A bulletin released by the UK’s Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs earlier this month revealed that PPT receipts collected by HM Revenue and Customs in the financial year 2023 to 2024 totalled £268 million. This represents a decrease of 6% compared to 2022/2023, whichcame in at £285 million. In this period, 42% of the total tonnage of plastic packaging manufactured in and imported into the UK was declared as taxable under the PPT.
Of the remaining 58% of plastic packaging tonnage manufactured in and imported into the UK: 46% contained 30% or more recycled plastic, 11% was either exported, intended for export or converted and less than 1% was exempt because it was used for the immediate packaging of human medicines.
The tax applies to manufacturers and importers of plastic packaging components which contain less than 30% recycled plastic. Plastic packaging manufacturers and importers declare their plastic packaging on fixed quarterly accounting periods ending in June, September, December and March, with returns and payments due by the last working day of the following month. As PPT went live in April 2022, the first returns for April to June 2022 were submitted in July 2022. On 24 July 2024, there were 4,669 businesses registered to the PPT.
Steve Gough, CEO at Valpak by Reconomy, noted that the latest statistics on the Plastic Packaging Tax provide an ‘insightful update’ on the state of the plastic packaging market in the UK.
“While the decrease in tax receipts to £268 million reflects some positive shifts towards more circular practices, the fact that 42% of plastic packaging remains taxable highlights the ongoing challenge businesses face in meeting the 30% recycled content threshold.”
He added that, while the progress seen in the proportion of plastic packaging containing 30% or more recycled content—now at 46%—is encouraging, the key to accelerating this progress lies in ‘businesses embedding robust processes driven by technology and data’.
“This approach will enable them to gain a granular understanding of their waste footprint and help them to identify the most impactful changes they can make to meet new regulatory requirements like PPT.”
Zoe Brimelow, a director at packaging manufacturer and consultancy Duo, pointed to the need for more clarity about how the money is being used, considering that the policy objective of the PPT was intended to support increased demand for recycled plastic packaging and to increase levels of recycling.
“The UK’s closed-loop recycling infrastructure requires investment to support these policy objectives and it would be good to see PPT monies being invested in this area.,” she stressed. “A reduction in second year PPT revenues may indicate a shift towards more recycled-content plastic packaging, but we still need more context to properly understand this and the effectiveness of the tax… The previous government promised an evaluation of the PPT and we now need clarity from the current government about when this evaluation will be available.”