2025
11 Feb 2025
Regulation enters into force
18-month transition begins.
EU Packaging & Packaging Waste Regulation
Regulation (EU) 2025/40
·
Regulatory intelligence for packaging
Understand.
Check.
Comply.
Reg. (EU) 2025/40 · 8 requirement families · 2026 → 2040
PPWR.how tracks every requirement, deadline and implementing act of the EU packaging regulation — and maps them onto the packaging you actually ship.
Start here
What PPWR is, and whether it applies to you.
If you have landed here because someone forwarded you a deadline, this is the 200-word version.
It replaced a directive with a regulation
Until August 2026, EU packaging law was Directive 94/62/EC. A directive is transposed by each Member State separately, which is why a pack could be legal in France and non-compliant in Germany. PPWR is a regulation — one text, directly applicable in all 27 markets, with no national version to check first.
It binds more than packaging manufacturers
Brand owners, importers, distributors, fulfilment service providers and online marketplaces each carry their own duties. If you place a packaged product on the EU market you are in scope, even if you never designed the packaging and never touched it.
It is a market-access rule, not a fine
The requirements are conditions for placing packaging on the market. Packaging that misses them cannot legally be sold in the EU. That is a different kind of risk from a penalty — it stops the shipment, not the accounts.
Do you place packaged goods on the EU market?
Manufacturer, brand owner, importer or distributor
In scope now
Does it ship in its own box?
E-commerce, grouped or transport packaging
Art. 10 · 24
Is any of it in contact with food?
Including grease-resistant paper and board
Art. 5(5) live
Will the pack still be in market in 2030?
Most packaging specified today will be
Plan now
The short version
Three of the eight requirement families are already in force. The expensive ones land on 1 January 2030 — which, counted backwards through qualification and artwork cycles, is a decision you are taking this year.
How the site works
Three moves, in order.
Most people arrive with one specific packaging question. The site is built to answer it, then take you one step further than an article can.
UnderstandStep 01
Read the requirement, not a summary of a summary.
Plain-language explanations tied to the article they come from, with the legal text one click away.
CheckStep 02
Test your own packaging against the rules.
Enter material, format and market. Get the requirements that apply to it, with the dates they bite.
SolveStep 03
Close the gap with testing or a different pack.
Verification methods, compliant material routes and packaging formats — quoted against your spec.
Requirements · Art. 5–29
Eight requirement families decide almost everything.
Six of the eight land on the packaging itself — you can point at them. The other two, reuse systems and the technical file, are obligations on how you operate.
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2
3
4
5
6
4Art. 12Labelling — material code and digital carrier
5Art. 24Empty space inside the pack, ≤50%
6Art. 5(5)PFAS in the food-contact coating
Art. 10Minimisation — total material used1
Art. 6Recyclability grade A / B / C2
Art. 7Recycled content in the board itself3
Fig. 01 — six of the eight land on the pack itself
PAP 21 and the QR carrier are real marks; grades and sorting icons do not exist yet
Art. 6Recyclability
Designed for recycling and graded A/B/C. Grade C is the floor from 2030.
2030
Art. 7Recycled content
Minimum post-consumer content in plastic packaging, verifiable per plant.
2030
Art. 10Minimisation
Weight, volume and layers cut to the minimum necessary, argued in writing.
In force
Art. 24Empty space ratio
Grouped, transport and e-commerce packaging capped at 50% empty space.
2030
Art. 12Labelling
Harmonised material and sorting labels across all 27 markets.
2028
Art. 5PFAS & substances
Food-contact packaging effectively PFAS-free; heavy metals capped.
In force
Art. 29Reuse & refill
Binding sector targets, including transport packaging within the EU.
2030
Art. 11 · 38Documentation
Technical file and EU declaration of conformity before market placement.
In force
Compliance calendar
PPWR arrives in stages. The expensive ones are already visible.
Packaging decisions taken this year are already constrained by 2030.
You are here2026
12 Aug 2026
PPWR applies
Minimisation, substances of concern, documentation and PFAS duties bite.
2028
12 Aug 2028
Harmonised labelling
A full artwork re-issue across every SKU.
2030
1 Jan 2030
The big one
Recyclability grade C · recycled content · empty space ≤50% · reuse targets.
2035
1 Jan 2035
Recycled at scale
Design for recycling stops being sufficient.
2038
1 Jan 2038
Grade B becomes the floor
80% recyclable by weight, minimum.
2040
1 Jan 2040
Targets step up
Up to 65% PCR; 70% transport packaging reuse.
Regulatory evidence
Nothing here is asserted. Everything is cited.
Compliance decisions get audited. Every requirement, figure and date carries the same evidence block — so you can hand it to a lawyer, a customer or an authority as it stands.
EUR-Lex32025R0040Consolidated
“All packaging shall be recyclable. Packaging shall be considered recyclable where it complies with the design for recycling criteria … and, from 1 January 2035, where it is recycled at scale.”
Regulation (EU) 2025/40 — Article 6(1), (4)
- Legal basis
- Art. 6 + Annex II
- Effective date
- 2030-01-01
- In force since
- 2025-02-11
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-16
Five parts, each one there because someone eventually asks for it
- The article, quoted — not paraphrased.
- Legal basis — the article and annex that create the obligation.
- Effective date, separate from entry into force — the most common error in PPWR coverage, and one we never make.
- Last reviewed — the date a human checked it against the consolidated text.
- Change history — so you can see what moved since you last quoted it.
Tools
Reading is not compliance. Check the pack.
Four fields is usually enough to narrow eight requirement families down to the three that actually decide your next purchase order.
Result — sample output
3 of 8 families apply
Art. 7
Recycled content35% PCR for other plastic packaging
2030
Art. 6
RecyclabilityLDPE mono-material — provisional grade B
Grade B
Art. 12
LabellingMaterial composition label + digital carrier
2028
Regulatory intelligence
The regulation is written. The detail is still being decided.
Three of the acts that decide what compliance actually means have not been adopted yet. That is the most important thing on this page.
In force
11 Feb 2025 Regulation (EU) 2025/40 — applies since 12 August 2026 EUR-LexAdopted ↗ Due by
1 Jan 2028 Delegated act on design-for-recycling criteria and grading European CommissionNot yet adoptedArt. 6 ↗ Applies
12 Aug 2028 Implementing act on harmonised labelling pictograms European CommissionNot yet adoptedArt. 12 ↗
11 Feb 2025 Regulation (EU) 2025/40 — applies since 12 August 2026 EUR-LexAdopted ↗ Due by
1 Jan 2028 Delegated act on design-for-recycling criteria and grading European CommissionNot yet adoptedArt. 6 ↗ Applies
12 Aug 2028 Implementing act on harmonised labelling pictograms European CommissionNot yet adoptedArt. 12 ↗
Testing & verification
Most requirements end in a lab report.
Knowing the rule is not evidence. These are the methods authorities and customers ask for, and the standards behind them.
PFAS in food-contact packaging
Total fluorine screening, then targeted LC-MS/MS.
Art. 5(5)
Recycled content verification
Chain-of-custody audit plus analytical confirmation.
EN 15343
Recyclability assessment
Design-for-recycling scoring and sortability trials.
Art. 6 · Annex II
Next step
Not sure where your packaging stands?
Send one specification. You get back the requirements that apply, the dates they apply from, the evidence you will need — and, if the pack cannot get there, the formats that can.