Regulation (EU) 2025/40: what changes in August 2026 and what changes in 2030

23 April 2026

At the end of March 2026, the European Commission published an official guidance document and an FAQ on Regulation (EU) 2025/40, the new regulatory framework on packaging and packaging waste. The timing is not accidental. Those clarifications come a few months before 12 August 2026, the date from which the regulation will start to apply generally, and they mark the shift from a debated and long-awaited reform to a phase that is finally operational. The text already entered into force on 11 February 2025, but it is between spring and summer 2026 that the PPWR (Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation) really starts to function, replacing the previous framework based on the EU Packaging Directive and introducing rules that are directly applicable in all Member States. This is an important step, because it aims to make rules more uniform across the Union and to reduce that regulatory fragmentation which, over the years, has created uncertainty, additional costs and even marked differences from one national market to another.

At the heart of the reform there is a simple fact: packaging is weighing more and more, in every sense. The regulation notes that, in the Union, a very significant share of plastic and paper is destined precisely for packaging, and that packaging waste represents an important part of total municipal waste. This is not only a technical update. Regulation (EU) 2025/40 changes the way Europe looks at packaging. For years, the debate focused mainly on waste, how to collect it, how to dispose of it, how to recycle it better. The new regulation shifts the point of observation much earlier, namely to the moment when packaging is conceived, designed, produced and placed on the market. From this perspective, packaging is no longer only a container destined to become waste, but an element that affects resource consumption, logistics, the quality of recycling, the clarity of information and, ultimately, the overall sustainability of a supply chain.

August 2026: what happens and what companies must do

Dal 12 agosto 2026 il Regolamento UE 2025/40 begins to apply generally. This does not mean that, from that day, all the most demanding obligations set out by the PPWR will take effect, many of which look to the following years and in particular to 2030. It does mean, however, that a new, single legal framework for the whole Union will start to operate, with immediate effects on the way companies must interpret packaging: no longer only as a technical or commercial element, but as an object regulated throughout its entire life cycle, from design to labelling, up to waste management.

The first change, in fact, is one of method. Under the PPWR, compliant packaging must be able to circulate on the European market within harmonised rules, and this reduces, at least in part, the national fragmentation that over the years has created uncertainty and additional costs for operators. For companies this means that, from August, the main reference will no longer be above all a constellation of national rules built around the old directive, but a directly applicable European regulation, to be understood and managed with greater attention.

From an operational standpoint, the first thing to do is to understand where, within the supply chain, the company is positioned. The regulation uses a series of precise definitions and assigns different responsibilities to manufacturers, importers, distributors, packaging suppliers and entities that place packaged products on the market. This is not a formal detail. The guidance published by the Commission in March 2026 insists precisely on the need to clarify roles, definitions and scope of application, because on these depend the type of obligations to consider and the level of responsibility of the economic operator.

The second check concerns the packaging portfolio. From August 2026 not all packs will already have to be redesigned, but companies will have to start reasoning in a more structured way around some questions that the PPWR makes central: is the packaging necessary in the form in which it has been conceived? Is it oversized? Does it contain avoidable empty space? Is it designed in a way that is consistent with future recyclability requirements? Does it use components, materials or combinations that could become critical in the new European framework? The regulation is intended precisely to prevent unnecessary packaging and to shift design towards solutions that are simpler, more efficient and easier to recover.

There is then a documentary issue that from August becomes much more important: traceability of information. The PPWR introduces sustainability and labelling requirements along the entire life cycle of packaging, and this will force many companies to organise technical data, material composition, functional characteristics and the information needed to demonstrate compliance more effectively. In other words, the new scenario requires less improvisation and more ability to reconstruct clearly how a package is made, with which materials, for which use and with which end-of-life prospects.

For many businesses the most concrete issue, at least in this first phase, will be precisely internal analysis. From August 2026 it is advisable to start with an orderly mapping exercise: which packaging do we use, in which markets, with which materials, with which suppliers, with which margins for modification, with which possible criticalities with respect to future European targets. It is not yet the time when everything will have to be changed, but it is certainly the time when it is necessary to understand what, in the coming years, will have to be corrected, reduced, rethought or better documented. This is a practical consequence of the fact that the regulation applies from 12 August 2026, while many more incisive requirements mature progressively.

Another point not to be underestimated is labelling. The regulation aims to make information on packaging clearer and more uniform, so as to facilitate collection, sorting, recycling and, where provided, reuse. Here too, August 2026 does not coincide with the simultaneous entry into force of all final solutions, but it marks the start of a path that companies would do well to prepare in advance, especially if they operate in different markets, with different materials or with complex packaging systems.

The same applies to materials and substances used. Among the qualifying points of the PPWR there is also attention to safety and to certain problematic substances, such as PFAS in food contact packaging. For companies this means that compliance checks will not be able to stop at the technical function of the packaging, but will have to include, increasingly seriously, the composition of materials and their alignment with the new European framework.

Towards 2030, the regulation’s real horizon

If August 2026 marks the start of the implementation phase, 2030 is the date that truly gives the measure of Regulation (EU) 2025/40. That is where some of the most important PPWR targets are concentrated, those that do not merely correct the existing system but try to redesign it. The European Commission states this clearly on its official pages: the new regulation is intended to reduce packaging waste, increase reuse, boost recycling and make packaging more sustainable throughout its entire life cycle.

The key point is that 2030 should not be read as a simply distant deadline. It should be read as an industrial horizon. By that date, packaging placed on the European market will have to meet much stricter criteria than today, and this means that companies will not be able to limit themselves to marginal or corrective interventions. They will have to think in advance about materials, packaging structure, labelling systems, recycled content, reuse logics and compatibility with a more demanding recovery chain. That is why 2030, in reality, starts much earlier.

One of the most relevant points concerns recyclability. The political objective recalled in the regulation is to make all packaging reusable or recyclable in an economically sustainable way by 2030, and the Commission presents this target as one of the pillars of the reform. Translated into practical terms, it means that packaging will no longer be assessed only for its ability to contain, protect or enhance a product. It will also have to be designed for what happens after use: collection, sorting, actual recycling, compatibility with real industrial processes and not only theoretical ones.

This changes many things. In past years, recyclability has often been treated as a stated or assumed quality. In the new European scenario it will instead have to become a real design feature, verifiable, integrated from the start. For many companies this will mean revisiting complex packaging, combinations of materials that are difficult to process, solutions that are effective in form but weak from an end-of-life perspective. And it will also mean facing a more uncomfortable but inevitable question: will the packaging that works well commercially today still work within the European rules that are taking shape?

A second key issue concerns recycled content, especially in plastics. The Commission places strong emphasis on this aspect, linking it to the need to reduce Europe’s dependence on imported fossil raw materials and to strengthen the market for secondary raw materials. This is an important step because it shifts the discussion from disposal alone to the industrial quality of the supply chain. It is no longer enough to think of packaging that, in the end, can be recovered. It is also necessary to think of packaging that helps build real demand for recycled materials, making the circular economy more credible at European scale.

Then there is the issue of reuse, which in 2030 will take on an increasingly visible weight. The regulation is also intended to increase the share of reusable packaging and to encourage, where possible, refill systems and models that are less dependent on single use. This is not an abstract message. It means that in several sectors the European market will be progressively pushed to distinguish more clearly between packaging that is truly necessary and packaging that exists mainly because of inertia, habit or commercial convenience. In this sense, the PPWR does not only set new technical requirements: it tries to redefine the very concept of efficient packaging.

In the same horizon lies the tightening on certain forms of single-use packaging considered avoidable. The Commission’s official pages and the public information materials accompanying the regulation make it clear that the Union wants to limit unnecessary packaging, reduce empty space and discourage certain single-use solutions where more rational alternatives exist. Here too, the point is not only to ban certain items or introduce new symbolic prohibitions. The point is to steer the market towards a different logic, where packaging is justified by its real function and not by the simple fact that it has always been done that way.

An important passage also concerns e-commerce. The Commission has clarified that online deliveries will have to reduce empty space in boxes, with the aim of limiting material waste and logistical inefficiencies. It is a very useful example because it clearly shows the nature of the regulation. The PPWR does not look only at packaging as future waste, but as an object that immediately affects transport, volumes, materials, supply chain organisation and overall resource use. For this reason too, 2030 will not be only an environmental check. It will be a real industrial check.

Finally, there is labelling, which in the new European scenario will have a less secondary role than it may seem. Part of the transformation envisaged by the regulation in fact depends on the possibility of making packaging information more readable, so as to help consumers and operators dispose of waste correctly, recognise materials, better understand reuse logics and reduce errors along the recovery chain. Circularity, after all, does not depend only on the right materials or the correct processes. It also depends on the clarity of the information that accompanies packaging.

For companies, therefore, 2030 is not simply the year in which certain European objectives will come more fully into play. It is the point towards which it is necessary to start designing already today. Those who produce, choose or use packaging will have to move with a longer-term vision: less unnecessary complexity, more attention to materials, more consistency between technical function and end of life, more ability to document and justify choices. This is, ultimately, the deeper meaning of the regulation: not only to impose new constraints, but to push European packaging towards a logic that is more readable, more restrained and more responsible.