The British Plastics Federation (BPF, London / UK; www.bpf.co.uk) has criticised the public consultation launched by Northern Ireland’s Department of Environment (Belfast; www.doeni.gov.uk) to introduce a charge for single-use carrier bags – see Plasteurope.com of 28.07.2011 – calling it “inappropriate”. The federation said that while it is supportive of the Irish government’s efforts to raise recycling targets, a packaging levy would not necessarily drive such an increase.

Pointing to the rising raw material and energy costs plastic producers and processors have to contend with, Philip Law, the BPF’s director of Public & Industrial Affairs, said: “This [levy] would impose yet further economic burdens on commercial operators in extremely straitened times.” BPF warned that as one of the UK’s major trading partners, the introduction of such a levy in Northern Ireland would impact the entire country’s packaging supply chain, including manufacturers and distributors.

Law added that the Irish government should take into consideration that the raw material price pressures already incentivise the minimisation of material used to manufacture packaging. In addition, BPF warned that the choice of the term “levy” could potentially demonize packaging.

Under the terms of the proposed levy, sellers would be obliged to pass the extra charge on to their customers – a provision BPF warns could force those players unable to pass on these costs to cut key budgets, including for R&D and training activities.

In the meantime, the Scottish Government (Edinburgh; www.scotland.gov.uk) in mid-August decided to undertake a consultation later this year to establish ways in which carrier bag usage can be reduced, with a levy one of the options to be discussed – see Plasteurope.com of 24.08.2011.