Rome and Brussels declare war on cigarette butts: the regulation scheme for plastic filters arrives

Rome and Brussels declare war on cigarette butts. A draft regulation has been published in recent days on the website of the Ministry of the Environment which represents a new step forward on the implementation path in Italy of the SUP 2019/904 directive, i.e. the directive on single-use plastic products which also includes tobacco products which include filters containing plastic among the products subject to the principle of extended producer responsibility. The entire discipline aims to attribute defined responsibilities along the life cycle of the product, with particular attention to the prevention of waste dispersion in the environment.

With the publication of the scheme, a consultation phase particularly awaited by the sector begins which will end on 31 October and will allow interested parties to formulate observations on the proposed model before the publication of the definitive text.

In recent years, in fact, numerous voluntary awareness and prevention initiatives aimed at citizens against the abandonment of cigarette butts have already been promoted, such as those of the Erion Care Consortium. The new regulatory framework is now called upon to define in a structured manner responsibilities, obligations, financing methods and relationships between the various subjects in the supply chain.

In Italy, the Directive was implemented with Legislative Decree 8 November 2021, n. 196, which introduced a specific Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regime for the tobacco supply chain.

The regulation scheme just published on the Mase website defines the functioning of this regime, identifying the obligations of the subjects involved and, in particular, the methods through which producers are called upon to assume responsibility, including economic responsibility, for the correct management of the waste generated by their products, as well as prevention measures to raise awareness among smokers not to abandon tobacco products after use.