Plastic Packaging Tax
The Plastic Packaging Tax (PPT) is being implemented by the UK government with the aim to improve the financial feasibility of plastic recycling, and encourage the use of recycled plastic by inflating the base price of virgin plastic (plastic made from 100% new resin without any recycled content) entering the UK market.
Any packaging that contains less than 30% recycled plastic.
A charge of £200 per tonne (1,000kg) of plastic packaging
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The tax will be applied from April 2022 and consist of a £200 charge per tonne (1,000kg) of plastic packaging.
This is applied to any packaging that contains less than 30% chemically or mechanically recycled plastic. The tax is payable by the UK manufacturer or importer who supplies plastic packaging containing less than 30% recycled material.
The tax is only paid once.
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This is the responsibility of the UK manufacturer who makes the final substantial modification such as extruding plastic, printing, and converting to a bag. If there is no substantial modification, the responsibility lies with the importer who supplied materials into the UK domestic market.
Currently the plastic packaging supplied by Flexpak UK Ltd. is made using 100% virgin plastic, meaning it will have to apply the PPT to comply with UK law.
Flexpak UK Ltd. will ensure that the PPT is applied correctly and appropriately to all goods supplied to our customers. In order to do so, preparations are being put in place to initiate new administration and accounting processes.
A noticeable change you will recognise from April 2022 will be a statement of compliance on all applicable invoices. These declarations will state that the PPT has been paid, and that Flexpak UK Ltd. recognise that we are the entity liable in the supply chain for payment of the tax.
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In order to achieve certification for direct food contact and meet the requirements of our BRC accreditation, it is not currently possible to add standard mechanically recovered material to the blend.
This is due to the risk of contamination and/or migration of additives previously used in the plastic being deemed to be too high. The only option is to use material recovered through chemical recovery, known as Pyrolysis.
Whilst this would exempt the material from PPT, the current cost of this process will result in the price being higher than paying the tax. In addition, it should be noted that this material is on a much longer lead-time, currently we are being quoted 8-12 weeks for material.