Articles · 2026-09-16
What is PPWR? The EU Packaging Regulation 2025/40 explained
PPWR is Regulation (EU) 2025/40: one EU law for packaging design, documentation, labels and EPR, in force since February 2025, applying from 12 August 2026.
PPWR is the EU law that now governs packaging itself — how it is made, documented and labelled — and it sets the frame for EPR. Below are the short answers, with the sources we read.
What does PPWR stand for?
Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation — Regulation (EU) 2025/40. It replaces Directive 94/62/EC.
When does PPWR apply?
- In force since February 2025.
- Applies from 12 August 2026, in phases — some rules start later.
- Empty space: the 50 % maximum for grouped, transport and e-commerce packaging applies from 1 January 2030, or three years after the implementing act, whichever is later — the empty-space rule is Article 24.
Does PPWR need national law?
No. A regulation applies directly in all 27 member states. What stays national: the registers, the fees, the schemes and the penalties — each country sets its own penalties (Art. 68, national rules due by 12 February 2027).
Who does PPWR apply to?
All packaging placed on the EU market, whatever its material and whether it is household, commercial or industrial — and so to every business that makes, fills, imports or sells packaged goods, inside or outside the EU. Goods that only pass through the EU in transit, never released for free circulation, are outside it.
Who is the manufacturer?
The Commission's FAQ (2nd edition, August 2026) settles it by the packaging:
- Branded — the company whose name or trademark is on it.
- Unbranded, generic — normally the company that physically makes it.
- Custom-made and unbranded — the company that orders it and sets the specification.
One shipment can have several manufacturers. A shipping sticker is not branding.
What must a manufacturer have from 12 August 2026?
- An EU declaration of conformity and the technical documentation behind it.
- The documentation includes conceptual design, manufacturing drawings and the materials of components, and is kept 5 years for single-use packaging and 10 years for reusable packaging.
- It cannot be delegated, and no contract moves the responsibility.
- Traceability (Art. 15(5)): a type, batch or serial number — one component of the sales packaging is enough.
- Heavy metals: lead, cadmium, mercury and hexavalent chromium together at most 100 mg/kg.
- A supplier cannot refuse the information the manufacturer needs (Art. 16(1)).
What about stock made before 12 August 2026?
- Placed on the market before 12 August 2026 — it may stay on the market.
- Made but not yet placed by then — it need not be destroyed, remade or relabelled; the details may travel in an accompanying document.
Is PPWR the same as EPR?
No. PPWR is one EU law about the packaging; EPR is the national duty to register, report and pay. PPWR sets its frame — registration as a precondition (Art. 44), EPR (Art. 45) and producer responsibility organisations (Art. 46) — EPR is not PPWR and what is EPR for packaging.
What does PPWR ask of member states?
Less packaging waste per person than in 2018: at least 5 % by 2030, 10 % by 2035 and 15 % by 2040 (as summarised by the law firms Gleiss Lutz and Baker McKenzie).
What a spreadsheet cannot do here
The declaration has to match the documentation behind it, for five or ten years. A spreadsheet that is overwritten next month no longer shows what was true on the day the packaging shipped.
What Tarafex does
One row per component with its material, the weight frozen on the shipment line on the day it ships, the supplier's answer recorded with who gave it, and the recycled share on a weight basis. The declaration is drawn from that frozen copy. The country table holds the national side. Tarafex does not sign your declaration and files nothing with any authority.
Sources: European Commission (news, 11 August 2026); EUR-Lex summary of Regulation (EU) 2025/40; Commission PPWR FAQ, 2nd edition, August 2026. Checked 16 September 2026. This is information, not legal advice.