Towards a Plastic-Free Economy: The Italian Plastic Tax (Updated: December 2021)

Abstract

The fight against plastic waste has never been as high on the European and Italian agenda as it has been in recent years. Several measures have been recently adopted to promote the progressive reduction of single-use plastic products and their disposal in the environment: on the one hand, a new EU own resource calculated on the weight of non-recycled plastic packaging waste generated by the Member States is in force as of 1 January 2021; on the other hand, the Italian Plastic Tax, introduced with the Budget Law 2020, is expected to come into effect on 1 July 2021. Although the Customs Agency published the draft implementing provisions on 18 February 2021, many uncertainties remain.

Keywords: Plastic tax, EU own resources, Circular economy