After an intensive legislative process, during which the EU Council approved new rules to reduce waste and promote the reuse of packaging in the EU, the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation was published in the EU Official Journal on January 22, 2025, thus concluding the legislative process. The regulation will enter into force twenty days after its publication.

The new rules will significantly contribute to reducing packaging waste through binding reuse targets, restrictions on certain types of single-use packaging, and requirements for minimizing packaging by economic operators. The regulation covers the entire life cycle of packaging.

Among the key measures and requirements of the regulation, which is binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all EU member states, are:

• Packaging recyclability – Packaging placed on the market must be at least 70% recyclable. Recyclability will be classified into different grades: A (95% or more), B (80% or more), and C (70% or more).

• Ban on certain types of single-use plastic packaging – The ban applies to pre-packaged fruit and vegetables weighing less than 1.5 kg, food and drinks served and consumed in hotels, bars, and restaurants (such as single-serving portions of sauces, condiments, coffee cream, and sugar), as well as small single-use cosmetic and toiletry products in accommodations (e.g., mini bottles of shampoo or body lotion).

• Reuse targets – Most types of commonly used transport packaging for shipments within a member state must be 100% reusable.

For consumer packaging of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, at least 10% of such products must be in reusable packaging.

• Refilling – final distributors with a sales area of more than 400 m² should allocate 10% of this space for refilling stations for both food and non-food products. Food and beverages that are not consumed on-site may be taken away in a personal container or a reusable package.

• Minimization of packaging – limiting the so-called empty space to a maximum of 50% in transport packaging, and to the minimum possible in consumer packaging. The empty space also includes the space filled with filling material.

• Labeling – harmonized labeling of packaging with material composition across the entire EU, which will be in line with labeling on waste collection containers.

• Reduction of total packaging waste per capita compared to 2018 – targets for preventing waste generation per capita must be separated from waste from commercial and industrial packaging.

Although the recycling rate in the EU has increased in recent years, the amount of packaging waste is growing faster than the amount of recycled waste. In 2022, the EU produced almost 186.5 kg of packaging waste per person, of which 36 kg was plastic packaging. This means that each day, we generate half a kilogram of packaging waste per person in the EU.

This regulation aims to contribute to the prevention of packaging waste, reducing waste generation, increasing circularity, and ultimately to a greener future.