Monday 11 May 2026
Plastic Packaging Tax 2026 came into force on 1 April at GBP 228.82 per tonne, up from GBP 223.69 per tonne in 2025. For most UK FMCG manufacturers the rate change itself is a small line item. For shrink-wrapped multipack producers the cumulative effect is much heavier. The decisions that reduce the bill are made on the packaging line, not in the finance ledger.
Plastic Packaging Tax applies to plastic packaging components manufactured in or imported into the UK that contain less than 30 percent recycled plastic. The 2026 rate of GBP 228.82 per tonne replaces the 2025 rate of GBP 223.69, an increase of around 2.3 percent in line with CPI. The de minimis threshold of 10 tonnes a year is unchanged.
The tax is paid by the manufacturer or importer of the plastic packaging component, not the brand owner using it. In practice that pushes the cost back through the supply chain. It lands with whoever is buying the shrink film, the polythene wrap or the plastic carry handle. Most UK FMCG operations now see PPT itemised on supplier invoices.
Shrink-wrapped multipacks score badly on every input PPT cares about. Shrink film is heavy per unit relative to other formats. It is almost always virgin or near-virgin material. It is one of the most plastic-dense components on a typical end-of-line layout.
A 24-pack shrink-wrap on canned soft drinks uses around 18 to 24 grams of polyethylene film. A run of 1 million such packs puts roughly 18 to 24 tonnes of plastic packaging through the line. At GBP 228.82 per tonne that is a PPT bill of GBP 4,100 to GBP 5,500 for a single SKU on one production run. The cost is payable upstream and recovered through pricing.
Multiply that across summer ranges, BBQ promo ranges and the Christmas multipack window. Annualised PPT exposure on shrink-wrapped multipack lines runs into six figures for a mid-sized UK beverage producer.
Three operational routes cut the PPT bill on a multipack line. Each is a real engineering project rather than a tick-box, and each has implications for changeover, line speed and capex.
A wrap-around or pre-glued sleever, or a multipack cartoner, replaces the shrink film entirely with paperboard or solid board. Paper-based packaging is outside the scope of PPT, so the entire plastic-packaging-tax exposure on that SKU drops to zero. The trade-off is line speed and capex: a sleever or cartoner installation is a meaningful project. The pay-back maths starts to work fast on high-volume SKUs above roughly 5 to 10 million units a year.
If the multipack stays on shrink film, raising the recycled content above the 30 percent threshold removes the PPT charge on that component. Recycled film is typically 8 to 18 percent more expensive per kilo than virgin. At the 2026 PPT rate of GBP 228.82 per tonne the price gap closes on many specifications. The hard part is securing recycled film in the volumes and qualities that sealing equipment and date coders actually run reliably.
Reducing film thickness from 50 micron to 40 or 35 micron cuts the tonnage paying PPT. Moving to a tighter shrink format that uses less film per pack does the same. Down-gauging needs a heat tunnel and seal validation rather than a new machine. It is best done with the film supplier and the line OEM in the room together, not by procurement alone.
Plastic Packaging Tax 2026 is a steady annual signal rather than a one-off shock. The rate has gone up every year since the tax launched in April 2022. The de minimis threshold has not moved. Regulatory pressure on plastic packaging is set to harden again under wider UK extended-producer-responsibility rules and the EU PPWR cliff in August 2026.
If your line was on the cusp of replacing a shrink-wrap multipacker with a sleeving or cartoning solution, the 2026 rate accelerates the business case. If you are running an existing shrink-wrap line, the work to validate recycled film or down-gauging is worth scoping this quarter rather than next.
The 2026 rate of GBP 228.82 per tonne hits shrink-wrapped multipacks hardest, both in absolute pounds and in regulatory direction of travel. Switching to paperboard via sleeving or cartoning eliminates PPT exposure on that component entirely. Lifting recycled content above 30 percent removes the charge while keeping the format. Down-gauging trims tonnage without changing the line.
If you want to map the PPT exposure on your multipack lines and stress-test the format and equipment options, talk to our engineers.
Cut your shrink-wrap PPT exposure with our engineers.
Talk to our engineers