TexoFibre Global

EU PPWR 2026: What the New Packaging Rules Mean for Bag Importers

5 min read

Supermarket checkout area with reusable jute and juco carrier bags on display

The short version

  • The Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation — Regulation (EU) 2025/40 — was published in January 2025, entered into force in February 2025, and started applying on 12 August 2026.
  • It reaches everyone placing packaging on the EU market: manufacturers, importers, distributors, retailers and online sellers. For goods from outside the EU, the importer is usually the responsible party.
  • Harmonised labelling requirements do not bite until 12 August 2028, which is the window to get artwork and packaging design right rather than reprinting twice.
  • Whether a specific reusable bag counts as packaging depends on how it is supplied. Confirm your classification with your compliance scheme before you build a plan around either answer.

If you import bags into the European Union, 12 August 2026 was a date worth knowing. That is when the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation — Regulation (EU) 2025/40, universally shortened to PPWR — started to apply.

It replaces the old Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive, and the change from a directive to a regulation is the substantive part: a directive had to be transposed into twenty-seven national laws, each slightly different. A regulation applies directly and identically across the single market. For an importer selling into several member states, that is a simplification, but only after a period of adjustment.

The dates that matter

DateWhat happens
22 January 2025Published in the Official Journal of the EU
12 February 2025Entered into force
12 August 2026Started to apply — packaging placed on the EU market must meet the requirements in force
12 August 2028Harmonised labelling requirements become fully applicable
2030 onwardsFurther recycled-content, reuse and recyclability targets phase in

The staging is deliberate. Not everything landed in August 2026 — the obligations phase in between 2026 and 2040, and the ones with the longest lead times for design and artwork were pushed out furthest.

What applied from August 2026

  • Extended producer responsibility registration. Anyone placing packaging on the market must be registered and must be paying into the appropriate national scheme.
  • PFAS restrictions on food-contact packaging above the permitted thresholds.
  • Reuse systems where reusable packaging is placed on the market — the system, not just the item, has to exist.
  • General conformity: packaging placed on the EU market after that date has to meet the requirements applicable at the time.

The EPR point is the one that catches importers, because it is administrative rather than technical. It is easy to have a compliant product and still be non-compliant as a business because nobody registered. How EPR registration actually works, country by country covers the mechanics.

Is a reusable bag "packaging"?

This is the question every bag importer asks, and it deserves a straight answer: it depends on how the bag is supplied, and you should confirm your own case rather than assume.

A carrier bag handed to a customer at the till to carry their purchases home has historically been treated as packaging in EU law, and lightweight plastic carrier bags were explicitly within scope of the previous regime. A bag that is itself the product being sold — a tote a customer chooses, pays for and takes away as goods — sits differently. Many programmes contain both: the same juco bag can be a checkout carrier in one account and a retail product in another.

Why PPWR is good news for woven bags

Step back from the compliance detail and the direction of travel is unambiguous. The regulation pushes waste reduction, reuse systems and recyclability, and it sits alongside single-use plastic restrictions that now exist in more than a hundred countries and territories. Every one of those pushes retail carrier programmes from single-use film toward durable reusable formats.

That is the demand signal behind the growth in Indian jute bag exports, and it is why buyers who used to order carriers annually are now running multi-year reusable programmes with proper specifications behind them.

What to do before the 2028 labelling deadline

  1. Confirm classification for each product and each channel, in each member state you sell into.
  2. Check your EPR registrations are live and that reported volumes match what you actually shipped. Under-reporting is the common audit finding.
  3. Ask your supplier for a materials declaration — fibre content by percentage, lamination type, thread, fittings and any coatings. You cannot answer recyclability questions without it.
  4. Design artwork with 2028 in mind. Harmonised labelling applies from 12 August 2028. Artwork commissioned now will still be in use then, and reprinting a whole range twice is avoidable.
  5. Simplify the material mix. Mixed materials are the enemy of both recyclability assessments and end-of-life fees. A bag that is jute, cotton thread and nothing else is a much easier compliance story than one with a laminate film, a plastic zip and metal rivets.

That last point has a design consequence worth taking seriously, and it is where a supplier can genuinely help. Tell us the market and the channel and we can build the specification around the compliance position you need, rather than retro-fitting it afterwards.

Frequently asked questions

When does the EU PPWR apply?
Regulation (EU) 2025/40 was published in the Official Journal on 22 January 2025, entered into force on 12 February 2025, and started to apply on 12 August 2026. Further obligations phase in through to 2040, with harmonised labelling applying from 12 August 2028.
Who is responsible for PPWR compliance when goods are imported?
The party placing the packaging on the EU market. Where the manufacturer is outside the EU and has no EU entity, that is normally the importer — which means the obligation sits with you, not with your supplier in India.
Does PPWR apply to reusable jute bags?
It depends on whether the bag is packaging or a product in the way you supply it. A carrier bag given at the till to carry purchases is generally treated as packaging; a tote sold as goods in its own right is a different case. Confirm your classification with your national compliance scheme, because it determines whether EPR fees and labelling rules apply.
What is the difference between PPWR and the old packaging directive?
The old rules were a directive, transposed into twenty-seven slightly different national laws. PPWR is a regulation, so it applies directly and identically across the EU. It also goes considerably further on reuse, recyclability and restricted substances.
Do I need new labelling on my bags now?
Not yet. Harmonised labelling requirements become fully applicable on 12 August 2028. That gives you a window to get artwork right once rather than reprinting a range twice.
  • PPWR 2026
  • EU packaging regulation bags
  • Regulation EU 2025/40
  • packaging compliance importers
  • reusable carrier bag rules EU

Talk to the people who make them

We weave, print and stitch jute, cotton and juco bags in Kolkata, India, and quote DDP so the price you see is the price that lands. Send a specification and we will come back with options.

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