EU · Regulation (EU) 2025/40
Packaging: composition, design and phased circularity rules
Identify the market and product category first. Each dossier separates legal duties, referenced standards, evidence and the comparison needed for an award.
Product Scope
Packaging and packaging waste across materials, with distinct rules for contact-sensitive, transport, sales, grouped, reusable and other packaging. Food-contact packaging must also comply with the separate food-contact-material regime.
Requirements
Apply the provisions currently effective for substances, documentation and conformity; identify the packaging component, material and actual use. Lead, cadmium, mercury and hexavalent chromium are controlled by the applicable combined concentration rule. PFAS restrictions for food-contact packaging apply from 12 August 2026 with distinct analytical thresholds; recyclability, recycled content, minimisation and label duties have separate future stages rather than a single immediate 2030 rule.
Required Evidence
Provide packaging-component specifications, substance and targeted analytical evidence, technical documentation, applicable declaration, traceability and any valid derogation. Record separate EPR registration and reporting responsibilities; environmental registration does not certify a packaging sample’s chemistry or recyclability.
Comparison for the Awards
Lower restricted-substance levels may be compared against an applicable legal maximum with the prescribed analytical scope. A future recyclability grade, a recycled logo or a producer registration number alone cannot prove current above-regulatory product performance.
Version & Transition
Generally applicable from 12 August 2026. Article-specific future dates and saved provisions must be retained; the repeal of 94/62/EC is subject to the Regulation’s express transitional arrangements.
Official Sources
Applicability depends on the product classification, intended use, configuration and actual sales territory. Manufacturing, placing-on-the-market and testing dates, together with transition provisions, are checked as required by each applicable rule. The directory identifies sources; it does not replace assessment of the specific model. Standards are identified by reference, and their authoritative texts remain with the issuing bodies. Official source documents retain their original language.