Milan, October 2021 – The CONAI Board of Directors has resolved a further reduction of the Environmental Contribution (or CAC) for paper and cardboard and almost all plastic packaging, starting from 2022.
The reduction is in addition to those already decided during 2021 for contributions related not only to cellulose but also to steel, aluminium, plastic and glass-based packaging. It is essentially linked to the prices of cellulose and plastic packaging raw materials, whose market values continue to remain at very high levels.
Once again, the system confirms its timely intervention in reconciling economic with typically environmental needs, in both positive, such as the current one, and negative, such as in the recent past, contexts: a trend that CONAI must increasingly be inspired by in the future.
The new changes will be effective as from 1 January 2022.
The reduction for paper and cardboard packaging
The value of the CAC for paper and cardboard will decrease from 25 €/tonne to 10 €/tonne. Since the beginning of the year, when it amounted to 55 €/tonne, an overall reduction of 81%.
This decrease is linked to three concomitant factors: increase in volumes of cellulose packaging put on the market, with consequent higher revenues from CAC; lower costs, related to a lower quantity of collection managed than expected; and increase in revenues for recycled materials due to the effect of pulp prices.
The decrease in CAC does not affect separate paper and cardboard collection and recycling operations. Indeed, Comieco will continue to guarantee the recycling of approx. 2.5 million tonnes, managed through 946 agreements, covering the commitment of 93% of citizens, which has allowed our country to reach 87% recycling of cellulose-based packaging, 10 years ahead of EU targets.
The values of the extra CACs to be applied to paper-based polylaminated packaging suitable for containing liquids (effective 1 January 2019), to type C packaging (with a cellulose component greater than or equal to 60% and less than 80%) and to type D packaging (with a cellulose component less than 60% or not made explicit) remain unchanged. Therefore, as of 1 January 2022, the total values will be 30 €/tonne for the former, 120 €/tonne for type C and 250 €/tonne for type D.
Reductions for plastic packaging
Confirmation of the positive trend in the values of secondary raw materials has also enabled the Corepla consortium to improve revenues from the auctioning of recoverable fractions, especially for Level B1 packaging, which includes PET or HDPE bottles, detergent bottles and the like and other rigid containers.
This situation has allowed the CAC to be reduced for almost all plastic packaging and particularly for those that have led to improved economic performance.
For Level A1 (rigid and flexible packaging with an effective and consolidated industrial selection and recycling chain, mainly managed in the commerce & industry circuits) the contribution is reduced from the current 150 to 104 €/tonne.
For Level B1 (packaging with an effective and consolidated industrial selection and recycling chain, mainly from the household circuit), the contribution is reduced from the current 208 to 149 €/tonne.
Level B2 (other sortable/recyclable packaging from the household and/or commerce & industry circuit) is reduced from the current 560 to 520 €/tonne.
The reduction in the CAC will also affect Level C (packaging with experimental sorting/recycling activities in progress or which cannot be sorted/recycled using current technology): from the current 660 to 642 €/tonne.
With regard to packaging included in Level A2 (flexible packaging with an effective and consolidated industrial sorting and recycling chain, mainly from the commerce & industry circuit, but significantly present in municipal separate waste collection), the continuous increase in volumes present in municipal separate waste collection is confirmed, with increasing costs for consortium management.
Until 30 June 2022, the contribution of this Level will remain unchanged at 150 €/tonne. As from 1 July 2022, it will increase to 168 €/tonne, consistent with higher recycling costs.
The Board of Directors has reaffirmed its willingness to continue the analysis process to further strengthen contribution diversification, in particular to increasingly link the CAC values of each Level with the actual costs, envisaging possible revaluations and further segmentations starting from Levels B1 and B2.
Simplified import procedures
The further reductions will also have an effect on the flat-rate/simplified procedures for importing filled packaging, once again effective from 1 January 2022.
The rates to be applied to the overall import value (in €) will consequently decrease from 0.20% to 0.17% for packaged food products and from 0.10% to 0.08% for packaged non-food products.
The Contribution through the flat-rate calculation on the weight of only the packaging (tare) of imported goods (total weight without material distinction) will decrease from the current 101 to 90.00 €/tonne.
The new values of the other simplified procedures will soon be available on the CONAI website.
For any questions and clarification, the toll-free number 800337799 is available for consortium member companies.
Download the table with the values of the environmental contributions:
This document is the English translation of a Conai press release of October 2021. In cases of disputes, the original Italian text shall prevail.