Tax on plastics – plastics tax – is one from new sources of income for the European Union budget, which has received general support from countries. However, in the shape proposed by the Union, many environments are opposed. Critics believe that it is mainly fiscal, not pro-ecological.
A plastic tax would impose on national governments 80 cents to 1 EUR for each kilogram of non-recyclable plastic packaging, so twice as much as the actual estimated value of these materials on the market.
Poorer countries would receive a reduction from this amount, depending on the population, according to the latest proposal considered by EU leaders. The proposed plastic tax would make France, Germany, Italy and Spain the largest annual contribution to the EU budget. Poland 5 the place in this combination.
According to the European Commission's initial estimates, the tax would generate 6,600,000,000 EUR a year for the EU budget. The correction mechanism would reduce this amount by approximately 700,000,000 EUR A year.
The Polish Association of Plastic Processors warns that a tax on plastics in Brussels can be a threat to the environment of Poland and the whole EU. Without the means to prepare for processing, the tax is mainly fiscal – there is to be a remedy for the budgetary hole after the UK exits.
- In the currently proposed form, the tax on plastics will mainly affect countries like Poland, where increasing the level of recycling of waste requires further significant investments both in local governments and at national level. Instead of investing in innovation and new technologies, we will have to pay multi-billion-dollar penalties that will fund the EU budget and non-environmental targets. This may have disastrous consequences not only for small and medium-sized entrepreneurs who dominate the plastics processing industry, but also for local governments and all entities involved in the development of the circular economy – says Robert Szyman of the Polish Association of Plastic Processors.
By the end of this year, according to the Union’s assumptions, it should be recovered 50% garbage. In Poland, the situation is dramatic because we have one of the largest landfills in Europe. The SENT system is intended to limit illegal shipments of garbage, including from outside the western border. But so far, we are still dealing with a large excess of garbage. The tax on unprocessed plastic waste will make processing companies simply not accept it.
EU leaders have not yet reached a final agreement on the budget for years 2021–2027, which means that the details of the plastics tax may change. A better way to develop recycling would be an incentive system, not a large tax. However, the Union simply cannot afford this.
Author: Katarzyna Kołbuś
Editor leading RB Magazine. From Over 10 years related to industry press, including the Financial Gazette and portal ipip.com.pl, which is devoted to finance, taxation, law, politics and the economy. She graduated from Polish philology at the UMCS and the linguistic text editing at the University of Warsaw