Supermarkets to face huge rise in recycling charges under £1billion scheme to slash Britain’s plastic waste
Ministers are considering plans to significantly improve recycling and make major producers of packing waste pay more towards collecting and recycling their own waste
SUPERMARKETS and drink giants face a huge rise in recycling charges under a £1billion scheme to slash plastic waste.
Sources yesterday claimed Ministers were considering a radical increase in costs for waste “producers” as part of Environment Secretary Michael Gove’s bid to clean up Britain.
It will spark fresh fears that Brits may be forced to pick up part of the tab as companies pass the costs on to customers.
But the Government wants supermarkets and other manufacturers and producers to pay more towards the cost of collecting and recycling the estimated 11million tons of package waste produced in the UK.
Under a new waste strategy, one option is to increase ‘contributions’ from retailers and producers from £70million a year to between £500million and £1billion.
There are also plans to increase the number of companies that contribute from the current 7,000, the Guardian said.
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Currently two-thirds of packaging waste is exported.
Phil Conran, chair of a Government advisory committee on packaging, said: “Many [retailers and manufacturers] are used to much higher costs in other member states anyway, so they know it is inevitable.”
The move comes two weeks after the Chancellor decided against a ‘latte levy’ in the Budget. Philip Hammond said that “in isolation” the tax on coffee cups would not deliver a “decisive shift from disposable to reusable cups”.
Treasury insiders were also worried that any tax couldn’t be placed on one industry – meaning the cost of everything from soft drink cups in fast food chains and trays in hospitals would go up in cost.
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