Italian packaging industry to comply with new era of label information requirements

Italy's national deadline that requires companies to incorporate information for consumers on the material contents and final destination of their packaging approaches

FREMONT, CA: Giunko srl launched a QR- or barcode-enabled label that connects to an online database of geolocated information in acknowledgment of Italy's national deadline that required companies to incorporate information for consumers on the material contents and final destination of their packaging approaches. As per the Circular Economy Package adopted by the European Commission in 2018, manufacturers are obliged to inform about packaging material composition and end of life to every citizen. One of the first countries to begin the process of integrating this directive with national legislation in 2020 was Italy, which announced that producers and suppliers had to comply with this by January 1st, 2022. The companies are still required to deliver information related to two essential factors - the origin place and destination of the materials - in a common language as these existing symbols cannot be eliminated entirely. And in the case of companies that do not comply with this directive, they will be fined up to 40,000 euros.

A research by EconomiaCircolare.com and Junker showed that one in six environmental labels was either incorrect, incomplete, or missing on the Italian packaging that was chosen for study. This study suggested that 40 percent of the indicators used to identify the packaging’s composition and validity were easily understandable by users of the 90 labels examined for this study which undermines the purpose of the Circular Economy directive. On this subject, key packaging players said that the implementation of this directive came with some challenges. For instance, the difference between waste disposal technologies and recycling practices in regions in Italy means that packaging details often contain phrases such as check the provisions of your municipality, which can confuse consumers and discourage them from recycling a product. Similarly, some believe that packaging has less space to fit in the amount of information that is needed to meet the directive.