PPWR after 12 August 2026: what already applies, what is coming, and where Romania stands

Regulation (EU) 2025/40 on packaging and packaging waste, known as the PPWR, entered general application on 12 August 2026. It was published in the Official Journal on 22 January 2025, entered into force on 11 February 2025 and, after an 18 month transition, fully replaced Directive 94/62/EC.

Because it is a regulation rather than a directive, it applies directly in every Member State with no national transposition. There is no national law to wait for before complying.

Three weeks past the application date, the question companies ask us is not what the PPWR says. It is what should already have been in place, and what can still be prepared without panic. This article answers that.

What actually applies from 12 August 2026

A limited set of requirements began producing effects immediately, but they are precisely the ones that touch documentation and, in some cases, the packaging itself.

The restrictions on hazardous substances are live. The combined concentration of lead, cadmium, mercury and hexavalent chromium in packaging or its components must not exceed 100 mg/kg. For food contact packaging, the PPWR prohibits placing on the market packaging that exceeds the established PFAS limits as of 12 August 2026. This second restriction has concrete consequences for treated paper and board, barrier films and takeaway formats.

The second live obligation is documentary. For every packaging type placed on the market from 12 August 2026, the manufacturer must carry out the conformity assessment, compile the technical documentation and issue the EU Declaration of Conformity for the requirements applicable at that point. The documents must exist and be available to authorities on request.

The third live obligation is the one most often skipped: correctly identifying your role. The PPWR distinguishes between manufacturer, importer, distributor and producer for extended producer responsibility purposes. These roles can sit with different operators in the same chain. The manufacturer under the PPWR is usually not the company that physically makes the box, but the operator who packs the product and places the packaging on the market under its own name or brand.

What does not apply yet

This is where most planning errors originate, because several widely discussed requirements have their own timetables.

Harmonised material based labelling becomes mandatory from 12 August 2028. Industrially compostable formats for tea and coffee bags, single serve units for preparation systems, and sticky labels applied directly to fruit and vegetables become mandatory from 12 February 2028. Recycled content targets for plastics, recyclability performance grades and the packaging minimisation obligation all have 2030 deadlines.

The national producer register did not have to exist on 12 August 2026. Article 44 gives Member States 18 months from the entry into force of the implementing act in which the Commission sets the format for registration and reporting. In practice, actual registration will be required later, and national registers will have to link to each other to facilitate cross border registration.

Three claims in circulation that are wrong

First: e-commerce parcels are capped at 40 percent empty space from August 2026. Article 24 sets the maximum empty space ratio at 50 percent, applying from 1 January 2030 or three years after the entry into force of the relevant implementing act, whichever is later. That implementing act is not due before 12 February 2028. The minimisation principle exists now; the numerical cap does not.

Second: we are waiting for the Romanian law. The regulation produces effects directly. The absence of new national rules does not suspend European obligations.

Third: we complied with Directive 94/62, so we are fine. The PPWR does not update the directive, it replaces it. Technical files built under the old regime need to be rebuilt in the logic of the new regulation.

The Commission guidance and its limits

Because industry and national authorities raised a large number of interpretation issues, the Commission published an extensive guidance notice for harmonised application on 10 June 2026, later supplemented by updated FAQs. The guidance states explicitly that it does not amend the regulation, and that binding interpretation of EU law ultimately rests with the Court of Justice of the European Union.

In practice, the guidance resolves many borderline cases but does not replace an analysis of your own packaging portfolio.

Where Romania stands

Romania is not starting from zero. The existing packaging legislation, the Environmental Fund Administration, the National Environmental Guard, the authorised producer responsibility organisations and the deposit return system with its administrator are all in place.

What is missing, at the time of writing, is a consolidated and readable picture of the national PPWR machinery: the register, the competent authority or authorities, the concrete allocation of enforcement duties, and the penalty regime.

Article 40 requires each Member State to designate one or more competent authorities, and states were to communicate their names and addresses to the Commission by 12 July 2025. The penalty regime has a separate deadline of 12 February 2027. Romania is therefore not late on penalties, but it has a short window to turn a general European obligation into a working national system.

The practical consequence for companies is that the current period demands well built, traceable documentation even though the control mechanism is not yet fully visible. An incomplete technical file does not improve because the competent authority has not knocked yet.

There is also a live national debate on the EPR architecture. Legislative proposal L26/2026, rejected by the Senate on 30 March 2026 and now before the Chamber of Deputies as PL-x 297/2026, seeks to amend the current system. The Economic and Social Council issued a negative opinion and used the term gold-plating explicitly, criticising the absence of an impact study and obligations that go beyond European requirements, including additional recycled content quotas for glass and metal. For economic operators, every additional national requirement means costs that competitors in other Member States do not carry in the same form.

What to do in the next 90 days

Start with the packaging inventory. Every primary, secondary, tertiary and service packaging type, with material, component level composition, supplier and destination markets.

Then determine your role per flow, not per company. The same business can be manufacturer for its own packaging, a simple user for packaging supplied by its client, and EPR producer in several countries.

Then review what your suppliers have sent you. Most companies already have a stack of documents; few have checked whether those documents demonstrate anything relevant to the articles of the regulation.

Finally, prioritise on risk. Food contact packaging with barrier treatments, labels permanently affixed to a different material, and packaging destined for export markets carry the highest immediate non-conformity potential.

Frequently asked questions

Does the PPWR apply to existing stock? Obligations attach to placing on the market. Products placed on the market for the first time before 12 August 2026 do not become retroactively non-compliant, but any unit placed on the market for the first time after that date falls under the new requirements.

Do I need to register in the Romanian producer register now? The register has its own timetable, tied to the Commission implementing act. Current Romanian reporting and contribution obligations remain in force in the meantime.

Do I need a Declaration of Conformity for every packaging code? Not necessarily. The workable approach is one declaration per homogeneous packaging cluster, provided the grouped items share composition and behave identically against the requirements assessed.

Who is liable if my supplier gave me wrong information? Liability towards the authority stays with the operator placing the packaging on the market. Supplier documents are evidence in your file, not a transfer of liability.