Plastic-based own resource (“plastic tax”)

The European Union is creating incentives to reduce the consumption of single-use plastics, foster recycling and boost the circular economy. The long-term budget proposed by the European Council announced in July 2020 includes a new own resource as of 2021, in which Member States (MSs) must contribute to the E.U. budget in proportion to their own amount of non-recycled plastic packaging waste, to the tune of €0.80/kg. The latter may be a way to calculate the contribution that MSs need to make, but in principle they will be free to take the most suitable measures to raise these funds, in line with the principle of subsidiarity.

The European Council has also established a correction mechanism to take account of the impact of the own resource contribution on lower-income MSs, i.e. MSs that had a GNI per capita below the E.U. average in 2017. Negotiations are ongoing. It is unclear at this point what the impact on the tape industry will be.

Sustainability 
Regulatory Affairs