Gruppo Shopping Bags operates as a specialisation group within Assografici – the Italian Association of Printing and Paper Converting Industry – bringing together and representing about 10 paper shopper manufacturers, or around 80% of the sector’s entire domestic production.

Originally established in 2002, the Group underwent a profound transformation in 2007, relaunching its operating activities and identifying effective strategies for aggregation and for directing common policies towards the association’s primary aims, thus acquiring greater visibility.

In particular, having acknowledged how important it was (and still is) to define the general conditions of sale for shopping bags in Italy, in an attempt to minimise the dispute about supplies, the Group drew up the Conditions of sale of shopping bags (2009).
With the support of Gruppo Shopping Bags, in 2008 INNOVHUB (the former Experimental station for paper, cardboard and pulp) and the Italian Composting Consortium carried out experiments on behalf of Comieco (the National Consortium for the Recovery and Recycling of Cellulose-based Packaging) in order to ensure biodegradability and verify the compostability of the paper shopping bags (about one billion) produced in Italy every year by automatic machines.

The confirmation of biodegradability and experimental verification of the compostability (according to EN 13432-2000) of paper shopping bags produced in Italy could in the future actually make paper and cardboard recycling operations even more effective.
Finally, paper shoppers could be used as fertilisers: indeed, the tests mentioned here showed that they could be turned into an excellent compost.

Gruppo Shopping Bags is strongly focused on the issue of the environmentally friendly goods transport, in accordance with the provisions of Law no. 689 of 24 November 1981.
To ensure the durability of paper shopping bags, in 2012 the Group developed the SHOPPING BAG SICURO trademark (see the relevant Regulations in the DOCUMENTS Area).

Milco Partipilo is the current Chairman of Gruppo Shopping Bags.