What the tax is
Plastic Packaging Tax came into force on 1 April 2022. It is paid by businesses that manufacture finished plastic packaging components in the UK or import them, on every tonne that contains less than 30% recycled plastic. The rate goes up each April:
| From | Rate per tonne |
|---|---|
| 1 April 2022 | £200.00 |
| 1 April 2023 | £210.82 |
| 1 April 2024 | £217.85 |
| 1 April 2025 | £223.69 |
| 1 April 2026 | £228.82 |
Do you have to register?
You must register if you have manufactured or imported 10 tonnes or more of finished plastic packaging components in the last 12 months, or expect to in the next 30 days. Once registered:
- Returns are quarterly, for April to June, July to September, October to December and January to March. The return and payment are due by the last working day of the month after the quarter ends.
- Weights are in kilograms, rounded down, split between what you made, imported and exported, and packaging for licensed human medicines.
- Keep accounts and records for at least six years, broken down by product line, showing how each figure on the return was worked out.
If you only buy packaged goods or packaging from UK suppliers, you don't pay the tax. But HMRC can issue a secondary liability notice to businesses in the supply chain, such as hauliers, warehouses, suppliers and retailers, if they knew or should have known the tax wasn't paid. HMRC expects you to keep a record of the due diligence checks you make on suppliers.
A worked example
A small manufacturer makes 18 tonnes of plastic trays a year, so it must register. 6 tonnes are made with at least 30% recycled plastic and aren't taxed. The other 12 tonnes are:
- 12 tonnes × £228.82 = £2,745.84 a year at the 2026 rate.
Moving that line to 30% recycled content would remove the charge, as long as the recycled content is allowed under food safety and other rules.
What changes in April 2027
- Chemically recycled plastic can count towards the 30% if it is attributed through a mass balance approach covered by a certification scheme that meets HMRC's minimum requirements. Using mass balance is optional, but without it chemically recycled plastic is treated as virgin plastic.
- Pre-consumer plastic waste, such as offcuts from manufacturing, stops counting as recycled content. You can still use it, but it no longer helps you reach 30%. If your recycled content relies on it, check your figures now.
HMRC published draft regulations for consultation on 6 October 2026, open until 21 December 2026, and says more detailed guidance will follow in early 2027. Separately, it consulted from May to August 2026 on whether to require certification for mechanically recycled plastic too. That consultation has closed, and no decision had been published on the HMRC pages we checked on 19 October 2026.
How it links to carbon
The tax is on weight, not emissions, but the two are connected. The government's carbon accounting method publishes separate factors for primary and recycled materials, and says the organisation that uses recycled material in place of primary material gets the benefit as lower Scope 3 emissions. So the same switch that cuts your tax bill usually cuts the emissions counted against your packaging.
Where plastic packaging shows up in a footprint:
- Packaging you buy: Scope 3 category 1. With Defra's 2023 multiplier for rubber and plastic products, £40,000 of plastic packaging is about 25.75 tonnes CO2e.
- Plastic waste from your own sites: Scope 3 category 5. See our post on waste emissions from your contractor's data.
- Packaging your customers throw away: Scope 3 category 12, end-of-life treatment of sold products.
If you place packaging on the UK market, you may also have obligations under packaging EPR, which is a separate scheme covering all materials. See our post on packaging EPR for small producers.
How Carbon Recycling helps
Carbon Recycling doesn't calculate or file Plastic Packaging Tax; that's done through HMRC. It handles the carbon side: import your purchase ledger and it suggests a Defra spend multiplier for each account, asking you to choose the closest match for packaging and materials, so plastic packaging lands in Scope 3 category 1. Plastic waste from your sites goes in by tonnes and treatment route in category 5. Our post on spend-based Scope 3 explains the method, and our guide to the 15 Scope 3 categories shows where everything else fits.