A milestone of the Green Deal has been reached: on November 30, 2022, the first official draft of the “Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation” was published. This is not set in stone and will most likely still change but will be the basis for the next steps in legislation. It is expected to come into effect in 2024.

The regulation regulates packaging that is placed on the market and also contains a few items that will be banned from the market. It clearly states changes to more refillable and re-usable systems and also will introduce a labeling scheme for packaging from A to E rating the grade of recyclability. Above that there are clear targets regarding the percentage of packaging that must be re-usable and also states recycled content targets.

This overview of Plastic Recyclers Europe gives you a very nice summary of what is planned:

As said, nothing is definite, yet, but if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.