Service · UK Plastic Packaging Act
The tax is on your polybag, and the proof sits with your supplier
UK Plastic Packaging Tax applies to plastic packaging with less than 30% recycled content. For a fashion brand that means mailers, polybags, hangers, garment covers and transit film — components specified by suppliers, bought by logistics, and owned by nobody.
The hard part is not the rate. It is proving the recycled percentage of every component you shipped last quarter, and being able to walk a tonnage figure back to a purchase order. That is an evidence job, and it is the job we do.
What the rules ask
Six obligations, in plain English
The tax
Plastic packaging manufactured in or imported into the UK with less than 30% recycled plastic by weight is taxed per tonne. It bites on the polybag, the mailer, the tape and the hanger, not on the garment.
The 10 tonne threshold
You must register once you manufacture or import 10 tonnes or more of plastic packaging in a 12 month period. You have to be counting to know whether you have crossed it, and most brands are not counting.
The 30% test
Recycled content is claimed per component, per production run, and it has to be evidenced. A supplier saying "recycled" in an email is not evidence. Nor is a logo on a spec sheet.
Quarterly returns and records
Returns are filed quarterly and records must be kept for six years, in a form that lets HMRC follow a tonnage figure back to an individual component and shipment.
It sits alongside packaging EPR
UK Extended Producer Responsibility fees and packaging data reporting run in parallel, on the same components, with different definitions. Brands that build one dataset satisfy both. Brands that build two contradict themselves.
Due diligence down the chain
You can be liable for packaging brought in by a converter or a 3PL on your behalf. The obligation follows who imports, which contracts frequently leave unstated.
The evidence
What we collect on your behalf
Sustainability in fashion is product compliance, and product compliance is evidence. Here is the specific evidence a defensible Plastic Packaging Tax position needs.
Component list, by weight
Every plastic packaging component you manufacture or import: polybag, mailer, carton liner, tape, hanger, hook, clip, tissue wrap, garment cover, e-commerce satchel, transit film. Format, polymer, unit weight, and units per season.
Recycled content evidence
Per component: supplier declarations naming the polymer and the recycled percentage, batch or production run references, chain of custody documents, and any GRS or Recyclass certification with its scope and expiry.
Import and manufacture records
Who imported what, under which entity, on which shipment. Commercial invoices, packing lists and 3PL inbound records reconciled to tonnage so the 10 tonne threshold is a fact rather than a guess.
Exemption and export evidence
Where components are exempt, or where packaging leaves the UK within 12 months, the documents that support the claim, held in the same file as everything else.
The reconciliation trail
A worked line from a purchase order to a tonnage figure to a box on a quarterly return. This is the part HMRC asks for and the part that almost never exists.
One packaging dataset
The same component records structured to serve Plastic Packaging Tax, UK packaging EPR reporting and the packaging fields inside a Digital Product Passport, rather than three parallel spreadsheets.
How we help
From no packaging data to a return you can defend. In four steps.
01
Count what you actually ship
We build the component inventory with your sourcing, packaging and logistics teams, and weigh what nobody has weighed. That produces your tonnage position and tells you whether you are registrable.
02
Chase the recycled content properly
We go to the converters and film suppliers ourselves, in writing, with a template that asks for polymer, percentage, run reference and certification. Then we grade what comes back: evidenced, weak, or unsupported.
03
Fix the gaps before the return
Where recycled content cannot be evidenced, you have two choices: change the component or pay the tax honestly. We cost both, and specify the switch where switching pays.
04
Leave you with a runbook
Quarterly return process, record retention structure, supplier clauses for new packaging, and a named owner. So the second return does not need us.
How the work is bought
A four to six week packaging evidence review, ending in your tonnage position and a gap list.
An embedded consultant for three, six or twelve months where packaging sits inside a wider ESPR and EPR programme.
Return support for a first filing, working alongside your finance team rather than instead of them.
Packaging rarely travels alone. The same component data feeds EU packaging rules and the packaging fields inside a Digital Product Passport.
Free download
The 90-day DPP action checklist
Two pages, plain English. The evidence work that pays off whether or not the textile field list lands in 2027.
- Days 1–30: confirm scope, pick a pilot range, inventory the claims you already make
- Days 31–60: map every core passport field to the supplier or system that holds it
- Days 61–90: build one evidence file per style and dry-run a surveillance request
- Includes the UK Plastic Packaging Tax and packaging EPR steps most brands miss
Find out what your packaging exposes you to
The free assessment tells you whether your products can still be sold in Europe after 2027 — which rules apply, where your evidence gaps are, and what to fix first.
Free. 90 minutes of your team's time. Written findings back within 10 working days.
Further reading
Read more on this
What we do
Where to go next
Plain-English pages on the rules that apply to you, the evidence you need, and the people who do the work.
Looking for something specific? See every page on the site.