Packaging becomes compliance-relevant

Millions of tonnes of packaging waste are generated in the EU every year – and the volume continues to grow. A new EU regulation therefore aims to reduce packaging waste, improve recyclability, and strengthen the circular economy. Regulation (EU) 2025/40 on packaging and packaging waste (the “Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation”, or PPWR) replaces the Packaging Directive, which had been in force since 1994. Its scope is deliberately broad and covers all types of packaging, from sales and grouped packaging to transport packaging – regardless of the packaging material or the sector and size of the company concerned. The key question is therefore not whether a company is affected, but in which role and to what extent.

In many respects, the PPWR has the characteristics of a product compliance regulation, while also having a significant impact on supply chain compliance. In future, companies will need detailed, verifiable information on packaging types, material compositions, and substances. They must also be able to provide information on recycled content – the ratio of recycled to new materials in packaging – and on general recyclability. This includes the corresponding evidence throughout the supply chain. Packaging is therefore developing into a distinct field of compliance with links to procurement, product development, quality, legal affairs, and risk management.

The PPWR distinguishes between several economic operators, each with its own obligations, including manufacturers, producers, importers, distributors, and suppliers. Differentiating between these roles is not always straightforward.

The manufacturer (German: Erzeuger), for example, is responsible for the conformity assessment, technical documentation, and EU declaration of conformity. This means that the manufacturer assesses the packaging itself and provides evidence that it meets all applicable PPWR requirements.

The producer (German: Hersteller), by contrast, is the party that makes packaging available on the market in a particular EU Member State for the first time. In particular, the producer is responsible for registering with the national extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes and paying the fees used to finance recycling and waste disposal.

In practice, these roles are often confused or used interchangeably, particularly as a company may perform several roles at the same time. To give another example: if a company acting as a distributor or retailer influences the specifications of packaging, it becomes the manufacturer of that packaging and assumes the associated obligations.

“The allocation of roles is currently a key area of uncertainty under the PPWR,” says Manuel Zimmermann, Head of Supply Chain Compliance & ESG Steering at Funk. “Many companies are not yet able to reliably assess whether they meet certain criteria that would qualify them as manufacturers, which can have a significant impact on the extent of their obligations. Some uncertainty also remains, particularly regarding packaging branding and the distinction between packaging materials and finished packaging.” The European Commission guidelines published in June 2026 clarify some questions of interpretation, but certain areas remain open to interpretation.

The various roles give rise to two sets of obligations that are particularly complex to implement. Manufacturers must carry out a conformity assessment for each type of packaging, compile technical documentation, and issue an EU declaration of conformity in accordance with Annex VIII of the regulation. In some cases, they must also comply with extensive labelling requirements.

Producers – in this context, those placing packaging on the market for the first time in the relevant EU Member state – must register with the national EPR registers in every country in which they make packaging available and comply with the applicable reporting and fee obligations. The EPR schemes finance the costs of collection, sorting, and recycling.

Applicability assessments, conformity assessments, and EPR reporting all require a reliable data basis. Complete information is needed for each packaging type and component, ranging from material, weight, and recycled content to test reports and supplier documentation. This data is rarely held centrally; it is typically spread across ERP, product information management (PIM) and procurement systems, as well as held by the suppliers themselves.

“The workload arises less from individual provisions of the regulation than from organising the data,” says Dr Alexander Skorna, Managing Director of Funk Consulting. “Companies need to catalogue their packaging portfolio, close data gaps, and systematically involve their suppliers. Software can support many of these steps. However, it is essential to consider processes and the use of tools together from the outset in order to avoid duplicating data maintenance work.”

The PPWR also changes the risk profile underlying existing insurance policies. We have summarised the most important changes that may affect your company: