Environmental labelling of packaging in the light of new ministerial guidelines.

 

In a previous article (readable here), we provided an initial overview of the new packaging environmental labelling obligations introduced in Italy by Legislative Decree No. 116/2020, which amended Article 219, paragraph 5 of Legislative Decree No. 152/2006 (Environmental Code).

It is recalled that the aforementioned Article 219, paragraph 5, in its currently applicable text, provides that: 'All packaging must be appropriately labelled in accordance with the methods established by the applicable UNI technical standards and in compliance with the determinations adopted by the Commission of the European Union, in order to facilitate the collection, reuse, recovery and recycling of packaging, as well as to provide consumers with correct information on the final destinations of packaging. Producers are also obliged to indicate, for packaging identification and classification purposes, the nature of the packaging materials used, based on Commission Decision 97/129/EC'.

As is well known, the new environmental labelling regime has undergone a repeated series of postponements, up to the most recent regulatory intervention (Law 15/2022) which set the date of application as from 1 January 2023, without prejudice to the possibility of continuing to market, until stocks are exhausted, packaging that has already been placed on the market or labelled.

In addition, a new paragraph 5.1 was appropriately inserted into Article 219 of the Environmental Code, whereby the Ministry of Ecological Transition (MiTE) was instructed to draw up technical guidelines for the fulfilment of the new environmental labelling obligations.

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The 'Packaging Labelling Guidelines' were finally prepared on 15 March and adopted by Ministerial Decree No. 114 of 16 March 2022.

The two documents are not yet published on the portal www.mite.gov.it but, last 7 April, they were both notified to the European Commission as 'draft technical regulations', pursuant to Directive (EU) 2015/1535 (notification no. 2022/196/I). This, due to the fact that the new labelling requirements are, potentially, able to affect the free movement of goods within the territory of the Union.

As a result of this notification, according to the provisions of Article 6 of Directive (EU) 2015/1535 (and Article 9 of the transposing Law No. 317/1986), the formal adoption of Ministerial Decree No. 114/2022 should be postponed, at least, until next 8 July 2022, unless this deadline is further extended upon the occurrence of the conditions indicated by the aforementioned legislation.

The draft of the Ministerial Decree, which can be downloaded from the link below, consists of no less than 44 pages that, essentially, re-propose the content of the previous CONAI Guidelines. For an exposition of its overall content, therefore, please refer to the reading of our previous article.

The Ministerial Guidelines also present, however, some new elements and profiles of particular relevance for operators. A new article signed by Mr. Senatore has been dedicated to an in-depth examination of the latter, just published in the RIVISTA CONSULENZAAGRICOLA, no. 05/2022, with the title: 'L'etichettatura ambientale degli imballaggi alla luce delle nuove linee guida ministeriali'.

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