July 24, 2020
From 1 January 2021, the EU will levy a tax on plastic packaging waste that is not recycled. This agreement was made at the beginning of this week by the European government leaders as part of the negotiations on the €750 billion recovery fund. This fund is intended to help European countries severely affected by the corona pandemic.
The recycling of plastic is expected to be promoted because the tax is linked to the reuse of plastic. The technical details will be worked out by the European Commission in the coming months.
The European Union is now doing what the Dutch government should have done a long time ago: taxing packaging harmful to the environment. It is a win in the fight against plastic soup that this European tax is now being introduced. However, there are critical comments to be made:
In 2018, the then EU commissioner Oettinger, responsible for the budget, tweeted the suggestion that the European Union could include a tax on plastic production. That proposal would kill two birds with one stone. Making plastic more expensive would result in lower sales, and the European Union would have more income. His proposal did not make it at the time, partly because of effective lobbying from the plastics industry and countries like the Netherlands that do not want Brussels to levy taxes directly.
Last February, Charles Michel, president of the European Council, breathed new life into the proposal. But in his now accepted version, there was no longer any question of taxing virgin plastic. At the last summit on the financing of the corona aid fund, Michel’s proposal was accepted by government heads.
Photo: European Union
Our suspicion has been confirmed; the deposit on plastic bottles introduced on 1st July this year has indeed had immediate results. The proportion of bottles in the litter found has decreased by 37%!
A different understanding of the extended producer responsibility is needed if the amount of plastic waste is to be reduced.
On 18th of September 2021, it’s World Cleanup Day once again. All information about the kick-off in Amsterdam and the event can be found here.
World Cleanup Day 2021: Plastic Soup Foundations celebrates all those heroes who clean up litter day after day.
Eight solutions against the plastic soup