Wednesday 23rd February 2022
First of all, don’t panic; most customers will be relatively unaffected by the changes. The Plastic Packaging Tax (PPT) will encourage less plastic packaging and where plastic is the best option to encourage a higher recycled content. There will be a charge of £200 per tonne on all plant pots, trays or bedding packs that contain less than 30% recycled content.
Luckily nearly all horticultural packaging has contained extremely high recycled content for many decades. Nearly all our standard pots in black, terracotta and taupe have over 85% recycled content and most of our grey trays are similar. There will be some brightly coloured pots that may need high percentages of virgin material to create the colour.
Even with this in mind the only people who have to report and pay the PPT are either the manufacturer of the packaging if they are UK based, or the importer of the product if manufactured abroad. As an importer Dejex will have done all the reporting and paid the PPT on any products purchased from us; as a Dejex customer you have to do nothing. You need no certificates, no data, our invoices will just contain a statement “Plastic Packaging Tax paid on this item”.
In summary:
• Reporting for PPT will be quarterly with data collection starting 1st April 2022 and the first submission in July 2022.
• You will be legally required to report plant pots, trays or bedding packs you directly import – good luck to you!
• You will only pay PPT on plant pots, trays or bedding packs you directly import and have less than 30% recycled content.