Page 26 - Plastics News August 2020

EU introduces plastic waste tax as part of Covid- New Zealand to make prior consent mandatory
19 recovery plan for plastic waste export

U leaders have introduced a levy on plastic waste he New Zealand Government is set to make prior
Estarting January 2021 which will contribute Tinformed consent mandatory from importing
towards the EU's €750bn Covid-19 recovery package countries for exporting hard-to-recycle, mixed plastic
and its overall €1tn 2021 to 2027 budget. The levy will waste. The requirement is part of the government's
see non-recycled plastic packaging waste calculated at wider resource efficiency work programme. It will
a call rate of €0.80 per kilogram. The document enable the country to meet its commitments to the
announcing the plastic waste tax does not specify international agreement Basel Convention, which is set
whether the income generated from the levy is
to go into effect from January 2021.The convention
aims to regulate the global plastic waste trade. Under
this ruling, permit from the Environmental Protection
Authority will also be required starting next year. New
Zealand Environment Associate Minister Eugenie Sage
said: “The Government is committed to tackling our
mounting waste problem, and to New Zealand helping
global efforts to minimise the impact of waste in the
environment. “New international requirements for the
trade in plastic waste under the Basel Convention are
due to take effect on 1 January 2021. Parties to the
Convention are now implementing the decision
domestically. “This will not prevent the trade of plastic

categorised as a new tax. The document from the
General Secretariat of the Council to Delegations said:
“As a first step, a new resource will be introduced and
apply as of 1 January 2021 composed of a share of
revenues from a national contribution calculated on
the weight of non-recycled plastic packaging waste
with a call rate of EUR 0.80 per kilogram with a
mechanism to avoid excessively regressive impact on
national contributes.” German state secretary for the
environment Jochen Flasbarth said: “The agreement
contains clever new instruments that will help us to
make Europe more environmentally friendly. The new
waste but will incentivise trade in high-quality, sorted
plastic levy is a strong motivation for member states to
plastic waste and help ensure that materials are being
massively expand their recycling systems. It will
shipped for the purposes of recycling.” The ruling does
depend on a concrete design that it is as
not cover single stream plastic waste, and mixtures of
unbureaucratic as possible and leads to less plastic
polyethylene terephthalate (PET), high-density
waste.” German federal environment minister Svenja
polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene (PP). In
Schulze said: “With this agreement, the EU is
December last year, the government decided to
demonstrating its ability to act. For climate
implement a number of initiatives to eliminate single-
protection, the agreement provides a good basis on
use plastics and reduce waste. Last week, the
which we can build on in further legislation. There has
Government of Wales launched a public consultation on
never been so much climate protection in an EU
the proposals at a beach clean on Anglesey as it plans to
budget. Europe will emerge from [Covid-19] stronger
and more climate-friendly than when it came in. ban single use plastic in the country.
August 2020 24 Plastics News