Draft legislation: Plastic packaging tax — chemical recycling and adoption of a mass balance approach

We use some essential cookies to make this website work. We’d like to set additional cookies to understand how you use GOV.UK, remember your settings and improve government services. We also use cookies set by other sites to help us deliver content from their services. You have accepted additional cookies. You can change your cookie settings at any time. You have rejected additional cookies. You can change your cookie settings at any time. This technical consultation seeks views on draft regulations and supporting document for the Plastic Packaging Tax mass balance approach for chemically recycled plastic. This consultation closes at 11:59pm on 21 December 2026 The draft Regulations set out the conditions that businesses must meet if they wish to use a mass balance approach to account for chemically recycled plastic for Plastic Packaging Tax ( PPT ) purposes from 1 April 2027. The draft reference document sets out the methodology for applying dual-use factors where required. Both should be read alongside the relevant provisions of the Finance Act 2021, as amended by the Finance Act 2026, in particular sections 49, 49A and 49B. This technical consultation seeks views on the drafting and technical application of the draft Regulations and reference document to ensure they deliver the policy as intended. This consultation may be of interest to: The draft secondary legislation sets out the detailed provisions and conditions for using a mass balance approach under a certification scheme to account for chemically recycled plastic for PPT purposes. This includes requirements relating to attribution methodology, certification, auditing, monitoring and record keeping. The draft Regulations also provide for further operational detail to be specified in notices published at a later date. In general, these are expected to reflect relevant industry and ISO standards. The reference document, ‘Dual-Use Factors for Refinery and Petrochemical Output Products’, covers the classification of output products, how to determine the dual-use factor (DUF) for each output product and the use of default values where appropriate. The default values will be confirmed before the final legislation and reference document are published. Draft legislation PDF , 407 KB , 9 pages This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology. Draft legislation (accessible version) HTML Dual-use factors for refinery and petrochemical output products HTML teamindirecttaxdesign@hmrc.gov.uk The following links open in a new tab Share on Facebook (opens in new tab) Share on X (opens in new tab) Updates to this page Published 6 October 2026 Sign up for emails or print this page Get emails about this page Print this page Is this page useful? Maybe Yes this page is useful No this page is not useful Thank you for your feedback Report a problem with this page Help us improve GOV.UK Do not include personal or financial information like your National Insurance number or credit card details. To help us improve GOV.UK, we’d like to know more about your visit today. Please fill in this survey (opens in a new tab and requires JavaScript ) .