The UK’s new plastic packaging tax is far too “blunt” a tool and fails to take into account how different types of plastic impact on circularity, a new report has found.
Figures from Greyparrot, which has introduced artificial intelligence in recycling facilities and analyses the real time content of packaging ending up in the waste stream, show huge disparity between the sortability and sell-on value of different types of plastic material.
The company said it was calling on Defra to introduce more granularity in EPR definitions to encourage brands to make their packaging more recyclable.
Using cameras to capture nearly 500 million images of waste flowing through a material recycling facility (MRF), the company found that while clear PET plastic containers used for food or beverages had a sorting efficiency of nearly 95%, other materials were much lower.
Some coloured PET containers were almost as low as 15%.
Data captured by the company showed that the value of the material collected varied enormously, from some plastic worth almost £600 per tonne, to others as low as £30 per tonne.
Yet under EPR producers are being charged £423 per tonne for plastic under EPR, with the first invoices having been due last month.
Greyparrot co-founder Ambarish Mitra said Defra should look to re-focus EPR to be geared more towards what materials are being successfully recovered.
“Right now, recyclability is often judged on design intent – what should be recyclable – rather than what is recovered,” he said.
“Two bottles can both tick the “recyclable” box on paper, yet one may be perfectly captured while the other ends up in residue because of colour, labels, or contamination. Under current rules, they pay almost identical EPR fees. That’s where the system falls short.
“EPR is not taking into account what actually happens to different types of plastic when it gets into the waste stream.
“Plastic is being over simplified and we have to understand these things are a unique material polymer. The policy needs to flow full cycle.”
He added: “I think EPR is one of the most important environmental policies of our times but whilst we have to shift the cost of packaging waste from taxpayers to producers we also have to push brands to design for circularity. The way it’s being implemented is far too blunt and it will not reach those goals with the current system.”
While Defra is looking to bring in modulation for the second year of EPR, which will introduce a traffic light system of charges for materials based on their recyclability, Mitra said it still did not go far enough to gear EPR towards actual behaviour.
He said “The next leap needed is to make modulation smarter – introducing finer material categories and linking fees to how packaging actually behaves in the real world, powered by live waste data, not assumptions or emotions.
The government is looking to roll out a deposit return scheme for plastic drinks containers from October 2027, but Mitra said this too would not tackle the issue of what happens to different plastics when they ended up in the waste stream.
“Deposit return schemes will definitely be a welcome step,” he said. “What they won’t impact is whether a product actually gets recycled at a facility or not. That remains down to the way products are processed once they reach recycling and sorting facilities, which is where the plastic material, shape, colour and size become the key determining factors.”
No comments yet