Tax to beat the scourge of plastic packaging
After the Mail’s war on bags, cups and bottles...
THE Chancellor will announce plans to tax plastic bottles, coffee cups and packaging in next week’s Budget, sources said last night.
Philip Hammond will use his annual statement on the economy to detail plans for a review of new taxes and charges on ‘single-use’ plastic items.
The move is designed to stem the tide of plastic junk poisoning our seas and littering our streets and countryside.
The decision to push for a new tax on throwaway plastic follows the Daily Mail’s long-running campaigns to highlight the menace caused by plastic bags, cups, bottles and microbeads.
Treasury sources last night said it was ‘too early’ to say how any new taxes on plastic would work, or at what level they will be set. Mr Hammond will ask for scientists, manufacturers and retailers to submit evidence to the Treasury in the New Year. Detailed proposals are likely to take several months to draw up.
But sources said there was a determination in Government to act on an issue that has been highlighted most recently by the BBC’s hit show, Blue Planet II.
‘This is building on what we have already done on plastic bags and microbeads,’ a source said. ‘Shows like Blue Planet have highlighted the need to take this issue seriously and act on it.’
‘Suffocating our seas’
The Treasury drive will affect a wide range of throwaway plastics, including coffee cups, polystyrene packaging, bubble wrap, plastic cutlery and even drinking straws. It will cover materials that can be easily recycled, such as milk bottles, and those which cannot, such as disposable coffee cups.
The Environment Department is already considering whether to introduce a deposit scheme for plastic bottles to discourage people from throwing them away.
But Treasury sources say Mr Hammond will also consider whether new taxes are needed to combat the problem.
In the UK alone, the amount of singleuse plastic thrown away each year would fill the Albert Hall a thousand times over. An estimated 12 million tonnes of plastic waste is dumped in the oceans each year, creating ‘floating continents’ of junk. One in the Pacific is the size of France.
Environmentalists last night welcomed the move, but urged the Chancellor to act swiftly and decisively.
Mike Barrett, director of science and policy at WWF, said: ‘Plastic is suffocating our seas. There is no greater example of the havoc we have on the natural world. Any action to tackle single-use plastic is a good thing, but we must ensure any action is truly ambitious if we want to make the real difference needed to help save the planet.’
Jeff Knott, of the RSPB, said leaving the EU would give Britain the opportunity to move further and faster on environmental protection.
‘It is impossible not to be moved by the sight of an animal in distress or dying due to becoming entangled in or swallowing the plastics found in our seas,’ he added.
‘A tax on single-use plastics is a positive step for addressing this. Leaving the EU gives the UK an opportunity to build on the great progress already made.’
Tisha Brown, of Greenpeace UK, said plastic pollution was a ‘global emergency’, with particles turning up in the stomachs of whales, turtles and 90 per cent of sea birds.
But she struck a cautious note, saying: ‘The Treasury’s announcement is only a statement of intent, but it recognises the significance of the problem and the urgent need for a solution.
‘There is a long way to go, but hopefully this is the beginning of the end for single-use plastic.’ Behind the scenes, Mr Hammond has clashed repeatedly with Theresa May in the run-up to next week’s Budget.
The Chancellor has been resisting pressure from Mrs May and Communities Secretary Sajid Javid to release billions for a new house building programme, but sources last night suggested he had relented and will unveil a significant package to address the crisis. Proof you don’t need all that
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