Carbon Tax on Packaging

Type of practice Recycle

Name of practice Carbon Tax on Packaging

Name of main actor Nedvang and Dutch Ministry of Housing, Special Planning and the Environment

Type of actor(s) Public authority, Company

Location Netherlands (Kingdom of the)

Stage of implementation Packaging

Year of implementation 2007

What was/is being done? The Netherlands instituted a Waste Fund in 2007, financed by a carbon tax on packaging. The Waste Fund helps to pay for the separate collection of household packaging waste, while the tax encourages businesses to move towards the national recycling target: 42% of plastic packaging recycled by 2012. The tax is levied against packaging material and was introduced in January 2008. The tax finances a Waste Fund, which is to be used to assist in the provision, at Municipality level, of a separate collection of plastic packaging material from households. Nedvang was set up in 2005 by producers and importers as a way of collectively implementing the Dutch Packaging Decree. The most important target in the Decree is to recycle 70% of the approximately 3,4 million tonnes of used packaging generated every year. Nedvang’s task is to help companies achieve this target. In 2010, it worked with 400,000 companies and 431 municipalities.

Outcomes and impacts The tax was expected to generate 365 million Euros in 2009. In June 2010, almost 15,5 million of 16,5 million people collected their plastics and 90% of Dutch municipalities has started separating plastic packaging. All recycling targets for 2012 were already met in 2010.

Documents  paul_christiaens_nedvang.pdf