Millions of Italians will continue to throw away the coffee capsule full, without emptying it, just as they do today. What changes, from August 12, 2026, is not the gesture but the tool that guides it: a label.
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From that date, Regulation (EU) 2025/40, the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), which rewrites the packaging rules in all Member States, comes into effect in Italy. It is a regulation, not a directive: it applies directly, without the need for national transposition.
Capsules and pods as packaging
For the coffee sector, the main novelty is legal: capsules and pods are formally classified as “packaging” for the first time, even if they still contain coffee residues at the time of disposal. Therefore, it will not be necessary to empty them: on this point, the practice already widespread in many municipalities, where capsules and pods are already disposed of with their contents, now finds an explicit regulatory basis.
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What changes
What concretely changes is the communication to the citizen. Today, disposal instructions on capsules and pods are often inconsistent from producer to producer and from municipality to municipality. From August 12, environmental labeling becomes harmonized at the European level, with uniform and recognizable messages: aluminum or plastic capsules in the collection indicated by the producer and their municipality, as already happens for cans; certified compostable pods and capsules in the organic waste, where provided; any separable components — such as tabs or wrappers — identified individually with their own material code and specific disposal instructions, a step that is often missing on labels today. Collection rules in the territory remain linked to the provisions of the municipality or service manager, who has the final say.
The system is based on shared responsibility at three levels. Producing companies will have to design capsules and pods that are increasingly recyclable and define the material identification coding. CONAI, the national packaging consortium, works with companies to make collection and recovery flows effectively functional. The consumer remains responsible for correct disposal, following the instructions on the label.
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