Plastic Packaging Tax

The Plastic Packaging Tax is an excise duty on plastic packaging materials containing less than 30% recycled content, administered jointly by HMRC and HM Treasury with DEFRA policy leadership. The scheme aims to incentivise use of recycled plastic and reduce plastic waste, and is currently active with ongoing refinements to the mass balance approach and chemical recycling provisions. Recent policy developments include consultation on removing pre-consumer plastic from the tax scope and a separate ban on plastic-containing wet wipes.