U.K. Treasury Considers Tax Options to Help Tackle Plastic Waste

(Bloomberg) -- Britain is considering ways to use taxation to incentivize the use of recycled plastics in manufacturing and reduce demand for single-use plastics including coffee cups.

Officials are also seeking to discourage use of plastics that are hard to recycle, including carbon black plastic, and to boost overall recycling rates while reducing incineration, the Treasury said in a statement on Saturday. Its aim is to announce new taxes focusing on plastic waste in its fall budget statement.

The Treasury received 162,000 responses from businesses, civil society groups and members of the public to its Call for Evidence on plastic waste, according to the statement.

“The responses we’ve received will be invaluable as we develop our plans for using the tax system to combat this,” Exchequer Secretary Robert Jenrick said in the statement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jessica Shankleman in London at jshankleman@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Flavia Krause-Jackson at fjackson@bloomberg.net, Stuart Biggs, Andrew Atkinson

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