{"id":183234,"date":"2026-11-05T07:23:00","date_gmt":"2026-11-05T06:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=183234"},"modified":"2026-10-30T14:31:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T13:31:18","slug":"taxing-virgin-plastic-member-states-shouldnt-wait-for-brussels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/taxing-virgin-plastic-member-states-shouldnt-wait-for-brussels\/","title":{"rendered":"Taxing virgin plastic: Member States shouldn\u2019t wait for Brussels"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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The EU uses around 55 million tonnes of plastic a year, or 105 kg per person. Limiting global warming will require significant reduction in plastic consumption. On a business-as-usual path, plastic would emit a total of 7 Gt CO2e per year by 2050, and this sector alone would use up around a third of the entire 1.5\u00b0C budget.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the forthcoming EU Circular Economy Act is any indication, bloc-wide measures to curb virgin material use are not on the horizon. But EU Member States mustn\u2019t wait for EU-wide measures and act within their own right on material taxation. Our new policy brief,\u00a0The circular leverage: Could a Dutch fossil plastics tax serve as Europe\u2019s circular blueprint?<\/em>\u00a0presents a concrete idea proposed in the Netherlands that is worth the attention of policymakers across the continent.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Virgin fossil-based plastic is cheap, and that is why it became a driver of short-lived uses like single-use packaging and fast fashion. Recycled and bio-based alternatives struggle to compete: bio-based resins typically cost 1.5 to 2 times more than their fossil counterparts. Circular business models such as reuse, repair, and remanufacturing are often labour-intensive and therefore heavily taxed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supply-side fixes alone can\u2019t close the price gap between virgin fossil-derived plastics and other materials, or circular business models. In the Netherlands, the Plastic Tafel, a consortium of industry, recyclers, producer responsibility organisations and civil society, has proposed \u2018de circulaire hefboom\u2019, or \u2018circular leverage\u2019: a tax on the proportion of virgin fossil-based plastic in a product. The more virgin fossil plastic a product contains, the higher the levy. Products made with recycled or bio-based material, or systems designed around reuse, repair and sharing, pay less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The revenues would flow into a transition fund for the circular economy, backing innovation, better-quality recyclate and the businesses that keep materials in use. As more companies switch, the fund shrinks and eventually disappears. And because the tax applies to everything placed on the Dutch market, domestic producers aren\u2019t put at a disadvantage against foreign ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would the levy know what\u2019s inside a product? Through the EU\u2019s Digital Product Passport, which could give regulators reliable, standardised data on material content. The brief works through a hypothetical example for textiles, showing how a levy would apply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proposal hasn\u2019t been tested in real market conditions, and our briefing also digs into the risks and points of attention. Among others:<\/p>\n\n\n\n