The European Union puts a sweeping packaging law into force

The European Union’s new packaging law took effect on Wednesday, bringing immediate limits on PFAS in food-contact packaging and setting the bloc on a path toward deposit refund systems for most cans and bottles by 2029, even as the final text reflects lobbying that weakened some of its original ambitions on plastic reduction.

The measure, known as the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, applies across all 27 EU member states. It is meant to curb the steady growth of packaging waste, align national rules and make it easier for companies to operate across the single market. Brussels has also tied the law to a broader effort to cut dependence on oil and gas, the raw materials used to make most virgin plastic.

The regulation was adopted after the EU concluded that its earlier packaging directive had not done enough to reverse the rise in waste. According to figures cited in the new framework, the average resident of the bloc throws away about half a kilogram, or roughly 1.1 pounds, of packaging each day. The law now sets bloc-wide targets to reduce packaging waste by 5% by 2030, 10% by 2035 and 15% by 2040.

Those targets are central to the regulation, but they are also one of the clearest signs of political compromise. Le Monde reported that the EU’s initial plans were softened from the start under pressure from industry lobbying, particularly on the scale of plastic packaging cuts. Even so, the final law still marks a major shift in how the bloc intends to regulate packaging. Joe Papineschi, chairman of the consultancy Eunomia, which worked closely with the European Commission on the drafting and impact assessment, told Le Monde that the text is weaker than originally intended but still contains “some major advances.” He said the EU has, for the first time, set binding targets to reduce packaging waste, and that all packaging will have to be recyclable, while plastic packaging will need to include a share of recycled material.

One of the most visible changes for consumers will come in the drinks aisle. By 2029, most Europeans buying beverages in cans or bottles are expected to have access to deposit refund systems, under which containers are returned and collected for recycling. The regulation requires 90% of those containers to be collected. That goal is likely to matter not only for soft drinks and water, but also for wine, beer, cider and spirits sold in formats covered by the system. For producers and bottlers, it raises the importance of packaging design, collection logistics and compatibility with national return schemes that are expected to spread across the bloc.

The new rules also matter for the beverage business because they reach beyond the container itself. Food-contact packaging now faces limits on PFAS, a class of highly persistent synthetic chemicals often called “forever chemicals.” For drinks companies, that can affect not only bottles and cans, but also liners, closures, coatings, labels and other materials that come into contact with the product or are used as part of the package. The practical effect will vary by format and supplier, but wineries, brewers, distillers and nonalcoholic beverage makers may need to review contracts, technical specifications and compliance records more closely as the rules take hold.

That supplier review could become especially important for companies that sell across several EU markets. One of the stated aims of the regulation is to replace a patchwork of national approaches with a more harmonized framework. In theory, that should make it easier to place products on shelves across borders. In practice, it also means that companies using packaging with weak documentation or inconsistent material standards could face greater scrutiny. For importers and smaller producers, the burden may fall less on redesigning a bottle shape than on proving that coatings, inks, adhesives and recycled-content claims meet the new rules.

For the food and drinks sector, the law lands at a time when packaging has become a cost issue as well as an environmental one. Glass, aluminum, paper and plastic all carry different price, transport and recycling trade-offs. Beverage makers have spent years balancing shelf life, weight, breakage, branding and sustainability claims. The EU’s regulation does not erase those trade-offs, but it tightens the policy framework around them. A company that relies heavily on single-use plastic, for example, may face increasing pressure to rethink formats over time, while a business already using highly recyclable materials may find itself better positioned as collection targets and recycled-content rules are phased in.

The 90% collection target is likely to be closely watched because it touches a large and highly visible stream of waste. Cans and bottles are among the most commonly consumed packaging formats in Europe, and they are among the easiest for consumers to identify in deposit systems. For governments, the target will test how quickly collection networks can expand. For retailers, it may mean more return points and more back-end handling. For beverage brands, especially those with high sales volumes, it could affect recovery rates, labeling requirements and the economics of packaging choices.

The regulation’s supporters argue that these changes were overdue because packaging waste kept rising under the older legal framework. Critics from industry have pushed back on the pace, cost and technical demands of the new rules, and Le Monde’s reporting suggests that those arguments shaped the final text from an early stage. Still, the regulation now in force sets a clearer direction than the EU had before: less packaging waste overall, stronger collection systems for drink containers, tighter controls on food-contact materials and a push to make packaging both recyclable and more reliant on recycled inputs.

For beverage companies selling into Europe, the immediate challenge is likely to be compliance planning rather than a single dramatic change overnight. The law creates a regulatory path that touches the full packaging chain, from resin and recycled content to bottle design and food-contact materials. That means the effects will be felt not only by large multinational drinks groups, but also by smaller wine estates, craft brewers, spirits producers and importers that depend on outside suppliers for bottles, cans, labels and closures.