December 3, 2025 12:50

As anticipated last May, the UK government is set to allow chemically recycled plastic — tracked through certified mass balance accounting — to qualify for exemption from the Plastic Packaging Tax (PPT), the levy introduced in 2022 on plastic packaging that contains less than 30% recycled content.
The tax rate was increased in April to £223.69 per tonne of plastic packaging produced or imported.

If approved, the new rules will come into effect on April 1, 2027. From that same date, materials derived from pre-consumer waste, including production scrap, will no longer count toward the recycled content eligible for tax relief.
Only post-consumer recycled material, from either mechanical or chemical recycling, will be considered valid.

The goal of recognizing chemically recycled plastic is to encourage investment in the chemical recycling sector and promote the use of recycled plastics in applications where mechanical recycling is not technically or legally viable.
To benefit from the exemption, however, manufacturers and importers must ensure full traceability of recycled content throughout the value chain, using certification schemes that comply with legally defined minimum standards.

As for pre-consumer waste, the exclusion aims to strengthen the environmental integrity of the tax — closing potential loopholes — and to ensure fiscal fairness among companies, which have previously interpreted the definition of pre-consumer waste inconsistently.

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