The topic of environmental respect has always been at the center of debates both at the community and national levels. In order to prevent the uncontrolled dispersion of waste, emphasis has been placed on the efficient use of resources throughout their entire life cycle through the introduction of the so-called extended producer responsibility into national legal systems.

Through European Directive 851/2018, which amended Article 8 of Directive 2008/98/EC (known as the Waste Directive), the community legislator has required member states to adopt environmental policies aimed at holding the producer of the product responsible until the point where it becomes waste (known as the post-consumption phase).

In Italy, Legislative Decree No. 116/2020, implementing European Directives 2018/851 and 2018/852 (the so-called “Circular Economy Package“), updated Legislative Decree No. 152/2006, where Articles 178bis and 178ter refer to the definition of E.P.R., that is, Extended Producer Responsibility. According to this regulation, a producer is considered any natural or legal person who professionally develops, manufactures, transforms, treats, sells, or imports products.

In other words, it will be the producer who must take care of the “fate” of their products (in the post-consumption phase) by financing recycling and waste management programs, introducing taxes or economic incentives related to proper waste management, as well as the obligation to label products to inform consumers about their proper disposal.

Therefore, producers are called to internalize the end-of-life costs of their products, including in their price, from the design stage, all measures aimed at recyclability, reusability, and repairability of the product.

In essence, producers and distributors must contribute to waste management without allowing the burden to fall solely on the final consumers.