Packaging
Your packaging is regulated separately from your product
The Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation applies to the polybag, the carton, the hangtag, the tissue and the mailer. It has its own rules on recyclability, recycled content, labelling and reuse, and its own fees.
Most brands cannot currently answer the first question it asks: what exactly do you place on the EU market, in what material, and who is registered as the producer of it?
The dates
What lands when
Now
PPWR is in force as a regulation, which means it applies directly in every member state without national transposition. Obligations phase in rather than landing at once.
August 2026
The first substantive obligations begin to bite, including labelling rules on material composition and sorting instructions, and restrictions on certain single-use formats.
2030
Recyclability at scale, recycled content minimums for plastic packaging, and reuse targets for transport and e-commerce packaging.
Alongside all of it
Extended Producer Responsibility registration and eco-modulated fees, already live in most member states and priced on how recyclable your packaging actually is.
Where it goes wrong
Three problems every brand hits
Packaging is bought, not designed
For most fashion and consumer brands the polybag, carton, hangtag, ribbon and mailer are specified by suppliers or a 3PL. Nobody in the business holds a full material specification, which is exactly what the regulation now asks for.
The producer is often not who you think
Who registers for Extended Producer Responsibility depends on who first places the packaging on the market in each country. Marketplace sales, dropship and EU fulfilment partners all move that line, and contracts rarely say where it sits.
Two records, one product
ESPR asks for a product passport. PPWR asks for packaging data and sorting information. Built separately they contradict each other. Built together they share a single identifier and one source of truth.
What you get
Deliverables
Packaging inventory and material specification
Every packaging component you place on the market, by format, material, weight and market, so recyclability and fee exposure can actually be calculated.
Producer responsibility mapping
Who registers, in which country, for which format, across your own channels, wholesale, marketplaces and fulfilment partners, and what your contracts need to say.
Labelling and sorting readiness
Material composition and disposal marking against the harmonised rules, checked before artwork is committed to a print run.
One data specification
Packaging data structured so it sits inside the same passport record as the product, rather than in a parallel spreadsheet nobody maintains.
Who we work with
Fashion and lifestyle brands shipping into the EU, direct or through wholesale.
Retailers and marketplaces that fulfil orders on behalf of third-party sellers.
Manufacturers and packaging suppliers being asked for material data by their customers.
Operations and logistics teams specifying mailers, cartons and transport packaging.
Find out what your packaging exposes you to
The free assessment tells you whether your products can still be sold in Europe after 2027 — which rules apply, where your evidence gaps are, and what to fix first.
Free. 90 minutes of your team's time. Written findings back within 10 working days.