Packaging sector hits back at calls for a tax on ‘hard-to-recycle’ materials

An influential packaging industry research body has hit back at a new report from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) and the Green...

An influential packaging industry research body has hit back at a new report from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) and the Green Alliance, which demanded that the UK government introduced taxes on disposable and hard-to-recycle products.

The Industry Council for Packaging and the Environment (Incpen), whose stated aim is to encourage sustainable production, distribution and consumption, “takes issue” with the demand in the Zero Waste UK report that the government should impose levies on hard-to-recycle products. Its objections follow criticism of the report from packaging giant Tetra Pak, which drew attention to efforts to improve the recycling of composite packaging materials in the UK.

“We believe that this demand is poorly thought through as it ignores the fact that it’s more important to optimise the use of resources - materials and energy - in the first place,” said Incpen director Jane Bickerstaffe. “It is generally accepted that climate change is the single greatest challenge that we face, and we believe that effective packaging makes a substantial contribution to the fight against it.”

The IPPR report was published last week ahead of the Chancellor’s pre-Budget report and the government’s Waste Strategy. It specifically targeted drinks cartons made with “hard-to-recycle” layers of cardboard, plastic and metal foil - such as those made by Tetra Pak - for attention.

“Currently 4bn cartons are used in the UK each year but less than 10% are recycled,” said IPPR. “This compares with rates in excess of 65% in countries such as Germany, where there is a 1.9p charge on cartons to pay for collection and recycling and in Belgium, where there is a 0.5p charge.”

But Tetra Pak dismissed the claim that these composites were difficult to recycle and said the problem lay with insufficiently developed collection and recycling facilities for them in the UK compared with countries such as Germany.

The Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment in the UK (ACE UK), whose members include composite packaging manufacturers Tetra Pak, Elopak and SIG Combibloc, has just launched a £1.2M National Recycling Fund to help boost beverage carton recycling in the UK. This industry fund is designed to help local authorities and other organisations establish carton collection.

Incpen did, however, welcome calls in the IPPR report for a harnessing of resources, while getting better value from them and reducing waste sent to landfill. It called for more research to inform evidence-based policy development.