Plastic packaging – passports, perceptions and the packaging tax

August has been a busy month for sustainability and packaging. Digital Product Passports are being rolled out and second-year data for the UK’s Plastic Packaging Tax has been released. You can read more about both initiatives in this issue of Looped In, along with insights from Ipsos UK about perceptions of climate change, sustainability and packaging.

Unpacking sustainability perceptions

Ipsos is renowned as a global leader in research, helping to provide organisations with reliable information and insights. Looped In caught up with Rachel Phillips (Director at Ipsos Corporate Reputation) and Alex Baverstock (UK Product and Pack Testing Lead at Ipsos Innovation) to discuss public perceptions of climate change and packaging sustainability.?

Looped In: Ipsos research shows that young people are more fatalistic about climate change*. What does this mean in terms of driving sustainable progress?

Rachel: “Younger generations are at risk of empathy fatigue when it comes to addressing climate change and being more sustainable. However, this doesn’t necessarily suggest a trend of non-action or outright disengagement. You only have to look at movements such as pupils protesting and the fast-growing popularity of veganism to see that younger generations have the motivation to act on their beliefs.

“Young people are more likely to be fatalistic because they are more aware of the issues of climate change. Powerful and impactful education campaigns are driving awareness and concern. To avoid empathy fatigue causing disengagement, younger generations need to know what they can do to help reduce environmental impact. It’s important for organisations and brands to present clear solutions as part of sustainability campaigns and for them to be seen to be taking positive actions. This can help empower people to act and provide them with encouragement, as they realise the climate change burden is being shared and not just falling on the shoulders of consumers.”

Alex: “Levels of anxiety about climate change don’t necessarily mean the issue is of lesser importance. People can be fatigued but will still feel and understand an issue. Younger generations must have a sense of agency – the belief that they can do something to drive change. This must also consider the personal sacrifice that an individual must make. For example, if someone is going to be more sustainable, what does it mean to them from a cost or convenience point of view? Will they take a financial hit? If so, can they afford to??

“Making a personal sacrifice can mean it’s particularly important to present sustainability as a co-benefit. If people can see how a product or service benefits them, as well it being a positive choice for the environment, they can be more inclined to make the personal sacrifice.”

Looped In: Recycling and using less packaging often rank highly as actions people take to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. How important are these actions???

Rachel: “Ipsos Earth Day research from recent years does show a recurring theme of a ‘believe-true’ gap when it comes to public perceptions of packaging and recycling. The gap refers to the importance placed on these actions, versus their true rank in terms of climate change mitigation. Recycling and using less packaging will often rank in the top actions prioritised by the public but will be much lower down the rankings in terms of actually reducing greenhouse gas emissions, especially when compared to actions such as ‘living car free’ or ‘switching to purchasing renewable energy’.??

“Misconceptions about the importance of packaging and recycling to climate change exist because these actions have been a part of society for such a long time. Recycling campaigns have been running for decades and there’s lots of company initiatives about efforts to reduce packaging. Recycling and using less packaging also rank highly for the public because they are quite straightforward actions for people to take.”

Alex: “It comes back to the personal sacrifice. It’s within people’s hands to choose products with less packaging or to put recyclable materials in a recycle bin. They have control over this and can do it with little impact on their lives. This also shows that, although misconceptions exist, it’s not always due to a lack of education or awareness. People will appreciate that, for example, park and ride schemes can be better for the environment than using a car for a full journey. The park and ride requires extra time and effort and isn’t always the most convenient choice. The personal sacrifice is greater in this case than recycling plastic packaging, and it becomes a less desirable action to take.”

Looped In: What can be done to better communicate packaging sustainability?

Alex: “To make decisions to be more sustainable, people need a motivation. This requires the communication of co-benefits and simple, easy-to-understand messaging that is true and credible. Sustainability is a complex issue and people may not always have an overall sense of the net importance of their choices. This can create confusion about what the best choice is. How do people then make a choice?

“Plastic is a good example. There tends to be a general view that people need to swap plastic packaging for paper. Do people know about the benefits of plastic throughout supply chains? How does the choice to switch materials impact waste or carbon emissions in other areas? The big challenge is that it can be difficult to successfully communicate all the relevant detail. Breaking down how a packaging material performs throughout a supply chain and the different environmental impacts it does or doesn’t have at each stage can prove a lot of information to take onboard. There’s a risk that consumers may dismiss some messaging if they are not fully aware of what else is happening during the packaging lifecycle.”

Rachel: “Sustainability messages must consider the whole journey. It’s important for brands not to pick and choose parts of a message, which may appear to sound good, but disregard other elements of what’s happening. I think this is why there’s often a desire among both the public and organisations for legislation – it can level the playing field and encourage a whole market to move in the same direction.?

“Legislation can also prove something of a commitment for the public. They hear climate change messages coming from governments or organisations and believe behaviours will change if they’re going to be legislated. Getting legislation right takes time. People must be allowed to accept and adjust to change, which requires consultation and proper consideration of all the different ramifications.”

Looped In: Thanks Rachel and Alex for speaking with us and sharing your thoughts. For more interesting insights about sustainability and net zero, take a look at the latest Net Zero Living report from Ipsos and the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST). ?

*Source: Ipsos Global Advisor (for Futerra), online survey of connected citizens weighted to the national profile of each country. 19,520 adults aged 16-74 in 27 participating countries, January 18th 2021 - February 5th 2021. 1-in-5 young people globally believe it’s too late to fix climate change VS only 1-in-10 (50+) citizens.

Second year of the Plastic Packaging Tax – here’s what we want to know

Data for the second year of the Plastic Packaging Tax (PPT) has been released by HMRC, with figures showing it generated ￡268 million from 2023 – 2024.?

Total PPT revenue was 6% less than the first year of the tax, when it collected ￡285 million. However, figures are still ahead of HMRC predictions. The expected exchequer impact for the PPT was ￡235 million per year for its first two years, with this dropping to ￡225 million for 2024-2025 and ￡210 million in its fourth year (2025 – 2026).?

42% of plastic packaging that was manufactured and imported into the UK during 2023-2024 was declared taxable under the PPT, compared to 41% during the first year. Of the declared packaging in year two, 1,371 thousand tonnes contained 30% or more recycled plastic, marking an increase on the 1,293 thousand tonnes recorded during 2022-2023.

With these figures in mind, here’s key questions about the PPT that Looped In would like to see answered:

1. The PPT has raised ￡553 million in taxes in its first two years. This is ￡83 million more than initial government projections. How is this tax revenue being spent??
2. How is the PPT impacting the usage and recycling of other packaging materials in the UK that do not contain at least 30% recycled plastic content??
3. The former government committed to producing a PPT evaluation which will consider the performance of the tax, impacts on businesses and unintended consequences. When will this evaluation be completed and available to businesses??
4. Will the per-tonne rate of the PPT increase again in 2025?

If you’ve got any answers to these questions, please let us know in the comments. Or please do share any questions you have about the PPT.??

Could Digital Product Passports help change perceptions of plastic packaging??

特易购公司 recently announced the rollout of Digital Product Passports (DPPs) across its clothing range, and it got Looped In thinking about whether this new tool could prove a positive opportunity for plastic packaging.?

DPPs are being introduced across the EU to enhance traceability, circularity and transparency. The introduction forms part of the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), with DPPs mandatory for some products from 2026 onwards.?

Product categories with a high environmental impact are being prioritised for DPPs, including textiles, consumer electronics, batteries and furniture. The new passports will provide information about the composition of a product, its environmental impact during production and usage phases, and options at the end of product life.?

Rollout of the DPPs is likely to drive consumer interest in product sustainability and may create an opportunity to better inform consumers about the wider supply chain performance of plastic packaging. The scannable passport tag could provide easy access to a lifecycle assessment of plastic packaging, enabling people to see why the material has been chosen to minimise environmental impact. This level of detail isn’t always readily available or easy to communicate to consumers.?

Innovative digital technologies are often effective at engaging people and it’s easy to imagine DPPs creating curiosity among consumers. Could they provide a new platform for answering people’s questions about plastic packaging and dispelling misconceptions about material’s sustainability? What do you think? Let us know in the comments.

Thanks again for reading and we hope you enjoyed the latest issue of Looped In. We’re keen to keep conversations about circularity and packaging going and would love to hear from you about anything we’ve covered or that you’ve read elsewhere. Feel free to add to the comments and we look forward to hearing from you.