Italy’s Upcoming Mandatory Labeling Requirements for Packaging

By Legislative Decree No. 116 of Sept.3, 2020 implementing Directive (EU) 2018/851 on waste and Directive (EU) 2018/852 on packaging and packaging waste, Article 219(5) of Italian Legislative Decree No. 152 of 2006 was amended by introducing new labelling requirements for all packaging.

The requirements should have come into effect on July 1, 2022, but this has been postponed several times. More recently the suspension of the obligation has been extended until Dec. 31, 2022 and is also provided that packaging not fulfilling the labelling requirements and already placed on the market or labelled as at Jan. 1, 2023, may be marketed until stocks are exhausted.

According to Article 219(5) of Italian Legislative Decree No 152 of 2006 “all packaging must be appropriately labeled in accordance with the procedures established by the applicable UNI technical standards and in compliance with the decisions adopted by the European union to facilitate the collection, reuse, recovery and recycling of packaging, and to provide correct information to consumers on the final destination of packaging. For the purposes of identifying and classifying packaging, producers are also obliged to indicate the nature of the packaging materials used, based on Commission Decision 97/129/EC."

In view of the need to provide for clear and specific rules on the correct fulfilment of the labelling obligation allowing operators not to infringe the law and, therefore, not to incur the resulting administrative penalties the technical guidelines for the correct labelling of packaging have been drawn up by the Minister of Ecological Transition taking into account the Guidelines proposed by the National Packaging Consortium (CONAI). These guidelines have been notified to the EC TRIS procedure through Decree no. 114 of March 16, 2022 last April and are waited for publication on the Italian official Gazette; producers and importers of packaging and packaged products on the Italian market can use the guidelines to comply with obligations.

• Producers must indicate the alphanumeric code provided for in Decision 97/129/EC on all packaging (primary, secondary and tertiary).
• All packaging must be labeled in the form and manner that the company considers most suitable and effective for achieving the goal.
• Packaging destined for the consumer must also bear suitable inscriptions aiding its disposal.
• For plastic packaging made from polymers or polymer combinations not expressly provided for in Decision 97/129/EC, reference may be made to the UNI 1043-1 standard for the identification of plastics not included in said Decision, and to the UNI 10667-1 standards for the identification and recognition of recycled polymers.
• If the product is accompanied by a user manual or an instruction sheet, these supports can be used to contain the mandatory information on the environmental labeling of the packaging.
• As clarified by a note released by the Ministry of Ecological Transition on May 17, 2021, it is allowed to favor the use of digital tools in order to fulfill the obligation of environmental labeling of packaging (e.g., Apps, QR codes, websites).

To help companies fulfilling their obligations, the Italian National Packaging Consortium (CONAI), in collaboration with companies, consortia and associations of the various product sectors promoted a series of documents on environmental labeling of packaging. Each document is related to a specific sector, contains answers to questions, best practices and application solutions related to forthcoming obligations of packaging labeling in Italy.

Reference

Decree No 114 of the Minister for Ecological Transition of 16 March 2022 adopting the Guidelines on the labelling of packaging, pursuant to Article 219(5) of Legislative Decree No 152/06