Waste Of Polyethylene Goods: Which Consortium Has The Right To Claim The Environmental Fee?

Polyethylene goods are among the most widely used plastic materials and, as such, are governed by a special environmental regulation in Italy.

The last paragraph of Article 48, Legislative Decree No. 22 of 5 February 1997, instituting the POLIECO Consortium (see now Article 234, last paragraph, Legislative Decree No. 152 of 3 April 2006 or 'Environmental Code'), provides literally that "anyone, due to his own activity, holds waste of polyethylene goods is obliged to confer them to the consortium directly or by delivery to entities appointed by the consortium". The legal provision would seem clear: the entrepreneurs who produce, use, or market polyethylene goods are required to confer, directly or indirectly, the "polyethylene waste " to the POLIECO Consortium. The conclusion should be equally easy: the environmental fee aimed to financing the recovery, recycling and disposal of such waste should be paid to the POLIECO Consortium.