The Plastic Packaging Tax is set to be implemented by the UK Government in April 2022. Plastic packaging that does not contain a minimum of 30% of recycled content will be liable for a charge of £200 per tonne.
At PFF, everything we are working on at the current time is geared towards limiting our customers’ exposure to attract the new tax. We are looking at products where the overall percentage of the packaging has been reduced, or we are engineering into the product aspects of design to ensure they use less plastic altogether. As one example, a standard dairy tub can be replaced with something that’s half, or even a third, of the thickness and then wrapped in cardboard.
Our customers are very acutely aware of the consumer insight into plastic and they are obviously keen to drive the agenda as well. Sustainable production is about energy usage in total, not whether something is simply plastic or card and the consumption of energy, on any manufacturing process, is always key to us.
We look to minimise the impact of our required energy input and make sure our products follow the right ethos, not just a deceptive, consumer-friendly aesthetic.
