Green light: No Plastic Packaging Tax on DEBATIN products
Everything seems to be getting expensive these days. Certainly more expensive than it used to be. That’s true all over Europe – and it’s also true of the plastic packaging used by companies in the UK. That’s because of the Plastic Packaging Tax introduced by the UK government on 1 April 2022. It applies to all plastic packaging that has less than 30 % recycled material. In 2022, packaging that doesn’t meet this bar was taxed at £ 200 (approx. € 240) per tonne. Today, the rate for insufficiently green packaging has risen to £ 223.69 per tonne.
The DERIBA Group produces recycled film
Since DEBATIN has customers in the UK, we thought we’d better follow the guidance from the British Government: “Check which packaging is subject to Plastic Packaging Tax”. We’re delighted to be able to report that what we’re sending to the UK (some 2 % of our turnover) “is not subject” to the tax. We can attribute this happy state of affairs to two things: firstly, here at DEBATIN, we’ve always worked hard to close the recycling loop and keep materials in circulation for as long as possible, and secondly, as part of the DERIBA Group, we find ourselves in the fortunate position of being able to use recycled products that are manufactured within our own corporate group.
At this point we would also like to express a resounding “THANK YOU!” to the riba team. They were the first of our suppliers for the DEBATIN UNIPACK® document pouches who were able to provide the assurances required under British legislation. And of course our thanks also go to all our other suppliers who reacted so fantastically fast.
30 % recycled materials … or more!
It’s actually not that simple to provide reliable proof of exactly how much recycled material is used in the film we supply. But we do now know for certain that it’s at least 30 %. British law hasn’t made it easy for our customers: the recycled content of each material used in a plastic packaging component must be specified precisely in grams. Ultimately, though, this isn’t such a bad thing, since it increases the pressure on businesses to provide high-quality data about their packaging and buy more sustainable packaging materials.
If you were wondering, DEBATIN UNIPACK® is our brand of self-adhesive document pouches, which are also highly popular with our British customers. Since we were able to check everything we needed with our partners and suppliers so quickly, there’s nothing standing in the way of our products continuing to go to the UK – the Plastic Packaging Tax introduced on 1 April 2022 doesn’t apply to our products, since we easily meet the requirement of at least 30 % post-consumer recycled material (PCR) or post-industrial recycled material (PIR).
UNIPACK® – environmentally friendly self-adhesive document pouches
Recycled material: the requirements
Did you know? Recycled material is clearly defined as material that has been reprocessed following collecting and sorting. The definition makes it clear that if waste from a production line is fed straight back into the production line, this cannot be considered recycling. A document must be provided specifying the proportion of recycled content. But, as we know: We pass: we’ve checked!
