There's a deluge of competing priorities the chancellor has to consider before next week's budget. Add to Brexit, housing and the NHS, whether the treasure can help reduce our dependence on single use plastics.
Three hundred and eleven million tonnes of plastic were produced in 2014 and that's expected to double over the next twenty years. Plastic packaging makes up more than a quarter of that. In the UK, we use thirteen billion plastic bottles a year but only half of them are collected for recycling.
"To give you an idea of scale, we waste enough single use plastic items every year in the United Kingdom to fill one thousand Royal Albert Halls. So the government will be looking at whether to use taxation to change our habits like they did with the plastic bag charge."
That levy has led to an 80% reduction in plastic bag use since 2015. Sky News understands the treasury is now looking at whether similar levers can be pulled to wean us off our other plastic addictions.
"Taxation measures can help. If we look at the levy that was on single use plastic bags, that dramatically reduced the amount of plastic bags that people purchased but also ones that ended up in our environment. We know that that definitely works and we hoping that taxation measures on other items can also similarly reduce our plastic footprint."
The chancellor won't announce any new taxes on Wednesday but instead is expected to launch a so-called call for evidence. Inviting and soliciting opinion from consumers, environmental groups and businesses involved in the life cycle of plastic products.
Some though, are urging cation.
"If you look at things like sugar, a lot of food companies and drinks companies have already been reducing the amount of sugar that goes into their foods and their drinks but then the government comes in with a sugar tax. It's all too often, the government just uses the tax system just to correct absolutely every sort of perceived ill that they can possible think of."
The Scottish and Welsh parliaments are already using their devolved powers to try to limit plastic use. Cardiff may follow Edinburgh and start trialling a deposit return scheme next year. And Sky's Ocean Rescues campaign has helped maintain the political pressure.
"Any spare cash in there chancellor?"
So now we know one of the many measures in the chancellors red box. The others will be revealed when the latch is opened on Wednesday.
Robert Nisbet, Sky News, Westminster.
