The EU’s new Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) now apply across the EU.

The new rules are designed to make a major step towards reducing packaging waste and lowering compliance costs for the packaging industry. They will also make the waste value chain more sustainable, helping to reduce the Union’s dependence on imports of virgin materials, strengthening the market for secondary raw materials, and supporting the EU’s transition to a competitive circular economy and climate neutrality by 2050.

Replacing fragmented national requirements with a common set of EU rules that cover the entire packaging life cycle, the PPWR should result in efficiency gains, better conditions for investment and innovation and growth in circular packaging solutions.

A key measure entering into application today is a restriction on ‘forever chemicals’; per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in food-contact packaging. From now on, food-contact packaging containing PFAS above strict limits can no longer be placed on the EU market.

“The new Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation is an investment in Europe’s future: it will help reduce waste, increase recycling, make food-contact packaging safer for the consumers by limiting harmful substances such as PFAS, and reduce our dependence on virgin raw materials. These are essential steps towards a truly circular economy,” said Jessika Roswall, commissioner for environment, water resilience and a competitive circular economy.

From 2028, a harmonised labelling system for packaging will apply across the EU to facilitate waste sorting. From 2030 measures to reduce the generation of packaging waste, such as new limits on empty space, restrictions on certain single-use plastic packaging or reuse targets, will apply.

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