CONAI 2026: the plastic fee revision and what it costs you
CONAI's environmental contribution for plastic packaging rises on 1 October 2026, across all nine bands. Here is how eco-modulation works and why it rewards recyclable design.
In Italy, the CONAI environmental contribution (CAC) is the fee producers pay to fund the collection and recycling of packaging they put on the market. It is Italy's Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) mechanism — and in 2026 it is getting more expensive for plastic.
What is changing
On 25 May 2026 the CONAI Board set the new values of the plastic packaging contribution. They take effect on 1 October 2026 and raise all nine contribution bands. Until 30 September 2026 the values in force since 1 January 2026 continue to apply.
An earlier announcement, on 28 January 2026, had pointed to 1 July 2026 with the figures still to be defined; that date was superseded by the May decision. What did move on 1 July 2026 is compostable bioplastic, which is on a separate track: from 130 €/t to 246 €/t.
Eco-modulation: you don't all pay the same
The important part is not the headline rate — it is eco-modulation. Plastic packaging is sorted into bands based on how recyclable it is in practice:
- Easily recyclable, well-established supply chain → the lowest band.
- Recyclable but with a less mature chain → a middle band.
- Hard to recycle / disruptive to sorting → the highest band.
Two products of identical weight can therefore carry very different fees purely because of how their packaging is designed. That is the lever: design choices move you between bands, and the gap between bands is widening.
Why this compounds with PPWR
CONAI eco-modulation and PPWR pull in the same direction — recyclable-by-design packaging is cheaper and compliant; hard-to-recycle packaging is more expensive and on a path to being banned. A material switch made for one reason usually pays off twice.
What to do now
- Identify which band each plastic SKU currently falls into.
- Quantify the fee delta of moving up a band — across your full volume, small per-unit differences become real money.
- Prioritise changes that improve the recyclability band and the PPWR score together.
Always verify the latest figures on the CONAI website before budgeting. Source: CONAI 2026 eco-modulation guidelines.