The addition of a plastic lamination or coating on paper and card packaging can impact its reprocessing. Whilst double sided laminations or coatings cannot be reprocessed, packaging with one sided coatings/laminations can be recycled.
Following consultation with industry, we have agreed to delay the reduction in the amount of plastic coating and/or lamination on paper packaging of 120gsm or under. The level of 15% will be maintained for these papers. This will be reviewed once we have received clarification from government on the Recyclability Assessment Method (RAM) under the mandatory labelling regulations. A transition period will be given if it is decided that the threshold will reduce to 10% for these grades of paper. A reduction to 10% plastic lamination or coating on packaging over 120gsm was applicable from January 2023.