Annex V to the PPWR names six categories of packaging that from 1 January 2030 may no longer be placed on the EU market. No performance requirement, no percentage — a ban.
Two things up front, because they determine how hard the ban hits you.
The Commission publishes guidance with examples by 12 February 2027 at the latest. Until then, the exact scope of each category is a matter of interpretation. Anyone starting a redesign now does so on the basis of the regulation text and common sense.
Member states may grant exemptions on grounds of hygiene, food safety or the environment. What is banned in the Netherlands may be allowed in Spain. For anyone selling in several countries, the strictest member state is the standard.
And one scope rule that is often missed: composite packaging with 5% or less plastic by weight falls outside categories 1 through 4. It does remain subject to all the other PPWR requirements.
1. Shrink film around multipacks
Banned: single-use plastic grouping packaging used to hold several sales units together at the point of sale. Think of the shrink film around a six-pack of cans or a tray of pots.
Exception: where the film is necessary for handling or logistics — so not for presentation on the shelf.
Alternative: a cardboard clip, a paper wrap, or dropping the multipack as such.
2. Single-use plastic around fresh fruit and vegetables under 1.5 kg
Banned: single-use plastic packaging for fresh, unprocessed fruit and vegetables under 1.5 kilos. The plastic bag of peppers, the sealed tray of tomatoes, the little film around the cucumber.
Exception: where demonstrably needed to prevent food waste, damage or microbiological deterioration. That is a real exception — a cucumber without film loses moisture faster — but you must demonstrate it, not assert it. Member states may grant additional exceptions.
The 1.5 kg limit is sharp. Packaging above it falls outside.
3. Single-use tableware for on-site consumption
Banned: single-use plastic cups, plates, trays and containers for food and drink consumed on site, in the hospitality sector.
This ban does not come out of nowhere. Already from 12 August 2026, hospitality businesses must offer drinks for on-site consumption in reusable or refillable packaging. The 2030 ban closes that route definitively, for food too.
See PPWR for hospitality.
Not sure whether this applies to your packaging? The PPWR Check walks through your role, market and material in eight questions and shows per pillar what applies to you. Take the PPWR Check →
4. Sachets for sauces, sugar and coffee creamer
Banned: single-use plastic single-serving packaging for condiments, sauces, sugar, jam, coffee creamer and similar condiments in the hospitality sector.
The alternative is already there: dispensers, pump bottles, bulk packaging. For caterers and hotel breakfasts, this is the most visible change of all six.
5. Miniature packaging for cosmetics in hotels
Banned: single-use miniature packaging for cosmetics and toiletries, provided with an individual booking in the accommodation sector.
Note one thing that is missed almost everywhere: this ban is material-neutral. It does not apply to plastic alone. A cardboard soap box or a soap wrapped in paper falls under it just as much.
The regulation speaks of miniature packaging without naming a hard volume limit in the core provision. In practice, shampoo and shower-gel bottles up to about 50 ml and soaps up to about 100 grams are used as guidance, but those limits come from secondary sources and not from the regulation text itself. The guidance the Commission publishes by 12 February 2027 at the latest should provide clarity here.
Do not wait for it. If you are in the accommodation sector, the direction is unmistakable: refillable dispensers or provision on request.
6. Very lightweight plastic carrier bags
Banned: plastic carrier bags thinner than 15 microns.
Exception: where needed for hygiene, or as primary packaging for loose foodstuffs to limit food waste. The bag for loose vegetables at the weighing scale therefore probably remains allowed; the free checkout bag does not.
Member states may require the replacement to be compostable.
What this means for your planning
Four years sounds long. For packaging you design and have printed yourself, it is. For packaging that is part of a validated filling line, it is tight.
The order that works:
- Inventory which of your SKUs fall under one of the six categories. Be strict: when in doubt, on the list.
- Determine per SKU whether you can invoke an exception, and whether you can substantiate it. “Needed to prevent food waste” calls for shelf-life data, not an opinion.
- Wait for the February 2027 guidance for the borderline cases — but start now with the obvious ones. A six-pack in shrink film is an obvious case.
- Work out what the alternative costs, including line adjustment and speed loss. That is usually the real cost, not the material.
Anyone starting in 2029 competes with everyone who starts in 2029, for the same conversion capacity at the same machine builders.