Italy has introduced the so-called “Environmental labelling” already discussed and analyzed in our previous article “Application of the Italian Environmental Labelling to cosmetic products”. The labelling is mandatory on all packaging in Italy, including cosmetics. Its scope is to prevent and reduce the impact of packaging and packaging waste on the environment, ensuring at the same time a high level of environmental protection.
[Update 2022]
The law of 25th February 2022, n°15 has been published in the Official Journal (Gazzetta Ufficiale), which converts the decree-law of 30 December 2021 n. 228 (the so-called DL Milleproroghe).
Art. 11 of this new provision has further postponed the obligations for the environmental labeling, previously set to 30 June 2022. Indeed, it provides for the suspension of the labeling obligation as of 31 December 2022, as well as the possibility of marketing stocks of products already placed on the market or labeled by 1 January 2023. Furthermore, the provision includes a deadline of 90 days from the entry into force of the decree-law, within which the Ministry of Ecological Transition (MITE) will adopt the technical guidelines for environmental labeling by means of a non-regulatory decree.
Italian Environmental Labelling Updates
The application of this labelling was already partially suspended during the first semester of 2021, but a new piece of legislation (Law n°69 of 21 May 2021, converting the so-called “Decreto Sostegni”) has postponed all environmental labelling requirements to the beginning of 2022.
This means that not only the appropriate indications for disposal have been suspended but also displaying the nature of the packaging material by using the alphanumerical code provided by Decision 97/129/EC.
The above-mentioned law also provides that “products without the requirements prescribed by art. 219, paragraph 5 and already placed on the market or labeled on 1 January 2022, can be marketed while stocks last.”.
In addition to this, the Ministry of Ecological Transition (Ministero della Transizione Ecologica – MITE) has published a circular addressing some clarifications on the Environmental Labelling among which:
- Responsible subjects for environmental labeling obligations
- Neutral packaging, regarding transport packaging
- Small, multilingual, and import packaging
- Packaging for export
- Use of digital
Biorius can help you to cope with the challenging and fast-moving regulatory environment and keeps you updated on this topic. Don’t hesitate to contact us for more info.
