Pointless Paperwork Wrapped in Red Tape

PPWR stands for Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation. It was introduced to reduce the growing amount of packaging waste, encourage reusable and recyclable packaging, and replace fragmented national rules with one harmonised framework across the EU.

Although the regulation entered into force in 2025, its general application date is this Wednesday, 12th of August. As a UK-based business sending goods to Musthebbies in the EU, your mustard maker is affected by it too.

In theory I may need to record the packaging used for every shipment by weight and material composition: the labels on the jars, the jars themselves, the lids, the protective packaging, the box, the adhesive tape and even the shipping label.

In practice, this means identifying and documenting packaging materials, checking whether they meet the relevant requirements and dealing with producer-responsibility obligations in the countries where the goods are sold. For a small business, that can mean paying for specialist software or outsourcing the work to a compliance provider, potentially dealing with different systems and requirements in different EU countries.

Honestly, I have serious doubts about whether this enormous bureaucratic exercise will prevent even a tiny piece of waste.

My personal interpretation of PPWR is:
Pointless Paperwork Wrapped in Red Tape: turning a supposedly green initiative into a bureaucratic exercise.

Unfortunately, this also affects my much-valued mustard lovers mostly in Germany and other EU member states. I hope that the regulation will eventually be revised and above all stripped of unnecessary bureaucracy, but until then, from Wednesday onwards, I will no longer be able to send my mustards to the EU. I sincerely hope you will understand. ????