CONAI, the National Packaging Consortium

CONAI is a private system, created and designed by companies: with more than 1,000,000 members, between packaging producers and users, CONAI is one of the largest consortium in Europe. Its task is to manage the recycling and the recovery of packaging in all of Italy and to pursue the recycling and recovery objectives set by European legislation, first acknowledged in Italy by the Ronchi Decree (legislative Decree 22/97), which was replaced by the legislative Decree "Environment Regulations" in 2006 (legislative Decree 152/06).
The CONAI management was entrusted by law, on the basis of a unique model through which private effectively manage a matter of public interest: the protection of the environment.
CONAI safeguards the environment by embracing the entire packaging lifecycle, from production to end-of-life management. To this purpose CONAI promotes the adoption of environment-friendly packaging at source, and then co-ordinates the recovery and recycling of packaging after use.
The CONAI model is based on the principle of "shared responsibility" which assumes the cooperation of all participants involved in waste management: from companies, which produce / make and use packaging materials, to the Public Administration, which make the regulations for waste management, and finally to the citizens, who through the daily act of separating their waste start an ethical cycle for the environment.
The CONAI System is based on the activities of six consortia (Ricrea, Cial, Comieco, Corepla, Rilegno, Coreve) that represent materials that are used in the production of packaging: steel, aluminium, paper, wood, plastic and glass. Each consortium must, for each material, coordinate, organize and increase: the take back of packaging waste (mainly from separated waste collection), the recycling and recovery processes.
The ongoing environmental contribution made by the members provide the resources for CONAI'S activities.
In 2014 a total of more than 9.000.000 tons of packaging waste were recovered, constituting 77,7% of the total packaging placed for consumption. As in the past, the result meets and exceeds the goal established by the European Union and national regulations. In 16 years of the CONAI-Consortia System activity the amount of packaging waste sent to landfills has been significantly reduced. 3 out of 4 packages today are retrieved, in 1998 were 1 of 3.