The Italian plastics tax on certain disposable products, originally scheduled for mid-2020 by the government, is to be postponed until 1 January 2021. Despite strong resistance from the industry, Italy adopted the “plastic tax” in January 2020 – applicable to plastic bottles, carrier bags, food containers and EPS packaging. Plastic packaging for medical items, such as syringes, are exempt from the levy of EUR 0.45/kg, as are packaging materials containing recycled material. Biodegradable plastics are also exempt (see also Plasteurope.com of 23.01.2020).

Before the coronavirus outbreak, both the plastics and sugar taxes – which has also been postponed to 1 January 2021 – were among the most widely discussed taxes in the last budget. The postponement to next year, which was announced in Article 139 of the “Rilancio” decree (the original April decree), could tear a hole of around EUR 200m in Italy’s already empty tax coffers this year. From 1 July 2020, the plastics levies were supposed to inject around EUR 140m into the state coffers, while in October 2020, the tax of 10 cents per litre of carbonated and sugar-sweetened drinks was expected to generate additional revenue of around EUR 60m.

Italian industry representatives and politicians had repeatedly demanded that companies already badly affected by the coronavirus pandemic should not be further burdened with these additional taxes (see Plasteurope.com of 17.03.2020).