PPWR
The regulation has been in force since 11 February 2025 and applies from 12 August 2026. Most of what it will cost you arrives later — and the operational decisions that determine that cost have to be made long before the deadline. This page is the operator’s read, not a legal commentary.
What changes now
Applies 12 Aug 2026
Regulation (EU) 2025/40 entered into force on 11 February 2025 and applies from 12 August 2026 (Art. 71). It is a regulation, not a directive, so it takes effect directly in every Member State — there is no national transposition to wait for.
Applies 12 Aug 2026
The manufacturer draws up a written EU declaration of conformity for each packaging type — not for each physical item — and keeps it with the technical documentation (Art. 39, Annex VII). For reusable packaging both have to be kept for ten years from placing on the market (Art. 15(3)(b)). For a reuse pool that means a file per type, and somebody has to own it.
Applies 12 Aug 2026
From 12 August 2026, food-contact packaging may not be placed on the market if it contains PFAS at or above the limits in Art. 5(5) — 25 ppb for any single PFAS, 250 ppb for the sum, 50 ppm including polymeric PFAS. The test is the concentration present, not whether the PFAS were added on purpose.
Later
The harmonised material-composition label becomes mandatory from 12 August 2028, or 24 months after the implementing acts under Art. 12(6) or (7) enter into force, whichever is the latest — so it can land later than 2028. Transport packaging is excluded — as is packaging in a deposit and return system — but e-commerce packaging is not.
The date that decides your operating model
From 1 January 2030, Art. 29(1) sets a binding overall reuse target of at least 40% for specified transport packaging. Three flows go further and have no percentage at all: packaging moved between an operator’s own sites, packaging moved with linked or partner enterprises (Art. 29(2)), and deliveries to another economic operator within the same Member State (Art. 29(3)) all have to be reusable within a reuse system. Art. 29(4) carves out dangerous goods, cardboard boxes, packaging custom-designed for large-scale machinery, equipment and commodities, and flexible formats in direct contact with food or feed; Commission Delegated Decision (EU) 2026/429 exempts pallet wrappings and straps from the full-reuse requirement, though they still count towards the 40%. For 2040, Art. 29(1) says operators shall endeavour to reach 70% — an endeavour obligation, not a binding target. By 1 January 2034 the Commission reviews how the 2030 targets have worked and evaluates whether the 2040 ones are feasible (Art. 29(19)).
Read Art. 29(3) again if you move food between businesses.
A supplier delivering into a hospital kitchen, a staff restaurant or a school canteen in the same country is delivering to another economic operator within the same Member State — so the obligation is full reuse, not 40%. That is a different planning problem, and it is the one we are built for.
Who this covers, and from what sizeRead it precisely, because the summaries circulating are wrong in both directions. “40% by 2030” is the overall figure and not the whole of Article 29. “PPWR means 100% reuse” is equally wrong — the full requirement applies to specific flows, not to everything you ship.
What makes 2030 a 2027 problem is physical. Reuse capacity is not software — it is wash lines, containers and return routes. In many of the regions we have looked at, suitable wash capacity has to be secured well before it is needed. A container pool at 2030 volumes is a working-capital decision, not a procurement one. Return routes only pay when they are dense enough, and density takes time to build.
Food contact adds a second rulebook. Hygiene and food-contact requirements — ISO 22000 / DIN 10522, HACCP and the food-contact materials rules — sit alongside PPWR and are not replaced by it. A reuse system for food has to satisfy both.
Readiness
If you can answer all six with a source and a date, you are further along than most. If you cannot answer the first one, start there — everything else depends on it.
Sources and verification. Regulation (EU) 2025/40 on packaging and packaging waste (OJ L, 2025/40, 22.1.2025), read in the authentic English text on EUR-Lex. Every article reference on this page was checked against that text on 2 August 2026: entry into force 11 February 2025 and application from 12 August 2026 (Art. 71 — the Regulation ends at Art. 71; an earlier version of this page wrongly cited Art. 78); PFAS limits for food-contact packaging (Art. 5(5)); harmonised labelling (Art. 12(1)); EU declaration of conformity (Art. 39 and Annex VII, point 4) with the ten-year retention period for reusable packaging (Art. 15(3)(b)); transport-packaging reuse targets and the full-reuse flows (Art. 29(1) to (4)). The pallet-wrapping exemption is Commission Delegated Decision (EU) 2026/429 of 25 February 2026. Individual provisions carry their own dates, and Member States may keep certain national restrictions until 1 January 2030 (Art. 70(4)). This page is general information about operational consequences and is not legal advice — for a compliance opinion, ask your counsel.
The regulation sets the direction. What it costs you depends on your volumes, your distances and your partners.