The Beginning: How the EU Set Out to Rewrite Packaging Rules (Nov 2022)
Milestone: 30 November 2022 — Commission proposal
On 30 November 2022, the European Commission proposed a new Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation — the start of a journey that now defines how packaging is made, used and recycled across Europe.
On 30 November 2022, the European Commission adopted its proposal for a new Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation — replacing a directive from 1994 that could no longer keep up with reality. The numbers spoke clearly: every EU citizen generated 186.5 kg of packaging waste in 2022, 40% of all plastics in the EU are used for packaging, and about half of marine litter comes from packaging.
For us as a packaging manufacturer, this proposal was never a threat — it was a direction. The Commission's stated goals were ambitious: make all packaging recyclable in an economically viable way by 2030, safely increase the use of recycled plastics, reduce virgin materials, and put the sector on track to climate neutrality by 2050.
What mattered most to us was the health dimension written between the lines. Less packaging waste means less plastic breaking down into microplastics that enter our food chain. Fewer single-use items means fewer chemicals migrating into food. This is not just an environmental regulation — it is one of the most consequential public-health laws for food contact materials in a generation.
Looking back, November 2022 was the moment the industry's rules of the game were rewritten. Companies that understood the direction early would be the ones who could guarantee compliance, certainty and safety to European buyers when the rules finally applied.