Verification of Recycled Content - protecting the UK supply chain

In 2019 the UK government announced plans to introduce a tax on all plastic packaging which does not contain at least 30% recycled content, now known as the "plastic tax". This tax, which will start in 2022 will impose a £200 tax, per tonne of plastic, on all brands placing plastic packaging in the marketplace, unless recycled content of over 30% is used.

While this has the potential to generate significant revenue for HMRC, or increase the value of plastic recyclate, hence making a step change in the value of plastic recycling which will increase the numbers of plastic recyclers throughout the country, there is no current method to analyse the amount of recyclate within a plastic product.

As a result, UK manufacturers, who can be audited via purchase records from HMRC, face competition from imports of plastic packaging from overseas where purchase records of recyclate cannot be verified, or from unscrupulous local operators who falsely declare the origins of their material.

This project seeks to close this blind spot by providing an internationally recognised method/standard for determining the % content of recyclate within a plastic product, by bringing together the Scottish Plastic Recycling Centre of Excellence (SPRCOE) and the British Standards Institution (BSI), both of whom stand to gain from this new service/product, while also protecting the revenues of HMRC, support packaging manufacturers and kick start the plastic recycling industry in the UK.