Buying plastic credits responsibly: a guide for UK businesses

When a company asks me about plastic credits, I start with a question back: what do you want to achieve? The answer decides whether credits fit at all, which kind to buy and what you can honestly say afterwards. This guide walks through those decisions for a UK business. If you need the basics first, read What is a plastic credit?.

What plastic credits can and cannot do for you

They can fund the collection or recycling of a measured amount of plastic, often low-value plastic that nobody pays to collect. They can support waste workers and keep plastic out of rivers and coastlines. And they give you a specific, checkable thing to report.

They cannot discharge your legal duties in the UK:

• Plastic Packaging Tax (PPT). HMRC charges PPT on plastic packaging components with less than 30% recycled plastic, at £228.82 per tonne from 1 April 2026, for businesses that manufacture or import 10 tonnes or more. The tax depends on the recycled content of your packaging. Buying credits does not change that content.

• Packaging extended producer responsibility (EPR). Organisations with turnover of £1 million or more that handle more than 25 tonnes of packaging a year have EPR obligations and, if large, pay fees. Credits do not reduce those fees or replace your data reporting.

They also cannot make your products "plastic neutral". The tonne you fund is different plastic, usually in another country. Plastic credits and carbon credits explains why the offsetting idea from carbon works even less well for plastic.

Play video: Buying Plastic Credits Responsibly: A Guide for UK Businesses3 min

Step 1: start with your own plastic

Start with your own business. Understand where you use plastic, where you can reduce it and where reuse is possible. That work lowers your PPT and EPR costs as well as your footprint. Credits come after it, to fund recovery you cannot do yourself.

Step 2: decide what you want to fund

Three choices shape everything else:

• Collection or recycling. A collection credit funds plastic gathered and managed; a recycling credit funds plastic turned into new material. Collection alone does not prove recycling. The guide to what happens to collected plastic explains the difference between recycling, co-processing and landfill.

• Material. Low-value plastics such as sachets and films are the hardest to collect and the most likely to leak. Funding them does more than funding bottles that already have a market.

• Place. Plastic harm is local. Choose a region you can explain: where your supply chain runs, or where leakage is high.

Step 3: choose a standard and a project

Buy only credits issued under a named standard with an independent auditor and a public registry. How plastic credits are verified compares the main schemes. Then look at the project itself.

My first question on any project is what happens to the plastic. If the seller cannot show the journey from collection to destination, keep looking.

Step 4: understand what drives the cost

Prices vary widely between schemes and projects, so compare like with like. The main drivers are:

• Material and difficulty. Collecting scattered, dirty flexible plastic costs more than baling clean bottles.
• Destination. Recycling usually costs more than co-processing or landfill.
• Verification. Independent audits and registry fees add cost, and they are what make the credit checkable.
• Social standards. Fair pay and safety equipment for collectors cost money. A very cheap credit may be cheap for a reason.
• Volume and term. Longer agreements can help a project plan; they also tie you to it, so check the exit terms.

Ask for a written breakdown: the price per credit, the unit (kilogram or tonne), any service or reporting fees and what you receive at the end.

Step 5: put it in the contract

• The standard, project ID and credit type.
• The quantity, unit and vintage (when the plastic was collected).
• Retirement in your company's name, with serial numbers delivered to you.
• The end destination of the material.
• What evidence you will receive: verification report, registry links, photos.
• What happens if a delivery falls short.

Step 6: word your claim carefully

Since 6 April 2025 the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) can fine businesses up to 10% of global turnover for misleading consumers, including with green claims. Its Green Claims Code says a claim must be truthful and accurate, clear and unambiguous, complete, fair in any comparison, based on the full life cycle and substantiated.

If you sell in the EU, Directive 2024/825 has banned product claims such as "climate neutral" that rely on offsetting since 27 September 2026.

The examples are illustrative; use your own figures and link to the registry entry. My rule: a claim should never be bigger than the work. Precise statements also tell a better story, because they show what you did.

A short checklist

1. Reduce your own plastic first and record it.

2. Decide on collection or recycling, material and place.

3. Buy from a named standard with an independent auditor and a public registry.

4. Get the end destination and the collectors' conditions in writing.

5. Make sure the credits are retired in your name.

6. Word every claim to match the evidence, and keep the evidence.

Asking hard questions of a seller, including us, is part of getting involved responsibly. Understanding the differences helps you support work you can believe in and talk about clearly.

Frequently asked questions

Published by Reclaimed Earth Limited (Companies House 17392812), which works with plastic recovery projects in India, Indonesia and the Philippines and has a commercial interest in plastic credits. Edited with the Reclaimed Earth editorial team. Last updated 20 October 2026.