Pressure is on to tax throwaway plastics and cut litter

ENVIRONMENTAL charities have called for a 30p charge on plastic bottles after Philip Hammond announced the Government was considering taxing single-use containers to cut litter.

The Chancellor said Britain should lead the world in “tackling the scourge of plastic” in the oceans and promised to investigate how charges could reduce waste. A four-week consultation on bringing back deposit return schemes for bottles ended this week and the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is due to report back shortly.

In evidence submitted to the consultation, conservation groups have called for 30p to be added to the cost of plastic bottles of 500ml or over, and 15p to those below, which would be returned when the item was recycled.

Disposable coffee cups would also be slapped with a 5p tax under plans, which the groups claim would increase recycling levels to more than 90 per cent, and reduce overall litter levels in Britain by 32 per cent. A similar 5p charge added to plastic bags in 2015 has seen their use fall by 85 per cent.

Sandy Luk, chief executive of the Marine Conservation Society (MCS), said: “We welcome the investigation announced by the Chancellor. The evidence is already there to show that our oceans are choked in plastic. We’ve seen how a small charge has made a big difference with plastic carrier bags, and applying this to all throwaway plastics would lead to a significant drop in damaging plastics getting into our streets, rivers and seas.”

Each year, more than 300 million tons of plastic are produced globally, and 10 per cent will end up in the sea.

It is estimated that there is now a 1:2 ratio of plastic to plankton and, left unchecked, plastic will outweigh fish by the year 2050. Only 12 per cent of household waste is reprocessed. The rest is either burnt, dumped or goes to landfill.

Environmental groups are also calling for incentives for manufacturers to move towards greener packaging and want the most harmful plastics, which are difficult to recycle, phased out. Lyndsey Dodds, head of marine policy at WWF-UK, said: “Plastic is suffocating our seas. Too often animals are found dead with plastics in their stomachs.”