The EU’s new Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) is here — and it’s a big deal for anyone placing packaging on the European market. It is one of the most ambitious packaging reforms ever passed, and just one concrete example of what the European Union is doing at the regulatory level to support green transition on multiple fronts. It pushes companies to rethink how packaging is designed, used, and recycled.
One of the biggest reforms will be that by 2030, all packaging must be “recyclable in practice and at scale.” That rules out tricky laminates, plastic linings, and any packaging that can’t be sorted and recycled using standard infrastructure.
The new rules set specific targets for recycled content in plastic packaging—ranging from 10% to 65%, depending on the application and year. But high-quality recycled plastic is expensive, and the supply is tight.
And many of these so-called solutions don’t work in the systems we already have. You get recyclable products that contaminate waste streams, and compostable ones that only break down in industrial conditions most people don’t have access to. Sorting systems are unable to identify many of the new plastic fibre composites, and when they are sorted, the volumes are so small that it makes no commercial sense to segregate.
Even where biowaste bins are available, consumers often don’t know what goes where. Does a fibre plastic material, such as PLA combined with pulp or wood fibres, go in the plastic bin or the cardboard bin? If we want systemic change, we need solutions that function in the real world on a truly impactful scale, such as paperboard or mono plastics like bio-polypropylene and bio-polyethylene.
One solution could be durable and truly plastic-free packaging options, made out of wood fibres. The global fiber-based packaging market alone is projected to grow from $407 billion in 2025 to $567 billion by 2034, driven by rising demand for plastic-free alternatives and regulations that are phasing out fossil-based materials.
With modern technology, companies could produce a mono-material that is not a complex mix of materials or a multi-layered composite. In consumer-facing products, having full home compostability can also be a major benefit, not for recycling, but to ensure that if (and unfortunately, when) products end up in landfills or the sides of the road, they would disintegrate completely without harming the environment or animals. We all know the harm that disintegrating plastics that turn to microplastics do to the environment, people, and the planet in general.
This technology is emerging fast; now the companies just need to realize that there are options for packaging, even if the demands on durability, usability, and, first and foremost, recyclability are there.