Does the plastic tax promote the recycling economy?

What’s it all about?

The idea of a tax on plastic has been under discussion for some time at the European level and in individual countries, and steps are being taken towards implementation. A plastic tax on the non-recycled portion of plastic packaging is included in the European Union’s 2021-2027 budget, amounting to 80 cents per kilogram of non-recycled material. By all accounts, many of the larger EU member states want to pay this tax from the general EU budget without introducing a new tax. Individual countries such as Great Britain, Italy and Spain have also implemented a tax on plastic packaging that is based on the proportion of recycled material. The three countries could now be joined by Switzerland, where the National Council adopted Motion 20.3940 in the first chamber on December 17, 2020. This motion from the National Council’s Commission on the Environment, Spatial Planning, and Energy provides for a tax on plastic packaging for beverages and cleaning agents if they do not contain at least 25% recycled material.

Why a plastic tax is the wrong mechanism

This motion is problematic in several respects and does not promote the recycling economy:

• There are many applications that cannot be made using recycled material. The use of recycled materials for food is hardly possible with polyolefins (polyethylene, polypropylene) at this time due to a lack of approval (cf. Commission Regulation (EC) 282/2008). Various substances (e.g. concentrates) for cleaning agents require UN approval. The use of recycled material is not feasible here either. These types of packaging are the subject of discrimination.
• There is not enough recycled material of sufficient quality, either today or in the near future. Adequate structures for collecting, sorting, and processing need to be created before we can even think about implementing such a tax. Almost 70% of processors in Europe complain that there isn’t enough adequate recycled material available.
  

EuPC, Survey on the use of rPM, Brussels, 2020

• Plastics are not the only materials used for packaging. If a tax is imposed on them, this will lead to switching to other materials that create just as much waste, but take more energy to recycle in some circumstances and have a worse energy footprint overall. The environment would be worse off in this case. Foregoing the use of plastic in packaging for consumer goods quadruples environmental costs!
  

Trucost, Plastics and Sustainability, Washington, 2016

• It would be discriminatory for plastic packaging to be taxed and not other packaging materials.
• The tax contributes nothing to collection and recycling. And that’s exactly what the recycling economy is. The means would need to already be specifically implemented as part of such structures. Switzerland currently lacks a coherent strategy to do this.
• The tax inhibits initiatives that would arise from the private sector, of which there are some promising concepts (see further down).

As good as a plastic tax may sound, it doesn't solve the problem of resources or waste.

Sit back and do nothing?

So should the industry sit back and do nothing? Of course not. Environmental problems are too big, especially the climate change that threatens our very way of life. Our resource requirements are also too big. We need to act, and fast.

There are solutions!

The best solutions are those that supply chains voluntarily agree on. The organization PET-Recycling Schweiz PRS is an example of how wonderfully this can work. The Ordinance on Beverage Containers (VGV) stipulates a recycling quota of 75% for beverage containers made from glass, PET and aluminum in article 8(1). The industry instituted the PRS to achieve this goal for PET, for example, and funds collection and recycling with a contribution for each bottle. The collection rate today is well over the target rate, with collection containers everywhere in public and offices.

The PRISMA association has also devised a good system for expanded manufacturer liability. Similar to PRS, an organization is created that is funded by placing products on the market and that organizes collection and recycling in cooperation with cantons and municipalities (we have a public waste monopoly for municipal waste in Switzerland). www.prisma-innovation.ch/one-for-all-blueprint

The PRISMA system covers all types of packaging, even aluminum, glass, cardboard, etc. Sustainably designed packaging (Design for Recycling and Circularity) is given preferential treatment with eco-modulation.

Instead of sinking beneath the weight of populist measures that sound good, but do little for the environment, this allows us to implement comprehensive concepts and manage a recycling economy that covers all types of packaging.