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UK Plastic Packaging Tax on imported containers

Charged by weight on packaging below 30 per cent recycled content, and it lands on the importer rather than the factory.

A pallet of HDPE jerrycans standing on an industrial weighing scale — The tax is charged by weight, so the scale is the meter.

If you import plastic containers designed as packaging into the UK, there is a tax on the ones that do not contain at least 30 per cent recycled plastic. It is charged by weight, it is a fixed cost per tonne rather than a percentage of value, and it lands on the importer.

Quick answer: Who pays UK Plastic Packaging Tax on imported containers?

The importer. The tax falls on plastic packaging components with less than 30 per cent recycled plastic by weight, charged per tonne, and the overseas factory has no UK liability. Register once you import or make 10 tonnes of finished plastic packaging in 12 months; packaging at or above 30 per cent recycled is untaxed but still counts.

The rate and the threshold

What	Where it sits
Rate from 1 April 2026	£228.82 per tonne
Applies to	Plastic packaging with less than 30% recycled content by weight
Registration threshold	10 tonnes of finished plastic packaging components manufactured in or imported into the UK in the last 12 months, or expected in the next 30 days
Who pays	The UK manufacturer or the importer

Packaging that meets or beats the 30 per cent threshold is not taxed, but it still counts towards your 10-tonne registration total, so hitting the threshold with fully recycled content still means registering. And the tax is per tonne of packaging, so it scales with how heavy your containers are rather than what they sell for.

Before any of that, settle whether the item is plastic packaging at all. A component made of more than one material counts as plastic where plastic is the heaviest single material by weight, and then the whole weight is taxed rather than the plastic part of it. A steel jerrican body is not a plastic component, because the steel dominates, but its HDPE cap is a separate component taxed on its own weight. An HDPE jerrican with a steel handle almost certainly is, and the tax falls on its full weight including the handle.

That rule cuts both ways, so run it across a whole range, not one product. A closure, a spout or a tap sold as a separate line is its own packaging component and is assessed on its own. A business importing plastic closures for metal cans can be inside the regime while believing its containers keep it out. The 10-tonne threshold counts every finished plastic packaging component across every product line, apart from exempt items such as transport packaging on imported goods.

The evidentiary bar for imported packaging is more likely to rise than fall. Build the paper trail before an audit asks for it.

Cans sold empty

HMRC decides by what a can is designed for, not by who buys it or whether it arrives full. Section 48(1) of the Finance Act 2021 makes a packaging component any product designed to be suitable for containing, protecting, handling, delivering or presenting goods on their way from the producer to the user. Section 48(2) adds that it does not matter whether the item is imported for use in that supply chain or by a user or consumer.

So a plastic jerrycan built to carry goods to a buyer, such as a UN-marked chemical can, is a packaging component whether a filler buys it or a farmer buys it empty. A can designed for a single use by a consumer stays taxable too: regulation 5 of the Plastic Packaging Tax (Descriptions of Products) Regulations 2021 treats single-use consumer containers as packaging even when they could be refilled.

A can designed for its owner to fill and refill for their own storage is a different product. HMRC lists drinks bottles designed to be reused, reusable food storage containers, home storage boxes and mop buckets as items that do not meet the definition. A durable water or fuel can sold empty to the person who fills it sits closer to those than to a chemical can. HMRC has published no example that names jerrycans, so the answer rests on the design and on the evidence you hold for it. Where one design sells both to fillers and empty to end users, settle it with HMRC before you leave any of it out of the 10-tonne count.

Under the EU packaging regulation, use decides: the same can sold empty to an end user for its own use is a product. Sold to a filler it is packaging, as our EU packaging guide sets out. The UK test asks what the can was designed for, so selling it empty does not take it out of the tax on its own.

Indicative unit weights. Packaging that MEETS the 30 per cent recycled bar still counts toward this threshold even though it is not taxed, which catches people out.

What 10 tonnes looks like in cans

Format	Approximate weight	Units to reach 10 tonnes
20 L HDPE jerrycan, UN grade	~1.15 kg	~8,700 per year
20 L HDPE jerrycan, economy grade	~0.90 kg	~11,000 per year
10 L HDPE jerrycan	~0.60 kg	~16,700 per year

Indicative weights for planning. The threshold counts all finished plastic packaging components you import in a rolling twelve months, across every product, apart from exempt transport packaging on imported goods. Confirm actual unit weights on your own specification before filing.

The rule cuts both ways, which is why it is worth running across a whole range rather than one product. Closures, spouts and taps sold as separate lines are their own components assessed on their own, so a business importing plastic closures for metal cans can be inside the regime while believing its containers keep it out.

Exports, and the credit most importers miss

Packaging that is exported does not ultimately bear the tax. Where you intend to export a component within twelve months, you can defer the liability rather than pay and reclaim. Where tax has already been paid on packaging that is later exported, you can claim a credit. For a distributor who imports into the UK and re-exports part of the volume into Ireland or the continent, that is the difference between a real cost and a cash-flow timing question.

The condition is evidence, as it is everywhere in this regime. Deferral and credit both rest on being able to show the packaging left the UK, tied to the specific components the claim covers. Build that link into the stock records at the point the goods arrive, because reconstructing it from shipping paperwork a year later is the version that fails.

The evidence problem for importers

A UK moulder documents recycled content from its own process. An importer has to obtain equivalent certification from an overseas supplier and turn it into evidence HMRC will accept. That is a different and larger task than getting a supplier to say a number in an email.

A consultation that ran from May to August 2026 proposed mandatory certification for mechanically recycled content, for UK manufacturers and importers alike, so the evidentiary bar is more likely to rise than fall. Build the paper trail now rather than reconstructing it under audit.

There is also a reason to care about whether your supplier and your customers are compliant, not only whether you are. HMRC can issue secondary liability and joint and several liability notices to businesses in the supply chain where tax has gone unpaid and the business knew, or ought reasonably to have known, that it had. Due diligence on the parties either side of you is part of your own defence. HMRC expects it to be documented and repeated, not done once at onboarding.

For a container buyer, keep the recycled-content certification, the weight data the tax is calculated on, the export evidence and a record of the checks you ran on the supplier. Records have to be held for six years, and the audit that asks for them will not be in the year you built them.

Packaging that meets the 30 per cent threshold is not taxed but still counts towards the 10 tonne registration total, which is the step most often missed by importers who assume compliance means invisibility.

Does recycled content pay for itself?

Sometimes, and the arithmetic is simple enough to do before you ask for a quote. Compare the per-tonne tax saved against the per-tonne price difference between virgin and 30-per-cent-recycled grade. At £228.82 per tonne of packaging, a recycled grade costing less than that premium per tonne is cheaper delivered, before counting any commercial value in the claim itself.

Two cautions. Recycled content is not available or appropriate for every application, particularly food contact and some dangerous-goods approvals, where the approval was granted against a specific material. And a recycled grade changes the material, so a UN-approved design may need re-testing.

That re-testing is the cost most comparisons leave out, and on a small programme it can dwarf the tax arithmetic. A design type tested in virgin resin has not been tested in a recycled blend, so drop, stack and leakproofness testing runs again at the plant, on tooling already producing representative parts. A large annual volume absorbs that cost. A modest one may not, so run both numbers rather than assume the recycled route wins.

Counting only the can under-declares. The closure is a component in its own right, and a line that ships a spout with every can carries two components rather than one. Pallet wrap on goods you import is exempt transport packaging and stays out of the total.

Where we stand on this

Our standard HDPE line is virgin blow-moulding grade specified for the contents. A certified 30 per cent recycled grade is not the standard build today; it is available as a specified material change, with the certification an importer needs to support the claim. Ask for it at enquiry and we quote it against the virgin grade so you can compare delivered cost including the tax.

The change has three parts:

Material and certification together. The recycled grade is only useful with evidence behind it, so the certification is quoted as part of the change rather than assumed. That evidence is what your HMRC claim rests on.
UN-approved designs need re-testing. Approval is granted against a specific material, so changing the resin means the design type is re-tested. Budget the time, not just the material premium.
Not appropriate everywhere. Food contact and some dangerous-goods approvals are the usual exclusions. We will tell you where recycled content is the wrong answer rather than quote it anyway.

Where the recycled premium is more than £228.82 per tonne, the virgin grade plus the tax is the right answer and we will say so.

The credit is real money and most importers never claim it, because the evidence has to be designed in at the point the goods are received rather than reconstructed at the year end.

Where to start

Your use case	Recommended can	Why this one
Avoiding the tax entirely	20L NATO Steel Fuel Can	Steel is not plastic packaging. Different regime.
Long-life alternative to plastic	20L Stainless Steel Water Can	No plastic tax, no recycled-content claim needed.
Volume plastic, weight matters	Economy HDPE Jerrycan — non-UN	Lighter grade, so fewer tonnes per unit shipped.
Food contact in plastic	Food-Grade HDPE Jerrycan	Where recycled content is usually not appropriate.

Common questions

Is a plastic jerrycan sold empty subject to Plastic Packaging Tax?

It depends on what the can is designed for, not on who buys it. Under section 48 of the Finance Act 2021 a can designed to carry goods through a supply chain is packaging even when an end user buys it empty, and a single-use consumer can is packaging under SI 2021/1417.

A durable can designed for its owner to refill for storage sits with the reusable bottles, storage boxes and mop buckets HMRC lists as outside the definition. HMRC has published no ruling on jerrycans.

What is the UK Plastic Packaging Tax rate?

From 1 April 2026 the rate is £228.82 per tonne, charged on plastic packaging components containing less than 30 per cent recycled plastic by weight. It is a fixed cost per tonne of packaging rather than a percentage of the value of the goods.

When do I have to register for Plastic Packaging Tax?

When you have manufactured in or imported into the UK 10 tonnes or more of finished plastic packaging components in the last 12 months, or expect to in the next 30 days. Packaging that meets the 30 per cent recycled threshold is not taxed but still counts towards that 10 tonne registration total.

How many jerrycans is 10 tonnes?

Roughly 8,700 units of a 20 litre UN-grade HDPE jerrycan at about 1.15 kg each, or around 11,000 of a lighter economy grade. The threshold counts every finished plastic packaging component you import in a rolling twelve months, across all products, apart from exempt items such as transport packaging on imported goods.

Does recycled content save money?

Compare the tax saved per tonne against the price premium per tonne for a 30 per cent recycled grade. Below £228.82 per tonne of premium it is cheaper delivered. Two cautions: recycled content is often unsuitable for food contact, and changing the material can require re-testing of a UN-approved design.

Who pays the tax on imported packaging, the factory or the importer?

The importer. The overseas manufacturer has no UK liability, which is why importers carry the harder evidence burden: they must obtain equivalent certification from the supplier and convert it into evidence HMRC accepts for any recycled-content claim.

References

The standards and regulations this page relies on, at their issuing body. Where a market rule is named here, check the current revision before you specify against it.

First published 12 August 2026

Last reviewed 26 October 2026 by David Guru, Co-Founder & Business Development Director. How we review our guides Fortitude21 makes and sells liquid containers; our guides carry no affiliate links.

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