Conai System

The consortium system in Italy and Europe

Legislative Decree No 22/97, or the Ronchi Decree, assigned the consortium system the task of achieving the overall target of recycling and recovery packaging across the whole of Italy and, at the same time, ensuring that targeted management policies are implemented, including prevention policies, through eco-innovation.  The CONAI System guarantees compliance with the principle of extended producer responsibility, allocating the CONAI Environmental Contribution (CAC) among producers and users.

By joining CONAI, the producer/user is obliged to pay the CAC, which varies depending on the type of packaging put onto the market. CONAI retains a minimum amount to carry out its work, while a considerable part is given to the Material Consortia which, in turn, pay a compensation to the agreement Municipalities, in accordance with the provisions of the ANCI-CONAI Framework Agreement, to cover the additional charges resulting from the separate collection of packaging.

On an international level, CONAI is a member of EXPRA, the Extended Producer Responsibility Alliance, which serves as the European reference organisation representing non-profit systems for managing packaging and packaging waste.