Digital Environmental Label for cosmetics

The innovation, launched by Junker app, allows manufacturers to instantly adapt to the obligation of environmental labeling. Just scan the barcode with your smartphone to access the product sheet and consult the geolocated disposal information for each Italian municipality.
There are only a few months left to the D-Day of environmental labeling: from January 1, 2022, the obligation, introduced by Legislative Decree no. 116/2020, to include all information on the packaging to facilitate the collection, reuse, recovery and recycling of packaging. To help operators fully grasp this challenge, Junker, the only app for nationally validated and geolocated separate waste collection, has developed a highly innovative alternative to paper labels. It is called EAD, an acronym for Digital Environmental Label, and is the first solution designed to give a digital extension to the disposal and sustainability information printed on packaging.

HOW DOES IT WORK The Digital Environmental Label uses an element already present on all labels: the barcode. Its real asset is constituted by the exclusive Junker app database, which contains all the information on materials and disposal rules for over one and a half million consumer products. Therefore, producers only have to insert a short sentence on their packaging, which invites them to download Junker for free and use it to read the product barcode. With a simple blip, consumers will then be able to view on their smartphone, in real time, the digital environmental label of the packaging they have in their hands.

WHAT EAD CONTAINS This solution allows you to overcome the physical limits of a paper label, going far beyond the requirements set by the law and the CONAI guidelines. Inside the product sheet, citizens will find the packaging components and the materials of each component, including abbreviations and legend. Not only that: using the GPS of smartphones, Junker's digital label is also able to provide geolocated transfer information for each Italian municipality. And it allows producers to optionally insert additional information content to enhance their corporate commitment on the sustainability front.

WHY CHOOSE A DIGITAL LABEL Labeling in the cosmetic sector has specificities. For some years now, in fact, the legislation has intervened expanding the product information that must necessarily be included on the packaging. Today, however, the increased sensitivity of consumers to environmental issues and the new legislation on environmental labeling have made packaging the central element for communicating the real sustainability of a food, a wine or a drink. To adapt to the standard, operators must solve non-trivial technical difficulties, deriving from the complexity and size (often small) of cosmetic packaging, as well as from the large number of mandatory information.

"Digital - underlines Noemi De Santis, communication manager of Junker app - luckily comes to our aid. Fully cleared of customs and, indeed, supported by the EU, MITE and CONAI, represents a smart solution and offers many advantages in more than one 'paper label ". It is in fact cheaper, does not take up space on the packaging, allows for the geolocation of disposal information, can be updated instantly and available in multiple languages. "Junker's EAD - continues De Santis - was also designed to be truly usable by all categories of consumers. The system is so intuitive and immediate that even digital non-natives, such as the elderly, now accustomed to smartphones, immediately come to consider it natural".

“Of course it is important to be sure of the contents provided: you need to choose specialized and experienced information sources. Separate collection is a complex topic. And, moreover, there are no general rules, because the provisions vary from municipality to municipality. To offer reliable and up-to-date disposal indications, it is therefore necessary to rely on stable communication channels ".

Press office: Ambra Murè, ufficiostampa@junkerapp.it