What PPWR actually requires
The Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), Regulation (EU) 2025/40, replaces the old Packaging Directive with directly-applicable rules across every Member State. Unlike a directive, there's no national transposition to wait on — the obligations land on the same staged dates everywhere from 2027 onward. For anyone placing packaging on the EU market, the practical effect is that recyclability and recycled content stop being marketing claims and become structured, reportable, per-format data.
- Recyclability grades (A / B / C): every packaging unit gets a design-for-recycling performance class, with poorly-recyclable formats restricted over time.
- Minimum recycled-content thresholds: plastic packaging must hit per-application recycled-content percentages, rising on a staged timeline — tracked per material, not per product line.
- EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility): producer registration and fee modulation tied to recyclability, captured per Member State scheme rather than as free text.
- Reuse and refill targets: reporting obligations for reusable packaging formats in scope sectors.
- Substances of concern: declaration of restricted substances in packaging, aligned with the wider DPP data model.
- Staged enforcement (2027–2030): the obligations phase in by date and format, so the data model has to be ready before the deadline, not after it.
The software
How TracePass makes packaging PPWR-ready
Auto-fill from the specs you already have
TracePass's research agent reads material-disclosure pages and packaging specs — Tetra Pak, CCEP, brand-owner sustainability sheets — and fills material composition, recyclability grade, and recycled-content percentage automatically. You review, you don't re-type.
Structured material composition, not free text
A structured editor captures percentage per material and functional layer, so composition data stays consistent SKU-to-SKU instead of drifting across spreadsheets. That's what makes recyclability-grade and recycled-content reporting auditable.
EPR scheme captured per Member State
Producer-responsibility scheme is a structured field per Member State (CITEO, DSD, PRO Europe, Valorie, and the rest), with the producer registration number captured as data — ready for fee-modulation reporting rather than buried in a PDF.
Request the data you don't hold — automatically
When a value is only the supplier's to know, TracePass emails them from a token-linked portal and writes the answer straight back into the field. No chasing material data over email threads.
Batch-create passports across every pack variant
One product-line template generates thousands of SKU-variant passports in a single run — the format/size/material permutations that make packaging reporting painful become a batch job with per-variant QR codes.
Built against (EU) 2025/40, future-proofed for the staged dates
Recyclability classes, per-material minimum-recycled-content thresholds, and reuse-target fields are already in the schema. Record the current (national or voluntary) grade now and update to the harmonised PPWR criteria when they arrive — without losing the passport's history.
Who it's for
Packaging producers, fillers, and brand owners placing primary, secondary, or tertiary packaging on the EU market — food, beverage, e-commerce, rigid plastics, flexibles, paper, glass, and aluminium — plus the compliance and packaging-development teams who own PPWR reporting.
Looking for the per-field packaging passport capability instead? See the packaging DPP page.
PPWR software — frequently asked
- What is PPWR compliance software?
- PPWR compliance software structures the packaging data that Regulation (EU) 2025/40 makes reportable — material composition, recyclability grade, recycled-content percentage, and EPR registration — into per-format records you can report against and attach to a digital product passport. TracePass auto-fills those fields from your existing specs and supplier disclosures rather than asking you to maintain them by hand.
- When does PPWR start applying?
- Regulation (EU) 2025/40 applies on staged dates from 2027 through 2030, with recyclability and recycled-content obligations phasing in by packaging format. Because it's a regulation, not a directive, the dates apply directly in every Member State without national transposition — so the data model needs to be in place ahead of each deadline, not after it.
- Do I need separate software for EPR reporting?
- No — TracePass captures the EPR scheme and producer registration number as structured fields per Member State, alongside the recyclability and recycled-content data that drives fee modulation. The same record that makes a packaging unit PPWR-ready carries the EPR data, so you're not maintaining two parallel datasets.
- How is this different from your packaging DPP page?
- Same engine, different starting point. This page is for teams evaluating PPWR compliance software — how the tool structures, auto-fills, and reports your packaging data. The packaging passport page walks through the per-format digital product passport itself. If you want the capability breakdown by field, start with packaging; if you're scoping the compliance workflow, you're in the right place.
- Can TracePass fill recyclability grade and recycled content automatically?
- Where the data is published or held in your specs, yes — the research agent reads material-disclosure pages and packaging specs and proposes the recyclability grade and recycled-content percentage, with source and confidence attached so your team can review before publishing. Where only a supplier holds the value, TracePass requests it through a token-linked portal and writes it back into the field.
Make PPWR a data task, not a spreadsheet marathon
Start with the packaging data you already hold. TracePass structures it into PPWR-ready fields and generates a passport per pack variant.
Reviewed by Malin Ivanov, Managing Director — on