UK announces its firsts Plastic Packaging Tax statistics
Andrew Thurston · September 6th 2023 · read
HMRC have released its figures on Plastic Packaging Tax (PPT) here, along with a very useful commentary on the background and analysis of the statistics.
A total of 4,142 businesses have registered for PPT since the tax was introduced in April 2022 resulting in revenue of £276m being paid over to HMRC via quarterly PPT returns.
The levels of plastic packaging produced or imported fell between Q2 and Q4, but this may be due to Q2 including packaging used in goods sold at Christmas, as this is normally when retailers receive these goods into their supply chains.
Analysis of the figures confirms there is one interesting statistic that has not been provided, this relates to the percentage of packaging declared as having more than 30% recycled content.
The calculations are provided below and confirm that, apart from the sudden increase between Q1 and Q2, the percentage of the total amount of plastic packaging produced or imported, which includes +30% recycled content, has actually decreased slightly (44% to 42.6%).
The calculations are provided below and confirm that, apart from the sudden increase between Q1 and Q2, the percentage of the total amount of plastic packaging produced or imported, which includes +30% recycled content, has actually decreased slightly (44% to 42.6%).
| Period | Total quantity of plastic packaging (T) | Percentage of plastic containing +30% recycled content |
|---|---|---|
Q1 | 993,000 | 30.6% |
| Q2 | 1,057,000 | 44.0% |
| Q3 | 731,000 | 43.2% |
| Q4 | 720,000 | 42.6% |
This will be a concern to the UK Government as the intention for this tax was to change business attitudes to plastic packaging and to reduce the levels of virgin plastic in the supply chain...
This will be a concern to the UK Government as the intention for this tax was to change business attitudes to plastic packaging and to reduce the levels of virgin plastic in the supply chain. If this does not change then it is likely that the Government will increase the tax to speed up a change in behaviours.
Although these statistics provide a good overview of the impact of the new tax and the revenue generated, it will require another year’s data to see if the tax is making a positive impact on the reduction of virgin plastic in UK supply chains.
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