Mark Palmer was speaking at the INCPEN conference yesterday (19 July), which focused on plastics recycling.
He spoke before Defra’s Linda Crichton, who spoke about government’s plans for plastics by 2027 (see below).
The conference took place the day after HMRC launched a consultation on its plans to adopt a ‘mass balance approach’ for chemically recycled plastic, allowing this to contribute towards recycled content for the purpose of the plastics packaging tax (see letsrecycle.com story).
He said: “I do not want anybody to hold anything back in the consultation, but equally I do not want anybody to think that once the consultation closes then that’s it and we shut the doors.
“This is an incredibly technical and complex subject so we need industry’s expertise to deliver this well.
“We want to work with you to make this a joint effort to encourage investment and innovation. We have been told this is vital to encourage this.”
Consultation
Mr Palmer went on to say that there are two key things people should consider before submitting responses to the consultation.
The first was to back up any submissions with evidence, where he said: “ We have heard all sorts of anecdotal evidence about future investment, recycling technologies and so on.
“What I would implore you to do is include evidence with any claims. Concrete evidence that we can point to. If you take one thing away from what I am saying, then it is this.”
The second point was on the need for industry to work together and also realise that HMRC will be holding regular stakeholder meetings to help inform the policy.
Defra
Following on from Mr Palmer was Linda Crichton, who works on Defra’s packaging delivery team.
She outlined the steps the government has taken to tackle plastic pollution and then set out what the department hopes to achieve by 2027.
Ms Crichton also said Defra is working to have the consistency response out “very soon” and said she “understands frustrations” about the delay to the response.
She also said the legislation is the “missing piece” to achieving what the government wants by 2027.
In terms of the government’s ambitions, Ms Crichton said: “I think they key starting point is that we all want businesses and households to have things in place that will handle all recyclable plastic packaging.
“When it comes to households we want this to be funded by the packaging EPR fees, so producers have a real incentive to support both the collection and reprocessing but also the design.
“The DRS also plays an important role. In terms of increasing drinks bottles recycling and also supporting less littering of plastic bottles. So our ambition is to have an operational DRS in place by 2027 and the objectives there are over three years to increase rates beyond 90%.
“We also have ambitions to plastics playing a key role in hitting the 65% municipal waste target by 2030.”
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