composted; eliminate problematic or unnecessary single-use packaging items; 30 percent average recycled content across all plastic packaging.

By Laxmi Haigh