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<nav class="article-breadcrumb"><a href="https://www.amball.com/magazine">Magazine</a><span class="article-breadcrumb__sep">/</span><a href="https://www.amball.com/glossary">Glossary</a><span class="article-breadcrumb__sep">/</span><span class="article-breadcrumb__current">PPWR (EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation)</span></nav> <h1 class="article-h1">PPWR (EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation)</h1> <p class="article-byline"><span class="cluster-badge">Licensing Manufacturing Compliance</span> &middot; Updated September 22, 2026</p> <div class="article-intro"><p>PPWR (Regulation (EU) 2025/40) is the EU's Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, setting recyclability, recycled-content, and reporting rules for all packaging placed on the EU market, including merchandise items like hang tags, polybags, and shipping cartons.</p></div> <ul><li>PPWR (Regulation (EU) 2025/40) is the EU&rsquo;s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, replacing Directive 94/62/EC, with most obligations applying from 12 August 2026.</li><li>It covers merchandise packaging directly: hang tags, safety pins, polybags, shipping cartons, and garment hangers sold with the product.</li><li>Core requirements include recyclability by 2030, minimum recycled content, PFAS restrictions, and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) registration and reporting.</li></ul><p>PPWR is Regulation (EU) 2025/40, the EU&rsquo;s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, adopted in December 2024 and published in February 2025. It replaces the older Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive (94/62/EC) and applies to all packaging placed on the EU market, regardless of material or whether it was produced inside or outside the Union. Most obligations apply from 12 August 2026, after an 18-month transition period.</p><h2>What Counts as Packaging Under PPWR</h2><p>The regulation defines packaging broadly: anything used to contain, protect, handle, deliver, or present a product. For merchandise specifically, that includes hang tags and the safety pins attaching them, polybags, shipping cartons and mailers, protective packaging, and garment hangers when sold together with the item (a hanger sold separately does not count). A club or brand ordering licensed apparel or accessories needs its supplier to treat all of this as regulated packaging, not just the outer shipping box.</p><h2>Key Requirements and Deadlines</h2><p>PPWR sets a 2030 target for all packaging placed on the EU market to be recyclable or reusable, alongside minimum recycled-content targets, restrictions on PFAS above defined thresholds, and rules limiting unnecessary packaging volume. Every company placing packaging on the EU market, regardless of size, has to register, report, and design to these standards, generally under Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes already used for other waste categories. For a licensing merchandise program, the packaging decisions made now (hang tag material, polybag type, carton design) need to already meet 2026 requirements rather than get retrofitted later.</p> <section class="from-blog-section"><h2>From the Magazine</h2><p class="from-blog-empty">No linked articles yet — this section shows related Magazine articles automatically once one exists (same matching logic as the related-terms module above).</p></section>