The levy of 9.85 euros (6.47) per hundred litres of beverages marketed in disposable packaging came into force last week, and has already provoked an angry response from the steel packaging producers.
The Belgian government originally brought in ecotaxes on a range of products, including disposable cameras, batteries and packaging back in 1993 under the “Ecoboni law”.
Drinks packaging, however, enjoyed an exemption to this under the condition that strict recycling targets were met by the industry through its Green Dot scheme – 20% of drinks containers recycled in 1996, rising to 70% in 2000.
This exemption has now come to an end for disposable packaging following an amendment to the regulations in December, since the government believes there should be a sufficient price difference between reusable and non-reusable containers to have a “dissuasive effect comparable to that of deposits”.
But the move to end the exemption has been called “unjustified” by the Association of European Producers of Steel for Packaging (APEAL).
The association complained that the “packaging tax” was being brought in despite the fact that “in 2002, 96.5% of all metal packaging put on the Belgian market was collected and recycled into new metal products”.
Re-usable
Re-fillable bottles are still exempt from the ecotax, provided they meet certain criteria. Evidence must be provided that they can be re-used more than seven times, they must bear a distinguishing mark to show they are returnable and they must be effectively collected and re-used.
This collection and re-use is governed by a deposit scheme that places a minimum 0.16 euro (about 10 pence) deposit on containers larger than a half-litre, and 0.08 euro (about five pence) for those smaller than half a litre.
VAT phase out
In its statement responding to the new levy, APEAL noted that it was “allegedly designed to promote the use of refillable packaging by Belgian consumers”, but accused the Belgian government of using the levy to counteract its phasing out of VAT (previously about 15%) on non-alcoholic drinks.
APEAL said: “It appears that the new tax is aimed at compensating the loss in tax income for the State incurred by the VAT and excise duty reductions, rather than for environmental reasons.”
The association criticisms came shortly after similar criticisms against the German system of placing deposits on one-way packaging there (see letsrecycle.com story). Its statement also pointed out that while Belgium was introducing tax measures on drinks packaging, Denmark decided in February to reduce its tax on drinks packaging by 80%.
APEAL said it was difficult to anticipate the impact of the new tax on Belgium's drinks market, but pledged to “closely monitor” the situation.
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