Cash raised from plastic packaging tax should be spent on recycling facilities, says LVF Packaging
A family-owned packaging manufacturer has called on the Government to ring fence the money raised through the plastic packaging tax to develop recycling facilities across the UK.
Bosses at Leeds-based LVF Packaging believe there are “overriding benefits” from using plastic as the main manufacturing material for food packaging. They also acknowledge that plastic comes from recycled waste and should be full recycled.
Companies must pay the plastic packaging tax if they have manufactured or imported plastic packaging components which contain less than 30 per cent recycled plastic.
Dan Coates, LVF’s business development director, said: “Plastic waste has been public enemy number one ever since Sir David Attenborough’s Blue Planet II documentary was first broadcast back in 2017. The greenwashing, anti-plastic wagon has been trundling along noisily ever since.”
“The big problem is that plastic waste was put there by human hands, which would have been far better served working out a properly thought-out recycling strategy and joining together to create circular economies for plastic packaging.”
Mr Coates said that over the last decade there had been a lot of time and money spent on looking for alternative materials, which will deliver all the benefits of plastic, but with none of its perceived drawbacks.
However, nobody is any closer to finding one, according to Mr Coates.
“The reason for this decade long deadlock is simple,” he added. “Plastic, and in particularly the clear rPET mono that is used the vast majority of the time, is the only viable material – especially for meat. It’s highly recycled, highly recyclable, has great barrier properties and keeps the food fresh for longest.
"Everyone knows those facts, which is why no alternative material has been found.”
“The plastic packaging tax is raising nearly £300m every year, but it’s doing nothing to improve recycling in the UK, which is still an absolute mess,” added Mr Coates.
“You only need to look around Yorkshire to see how many different coloured bins are used in different neighbourhoods and how the constraints of what can and can’t be recycled change from one town to the next.
"This simply creates confusion and a situation where products that can be recycled aren’t and those that can’t are being thrown into recycling bins and contaminating the recycling streams.”
The Government needs to rectify this by ring fencing funds raised through the plastic packaging tax and investing them in a UK-wide recycling plan, said Mr Coates.
"If we as a country can afford to spend upwards of £100bn on HS2, then surely we can afford to invest a fraction of that in creating a recycling programme that ensures all plastic packaging is recycled and fed back to the manufacturers – a step that will eradicate future plastic waste and greatly help future generations.”
A Government spokesperson said there are no plans to scrap Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), which moves the cost of dealing with waste away from taxpayers and generates over £1bn annually.
The spokesperson added: “It’s part of a major investment in the UK economy, helping create 25,000 jobs and we will continue to work with industry as the changes are implemented.”
The spokesman said the extended producer responsibility scheme was first announced back in 2018, “and since then we have worked closely with industry to ensure they are prepared for its implementation”.
"All funds generated by Extended Producer Responsibility must be spent by councils on improving the recycling services they offer. Those who fail to do this will see PackUK (the scheme administrator) deduct funds from future payments.
“Extended producer responsibility for packaging (pEPR) will move the cost of dealing with household packaging waste away from taxpayers to the businesses who produce the packaging.”
The spokesman added that pEPR incentivises businesses to reduce unnecessary packaging and use more recycled and recyclable packaging.
"This will lead to less waste to landfill and reduce the release of damaging CO2 emissions. The revenue from fees will generate more than £1bn annually to support local collection and disposal services, including recycling services – benefiting every household in the UK.”
From this year extended producer responsibility for packaging ( pEPR) fees will be lower for easy to recycle materials and higher for packaging which is hard to recycle, the Government spokesman said.
The spokesman added: “Glass is one of the more easily recycled materials and we estimate that over 90% of glass packaging under pEPR will benefit from reduced fees. pEPR is the cornerstone of the wider packaging reforms which industry estimates will create 25,000 jobs and underpin £10 billion of investment in new sorting and processing facilities. The implementation of the pEPR scheme is a critical step towards the creation of a circular economy.”
In response, Mr Coates said: "No one in the packaging industry doubts the need for investment and reform in the recycling industry, what we’d like to know is how are the generated tax revenues being spent; what is the Government doing with the tax to improve infrastructure and processes?”