To reduce the amount of single use plastic waste, the government has announced that it will call for evidence in early 2018 to decide how a tax or charges could help to achieve this goal.

This follows the success of the five pence levy on plastic bags which has seen England’s plastic bag usage drop by 85% since the charge was introduced in October 2015.

Individuals have called for a five pence levy on coffee cups for several years as many cafes and coffee shops provide cups which are not 100% recyclable. Although recently coffee chains have been offering incentives, such as money off of a coffee if they reuse a cup they have bought previously.

Jayne Harrold, PwC’s UK Environmental tax leader, said: ‘In the case of single use plastic packaging, the cost of disposal is typically borne by Local Authorities collecting waste rather than by the supplier, retailer, or user of that packaging.

‘Introducing a tax on single use plastic packaging has the dual environmental benefit of reducing resource use and reducing waste disposal.  The key to the success of the measure will be in structuring the tax properly and setting it at the right rate to achieve the desired change of behaviour.

‘A flat rate charge which is transparent and visible to consumers is a fairly blunt instrument, but easy for consumers to understand and can help drive conscious choices and change of behaviour. 

‘A more sophisticated mechanism that taxed suppliers based on the weight of non-recyclable plastic packaging they put into the supply chain would potentially be more effective in promoting behaviour in line with the waste hierarchy of reduce, reuse, recycle.  For example, a supplier could legitimately reduce their tax bill by reducing the weight of non-recyclable packaging used, and by replacement of non-recyclable materials.’

Report by Amy Austin