EU Commission launches consultation on three legislative acts relating to the PPWR

2026-08-19 20:08

Due to the tight timeframe, the recycled content targets for plastic packaging could, according to Euwid, come into effect later than the regulation actually provides for.

According to the news service, the consultation period for three planned legislative acts – intended to supplement and clarify the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive (PPWR) – runs until 16 September 2026. These relate to provisions on the calculation and verification of the recycled plastic content in packaging, on imports of recycled plastics or products containing recycled plastics from countries outside the EU, and on sustainability criteria for plastic recycling technologies, as reported by Euwid. Dr Martin Engelmann, Chief Executive of the IK Industrievereinigung Kunststoffverpackungen, doubts whether these regulations can be finalised by 31 December 2026, as envisaged in the PPWR timetable, meaning that the start of the application of the minimum requirements for recycled plastic content could also be delayed. According to Article 7 of the EU Regulation, the minimum content requirements are to apply from 1 January 2030 or three years after the entry into force of the implementing act governing their calculation and verification. The decisive factor here is “whichever of these dates is later”. Euwid quotes from a post by Engelmann on LinkedIn, in which he highlighted significant changes to the PPWR via the legal acts in Article 7(8), (9) and (10) during the trilogue negotiations between the European Parliament and the Council. These are now “incomplete and, in some cases, contradictory”. According to Engelmann, developing a workable and non-discriminatory legal framework from this poses a considerable challenge. He expects the issue to take at least a year to resolve, meaning that the start date for the recycling targets will be postponed by at least several months.

Sources:

Euwid Recycling und Entsorgung (18.8.2026)

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