Over­view and sum­ma­ry of the PPWR Regu­la­ti­on

Over­view and sum­ma­ry of the PPWR Regu­la­ti­on

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What is the PPWR?

The abbre­via­ti­on PPWR stands for “Pack­a­ging and Pack­a­ging Waste Regu­la­ti­on”. It is a Euro­pean regu­la­ti­on that was adopted by a lar­ge majo­ri­ty in the EU Par­lia­ment at the end of April 2024, just a few weeks befo­re the Euro­pean elec­tions.

The PPWR aims to redu­ce the envi­ron­men­tal impact of pack­a­ging within the Euro­pean Uni­on. To this end, mate­ri­al con­sump­ti­on and pack­a­ging was­te are to be redu­ced and recy­cling loops pro­mo­ted. The regu­la­ti­on the­r­e­fo­re con­ta­ins requi­re­ments rela­ting to pack­a­ging, such as its recy­cla­bi­li­ty, com­po­si­ti­on and cor­re­spon­ding label­ling.

Spe­cial fea­tures of a Euro­pean regu­la­ti­on

In con­trast to Euro­pean direc­ti­ves, Euro­pean regu­la­ti­ons are cha­rac­te­ri­sed by a spe­cial fea­ture: They beco­me direct­ly appli­ca­ble law. Regu­la­ti­ons do not have to be imple­men­ted by natio­nal legis­la­tors or adapt­ed to natio­nal par­ti­cu­la­ri­ties. Howe­ver, many regu­la­ti­ons in the PPWR only lay down prin­ci­ples. The­se will only be fil­led with con­cre­te con­tent and requi­re­ments by fur­ther Euro­pean acts that have yet to be adopted.

Who does the PPWR app­ly to?

The PPWR Regu­la­ti­on covers all types of pack­a­ging and pack­a­ging was­te. In future, it will app­ly to all com­pa­nies based in the EU and to com­pa­nies that import pack­a­ging into the EU.

How and when does the regu­la­ti­on come into force?

The cur­rent sta­tus (August 2024)

The Regu­la­ti­on is curr­ent­ly being trans­la­ted into the respec­ti­ve offi­ci­al lan­guages. As soon as this pro­cess is com­ple­te, the Regu­la­ti­on will be sub­mit­ted to the new­ly elec­ted EU Par­lia­ment for a final vote. The new Par­lia­ment is not bound by the decis­i­on of the Par­lia­ment of the pre­vious ses­si­on and can still request amend­ments. Howe­ver, such a pro­ce­du­re would be very unu­su­al and is not expec­ted.

The final vote in the EU Par­lia­ment is expec­ted to take place in autumn 2024. The regu­la­ti­on will then enter into force 18 months later (pro­ba­b­ly in spring 2026) and will have direct effect in the mem­ber sta­tes.

Howe­ver, not every pro­vi­si­on of the PPWR must be com­pli­ed imme­dia­te­ly: In many cases, the respec­ti­ve artic­le of the PPWR con­ta­ins a sepa­ra­te date by which the regu­la­ti­ons must be ful­fil­led. Nevert­hel­ess, we recom­mend that you fami­lia­ri­se yours­elf with the new legal requi­re­ments at an ear­ly stage and initia­te pre­pa­ra­to­ry pro­ces­ses. We are hap­py to sup­port you here.

What are the con­se­quen­ces of non-com­pli­ance?

Pack­a­ging that does not com­ply with the requi­re­ments of the PPWR may no lon­ger be pla­ced on the mar­ket within the EU in future. Inf­rin­ge­ments may result in fines and loss of sales as well as pos­si­ble dama­ge to the company’s image. A pre­cise cata­lo­gue of fines and detail­ed regu­la­ti­ons are still being for­mu­la­ted.

What regu­la­ti­ons does the PPWR con­tain?

Below we pro­vi­de an over­view of the key new requi­re­ments under the PPWR:

This includes, for exam­p­le, the topic of so-cal­led “per­p­etui­ty che­mi­cals” (PFAS) and their limi­ta­ti­on in food pack­a­ging.

The PPWR sti­pu­la­tes that all pack­a­ging pla­ced on the mar­ket must be recy­clable from 2030. Mini­mum requi­re­ments (so-cal­led per­for­mance levels for recy­cla­bi­li­ty) are defi­ned for this pur­po­se.

From 2030, the PPWR requi­res a mini­mum pro­por­ti­on of recy­c­la­te for pla­s­tic pack­a­ging, which will increase again in 2040.

From 2030, only pack­a­ging that has been redu­ced to the requi­red mini­mum may be pla­ced on the mar­ket (ban on dou­ble walls, fal­se bot­toms, unneces­sa­ry lay­ers, so-cal­led “cheat pack­a­ging”, etc.).

The PPWR intro­du­ces man­da­to­ry, stan­dar­di­sed label­ling of pack­a­ging as well as various infor­ma­ti­on obli­ga­ti­ons. The spe­ci­fic details will be deter­mi­ned in fur­ther imple­men­ting acts. Howe­ver, a tran­si­tio­nal peri­od for the sale of unla­bel­led pack­a­ging is plan­ned in any case.

From 2030, the emp­ty space of cer­tain trans­port, ship­ping and secon­da­ry pack­a­ging may not exceed 50% of the volu­me, wher­eby emp­ty space is defi­ned as the space of the pack­a­ging that is fil­led with fil­ling mate­ri­al (bubble wrap, paper, foam, etc.).

The PPWR con­ta­ins a ban on the pack­a­ging for­mats lis­ted in Annex V. The­se include, for exam­p­le, dis­posable con­tai­ners in the cate­ring and accom­mo­da­ti­on sec­tor (HORECA), e.g: Bot­t­les for sham­poo, body lotion, etc. and in the food sec­tor e.g. for fruit, vege­ta­bles, sau­ces.

An obli­ga­ti­on is intro­du­ced for retail­ers to sub­mit a self-decla­ra­ti­on (decla­ra­ti­on of con­for­mi­ty) to ful­fil the pack­a­ging regu­la­ti­ons. This is inten­ded to ensu­re that only pack­a­ging that ful­fils the requi­re­ments of the PPWR is pla­ced on the mar­ket.

Each mem­ber sta­te is requi­red to redu­ce the amount of pack­a­ging was­te gene­ra­ted per capi­ta. The reduc­tion is to be 5 % by 2030, 10 % by 2035 and 15 % by 2040.

The PPWR intro­du­ces an obli­ga­ti­on to appoint an aut­ho­ri­sed repre­sen­ta­ti­ve in each mem­ber sta­te in which the com­pa­ny is not based but sells goods the­re. This aut­ho­ri­sed repre­sen­ta­ti­ve ser­ves as a repre­sen­ta­ti­ve and local cont­act for the aut­ho­ri­ties in rela­ti­on to the obli­ga­ti­ons ari­sing from the PPWR.

In addi­ti­on, mea­su­res are pre­scri­bed to pro­mo­te the use of reusable pack­a­ging. The­se include incen­ti­ves for manu­fac­tu­r­ers and retail­ers to set up and use reusable sys­tems. From 2030, for exam­p­le, 40% of trans­port pack­a­ging should be reusable.

PPWR imple­men­ta­ti­on: We are here for you!

Many com­pa­nies are unsu­re about what legal requi­re­ments they will face in future with the intro­duc­tion of the PPWR and how they can imple­ment them. We are hap­py to sup­port you at an ear­ly stage with our rele­vant ser­vices and keep you up to date:

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