LVF CALLS ON GOVERNMENT TO RING FENCE PACKAGING TAX FOR RECYCLING DEVELOPMENT

A family-owned packaging manufacturer has called on Sir Keir Starmer’s Government to ring fence the money raised through the Plastic Packaging Tax to develop joined-up recycling facilities across the UK.

Leeds-based LVF Packaging has long championed the overriding benefits of using plastic as the main manufacturing material for food packaging – saying the pros of it far outweigh the cons and that there simply isn’t a suitable alternative. A stance to which they add the sustainable addendum that plastic comes from recycled waste and can and should be full recycled.

Dan Coates, LVF’s business development director, said: “Plastic waste has been public enemy number one ever since Sir David Attenborough’s Blue Planet II documentary was first broadcast back in 2017. The greenwashing, anti-plastic wagon has been trundling along noisily ever since.”

“The big problem though is that plastic waste was put there by human hands, which would have been far better served working out a properly thought-out recycling strategy and joining together to create circular economies for plastic packaging.”

Since 2017, LVF says there’s been a lot of time and money spent on looking for alternative materials, which will deliver all the benefits of plastic, but with none of its perceived drawbacks, but that nobody’s any closer to finding one nearly ten year later.

“The reason for this decade long deadlock is simple,” continued Dan. “Plastic, and in particularly the clear rPET mono that is used the vast majority of the time, is the only viable material – especially for meat. It’s highly recycled, highly recyclable, has great barrier properties and keeps the food fresh for longest. Everyone knows those facts, which is very much why no alternative material has been found.”

While some areas have moved away from plastic packaging – most notably confectionary, where cardboard is now in the ascendancy – those continuing to use it have reviewed and revised their requirements to reduce the amount and weight of it in order to create streamlined, Plastic Packaging Tax friendly solutions that provide economically sound shelf lives and are easily recycled.

“The Plastic Packaging Tax is raising nearly £300million every year, but it’s doing nothing to improve recycling in the UK, which is still an absolute mess,” added Dan.

“You only need to look around Yorkshire to see how many different coloured bins are used in different neighbourhoods and how the constraints of what can and can’t be recycled change from once town to the next. This simply creates confusion and a situation where products that can be recycled aren’t and those that can’t are being thrown into recycling bins and contaminating the recycling streams.”

“The Government needs to rectify this by ring fencing funds raised through the Plastic Packaging Tax and investing them in a UK-wide Recycling Plan. If we as a country can afford to spend upwards of £100 billion on HS2, then surely we can afford to invest a fraction of that in creating a recycling programme that ensures all plastic packaging is recycled and fed back to the manufacturers – a step that will eradicate future plastic waste and greatly help future generations.”