Britain to tax non-recycled plastic packaging by 2022

Great Britain plans to introduce a plastics tax on all packaging that does not include at least 30 per cent recycled material.

As announced by UK finance minister Philip Hammond, the measure will be introduced in April 2022 and is an attempt to reduce waste and help tackle climate change.

The announcement was part of Hammond’s annual budget.

The tax aims to “transform the economics of sustainable packaging,” Hammond said, and posit the UK as “as a world leader” in tackling the scourge of plastic littering across the world and its oceans.

Under the new proposal, which will now go out for consultation, plastic packaging that contains at least 30 per cent recycled material will be exempt from the tax. The size of the levy has not yet been determined.

“Where we cannot achieve re-use, we are determined to increase recycling so we will introduce a new tax on the manufacture and import of plastic packaging which contains less than 30 percent recycled plastic,” Hammond said in his speech.