Netherlands officials recently announced the government will be introducing a carbon-based packaging tax aimed at reducing carbon emissions related to the use of packaging, the first such levy in the European Union.

Resource Recycling reports that the tax will be based on estimated carbon dioxide emissions produced in making various packaging materials, and will be used to establish a general national waste reduction fund. Further, the Dutch government will adopt a new recycling target of 42 percent for plastic packaging by 2012, up from the current 22.5 percent as mandated by EU law.

The Brussels, Belgium-based European Organization for Packaging and the Environment (Europen) is coming out against the levy, warning that the tax could complicate waste and recycling targets. Europen officials claim the previous experience "shows that it is impossible to compare fairly all of the environmental factors of each packaging material, let alone the packaging produced from those materials."

The new tax is to be implemented in January 2008.