EU PPWR
The EU regulation that replaces the packaging directive with directly applicable rules on recyclability, recycled content, reuse and labelling.
Regulation (EU) 2025/40 applies from 12 August 2026. Because it is a regulation rather than a directive, it applies directly in every member state without national transposition, which removes much of the divergence that made the previous regime hard to manage. National EPR schemes and fee collection remain national, so PPWR sits on top of country obligations rather than replacing them.
The substantive requirements are staged. Design-for-recycling criteria, recycled content minimums for plastic packaging, empty space limits for grouped and e-commerce packaging, reuse targets for defined formats, and harmonised labelling each have their own application date, with the heaviest design obligations landing at the start of the 2030s.
The operational consequence is that packaging specifications, not just compliance filings, are now regulated. Companies that hold packaging data only in finance or procurement systems generally cannot answer PPWR questions, because the answers depend on component-level material composition.
Designing packaging so it can be collected, sorted and reprocessed at scale, and under PPWR a legal requirement graded from A to E.
The share of a packaging component made from material recovered after consumer use, regulated by minimum targets under PPWR and taxed in the UK.
The PPWR limit on void space in grouped, transport and e-commerce packaging, measured as a proportion of the packaging volume.
The PPWR requirement for standardised material and disposal labelling on packaging and on waste receptacles across the EU.
Packgine resolves your packaging to component level and applies the rules of every market you sell into.