Treasury considers incineration tax to bring down plastic waste

A tax on burning waste is being considered by the government as a way to increase plastic recycling.



A Treasury consultation into plastic pollution closed yesterday, and Exchequer Secretary Robert Jenrick suggested that a tax on incineration could be amongst measures used to bring down waste.

Waste companies would be forced to pay tax per tonne of plastic burned and encouraged to invest in new plastic recycling technologies.

‘A number of submissions have advocated a tax on the incineration of waste. There is an argument for changing the incentives to discourage putting further waste to incineration’ Mr Jenrick told The Times.

‘We would like to see less plastic incinerated, sent to landfill or exported and more recycled.’

The landfill tax, introduced in 1996, has seen waste buried in the ground fall by 15.7 percent in the last five years, but the amount of waste sent to incinerators has not fallen.

Other measures considered by the government include a ‘latte levy’, a charge on disposable coffee shops.