Plastic Levy: Limited Impact on Consumer Awareness and Alternatives

The levy is primarily intended to make consumers more aware of the amount of plastic waste, but the effect is limited, thinks Dirk Mulder, who focuses on retail at ING, among other things.

“If there is only an amount at the bottom of the receipt that you don’t pay yourself, then I don’t think that really raises awareness.”

Plastic waste mountain

The plastic levy can be found on your receipt under the name Levy SUP, where SUP stands for Single Use Plastics.

The amount of disposable plastic in the environment is increasing every year. In the Netherlands, we throw away 19 million cups and food packaging containing plastic every day after single use. The plastic often ends up on the street and the toxins contained in it are not broken down.

Plastic-heffing

Of plastic-heffing valid for a week and a half. The levy applies if you buy certain products in snack bars and supermarkets, among others.

This concerns, for example, cups for coffee that you pick up and packaging for products, such as ready-made salads and iced coffee, that you can eat or drink immediately.

1 cent instead of 50 cents

What, in addition to the fact that you do not pay the levy yourself, does not help with the operation, is that supermarkets charge a much lower amount than the government advises, says Ariane van Mancius, packaging specialist and owner of sustainable packaging agency Now New Next.

The government advised a levy of between 5 and 50 euro cents, but Albert Heijn, Jumbo and Aldi, among others, keep it at 5 euro cents and Plus and Lidl even do the minimum and do not exceed 1 euro cent.

Not passed on

Lidl raised prices with the plastic levy, according to research by IPV Data. Plus also calculates the levy.

Supermarket Dirk initially followed the government’s advice and increased prices by between five and 50 euro cents, according to IPV Data. But when other supermarkets didn’t do that, Dirk reversed that. The levy has been reduced to five cents and, as with competitors, it is no longer passed on to customers.

‘Don’t hurry’

“That doesn’t help,” concludes Van Mancius. According to her, the government should have imposed the amount and should have determined that the levy will be passed on. Because if you as a consumer have to pay 25 or 50 cents more because of the plastic packaging, you will become more aware of the amount of waste we cause, she thinks.

And you try to do something about it sooner than if there is only five or one cent at the bottom of your receipt that you don’t have to pay, Mancius expects.

Own cup or container

Incidentally, you do not always have to pay the levy. Because sometimes you can choose to bring a cup or container from home, for example if you buy coffee at the station to drink on the way. You can have that cup refilled every morning. And that also applies if you buy a reusable container to fill it regularly in a salad bar in the Albert Heijn.

But if you buy a pre-packaged salad in the supermarket, you have no alternative and you cannot escape the plastic levy.

Not everyone is so gloomy

Yet not everyone sees it gloomy. For example, the levy, even if it only appears on your receipt, could lead to consumers asking questions in shops or the catering industry and companies wondering how they could use different packaging, thinks Laurens Sloot, professor of entrepreneurship in the retail sector at the University of Groningen. “You have to give it some time.”

And because of the plastic levy, supermarkets now have a weapon to urge suppliers to come up with alternatives to plastic, thinks Kitty Koelemeijer, professor of Marketing & Retailing at Nyenrode Business University. Consumers need an alternative to change their behaviour, and other packaging will certainly be introduced, she expects.

Alternatives

Ultimately, supermarkets will pass on the levy, so that consumers will notice the levy in their wallets, Sloot expects.

There are now also alternatives to plastic, he says. Only they are more expensive. But if the demand for it is boosted, the costs will also go down, says Sloot.

2023-07-14 05:11:16
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