Italy's plastic tax from 1 January 2027 (and Spain's): does switching to paper cushioning avoid it?

Italy has been promising a plastic tax since 2019. Under the law as it stands today, it finally starts on 1 January 2027.

Italy's tax on single-use plastic packaging is €0.45 per kg of plastic. For goods from outside the EU, the importer pays it at customs, and that includes plastic packaging that arrives around the goods. Spain has charged the same €0.45 per kg on non-recycled plastic packaging since January 2023. Plain paper cushioning, such as honeycomb paper wrap, is not plastic under either law, so the wrap itself drops out. The tape, bags, film and plastic layers around it do not.

Checked against official sources on 28 October 2026.

We make honeycomb paper wrap in Jaipur, and Italy is one of the countries we have shipped it to. We quote European buyers in euros when they ask, so this tax will sit on some of our own customers' bills.

I have read both laws in the original Italian and Spanish. I am still a packaging manufacturer, not a tax adviser. Read this as a supplier's map, and check your own position with an Italian or Spanish customs adviser.

Will Italy's plastic tax really start on 1 January 2027?

On paper, yes. Whether that date survives December is another matter.

1. The tax was created by Law 160/2019, commi 634 to 658, and it has never been collected.
2. The 2026 Budget Law, Law 199 of 30 December 2025, art. 1 comma 125, moved the start date in comma 652 from 1 July 2026 to 1 January 2027 (Gazzetta Ufficiale, Law 199/2025).
3. On 28 October 2026, Sky TG24 reported that the government was considering a further six-month delay, to 1 July 2027, in the 2027 Budget Law. A deputy prime minister said he would prefer a full year.

That third point is a press report about a draft. It is not law.

Italy's budget law is normally approved in the last days of December, so the final answer may come only a week before the start date.

I would plan for 1 January 2027. If a delay comes, I would use it as extra time to finish the job, not as a reason to stop.

What does the Italian tax cover?

The law calls the taxed items MACSI, short for "manufatti con singolo impiego". In plain English, single-use articles made with plastic and used to contain, protect, handle or deliver goods. The original text is in the Gazzetta Ufficiale, Law 160/2019, and it was amended in 2020 and 2025.

What is taxed:

1. Single-use plastic products, including sheets, films and strips (comma 634).
2. Products made only partly of plastic. The rate is per kg of plastic contained (comma 640), so a paper item with a plastic layer pays on the plastic part.
3. Semi-finished products and preforms (comma 635).
4. Plastic devices that close packs made of other materials, such as a plastic cap on a paper pack (comma 635).
5. Plastic packaging that arrives holding goods. Comma 639 applies the tax "anche qualora contengano merci", i.e. even when it contains goods.

What is not taxed:

1. Compostable plastic certified to EN 13432 (comma 634).
2. Medical devices and packaging for medicines (comma 634).
3. Plastic that comes from recycling (comma 642). The law leaves the proof of recycled content to the customs agency, ADM (comma 651).

Who pays is in comma 637. For goods from outside the EU, it is the importer, and comma 646 says ADM collects it the same way as border duties. For goods bought from another EU country, it is the business buyer, or the seller when the buyer is a private consumer.

Read point 5 again if you export to Italy.

The bubble wrap you put around goods in India becomes your Italian customer's tax bill at the border. Older readers in India will remember octroi (the tax a city collected on goods coming through its gates). This works the same way, except the packaging pays as well as the goods.

And what about Spain?

Spain is not waiting for anything. Its tax has applied since 1 January 2023, and no change for 2027 had been published in the BOE by 28 October 2026.

The rules are in Ley 7/2022, consolidated text on BOE:

1. The rate is €0.45 per kg of non-recycled plastic (article 78).
2. It covers non-reusable packaging whether it arrives empty or "containing, protecting, handling" goods (article 67.1). So imported packaged goods count.
3. It also covers semi-finished products, and products containing plastic that close, market or present non-reusable packaging (article 68.1).
4. A product made of several materials pays on the plastic it contains (article 68.3).
5. Recycled plastic is excluded only when an accredited body certifies it to UNE-EN 15343:2008 (article 77.3).
6. Imports are exempt when the non-recycled plastic does not exceed 5 kg in a month (article 75). Above that, the Agencia Tributaria's customs page says every kilo is taxed, the first 5 included.

The law's definition of plastic leaves out natural polymers that have not been chemically modified. Paper is cellulose, so plain paper is not plastic.

Five kilos a month is a very low line.

Weigh the plastic in one typical shipment and you will know at once which side of it you are on.

So does switching to paper cushioning avoid the tax?

For the cushioning itself, yes. For the whole shipment, almost never.

I will be honest about our own product here. The paper is paper, but a container of our honeycomb rolls is not plastic-free. We stretch-wrap every pallet for the sea voyage, and I am not going to stop doing that, because wet paper rolls are worse than a small tax.

If you import our rolls into Italy or Spain, ask us for the film weight per pallet. That is the figure your broker will want.

Paper is also not the right answer for every product. Heavy items with sharp corners, and goods that may sit in rain or damp, can still be better off in plastic. Our honest comparison of honeycomb paper and bubble wrap shows where each one wins. A broken product costs more than €0.45.

A worked example

Here is one with round numbers. It is an example, not a real company.

Say an importer near Milan brings in one 20 ft container of ceramic tableware from India every month. Each piece is wrapped in bubble wrap at the factory, and each container carries 300 kg of bubble wrap with no certified recycled content.

1. Italy, from 1 January 2027: 300 kg x €0.45 = €135 per container, paid at import. Twelve containers come to €1,620 a year.
2. Send the same goods to an importer in Valencia and the tax is the same €135, because 300 kg is far above Spain's 5 kg a month.
3. Wrap the tableware in plain paper instead and that line goes. The tape and the pallet film stay.

€135 a container does not sound like much. I agree.

The bigger change is that someone must now know the plastic weight of every shipment. Comma 651 lets ADM set flat-rate quantities for packaging that arrives around goods, which may spare your broker from weighing everything. Ask how those rules will work before your first January shipment.

What to do before 1 January 2027

1. List every plastic item that crosses the border with your goods: wrap, bags, tape, mailers and pallet film. Put a weight per shipment next to each one.
2. Ask your Italian customs broker how it will declare plastic weight from 1 January, and whether ADM's rules are out.
3. For Spain, collect recycled-content certificates that name UNE-EN 15343:2008 and an accredited body. A supplier's own statement is not enough.
4. For any paper alternative, get the composition by weight in writing, with paper and any plastic layer listed separately.
5. Trial paper on your top five products and count breakage as well as the kilos of plastic saved. Our guide to importing honeycomb paper into the EU covers duty and the other documents.
6. Watch the Italian budget law in the last week of December. If the start moves to 1 July 2027, keep the plan and move the date.

Where we fit

Our honeycomb paper wrap is plain kraft paper with cuts in it. There is no plastic in the wrap, and we will state the composition in writing for your broker. About 99% of what we ship is 100% recycled fibre, sold with the FSC Recycled 100% claim on the invoice under licence FSC-C193292.

If you are moving an Italian or Spanish product line off bubble wrap, tell us the products and how they are packed today through our contact page. We will suggest a width and grade for each one and send samples, so your packers can test it before the new year.