EU ministers are likely to approve the bloc's Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) in December, allowing for its entry into force early in 2025. This follows the European Parliament today signalling the end to its so-called corrigendum procedure.
No substantive changes to the legal text were made to the PPWR during the procedure. Martin Engelmann, director-general of German plastic packaging association IK, along with 20 German industry associations, had urged European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen to remove the "failed" reusable packaging requirements for industrial and commercial packaging.
The PPWR will oblige packaging reductions of 5pc by 2030, 10pc by 2035 and 15pc by 2040. The rules state all packaging placed on the EU market shall be recyclable. The legal text defines 'recyclability' as packaging's compatibility with waste management and processing using separate collection and sorting, recycling at scale and use of recycled materials to replace primary raw materials. The regulation specifies that end-of-waste materials used as fuels or to generate energy shall not be counted as recycled.
The commission originally proposed the regulation in November 2022. EU elections in June 2024 held up formal adoption. EU ministers still have to formally approve the legal text, which should take place on 16 December. That would allow entry into force early in 2025.
