EU leaders have agreed to propose a new tax on plastic packaging waste as part of the bloc’s €750-billion ($870 billion) coronavirus pandemic relief package. The tax rate stands at €0.80 ($0.9) per kilogram of non-recycled plastic packaging waste that will be valid from January 1, 2021. However, the proposed tax raises confusion and scepticism among recyclers who said investment decisions on some projects might have to be deferred until there is more clarity on how the tax would work.
Recyclers said it remained uncertain how and at which stage of the waste stream the weight of non-recycled plastic packaging waste would be calculated. There is also unclarity on who will be responsible for reporting and conducting the calculation. Currently, there are also no uniformed approaches to calculate and audit the data among EU member states.
Besides, not all EU countries have no advanced facilities to collect and short plastic waste, especially those made of polystyrene and polyvinyl chloride. European recycling infrastructure has been focused mostly on PET recycling, followed by PE recently. There is still a lack of facility to recycle PVC and PS, which accounted for large sections in packaging.
There are also worries that the tax will encourage the packaging industry to move toward other materials such as glass, paper, and aluminium that have more environmental impacts than plastics. However, despite the confusion, European recyclers are optimistic that the tax could potentially boost the recycled plastic market in the region.
