BRC has now submitted the retail industry's views on chemical recycling and the adoption of the mass balance approach for the purposes of the Plastic Packaging Tax.
Our detailed response is available below.
Highlights
- BRC recommends HMRC to recognise chemical recycling and the use of associated mass balance as a method to produce recyclates for incorporation into products. The BRC and its members are in favour of including output from chemical recycling as ‘recycled content’, and therefore including it in the recycled content definition for plastic packaging tax.
- HMRC should adopt a consistent definition of chemical recycling that would align with other Government Departments. As chemical recycling technologies scale up, the UK Government should provide clarity about their position in the waste hierarchy and in the existing recycling definition.
- Chemical recycling plays a significant role in creating a circular economy for plastics and provides an opportunity to recycle hard-to-recycle materials such as films and flexibles which will need to be collected by local authorities by March 2027.
- Mass balance should be technology neutral to cover any products where recycled and virgin feedstocks are blended
- Chemical recycling should be considered as complementary process to mechanical recycling. Both should co-exist and expand to help the UK address its recycling/reprocessing capacity gap.