PPWR Reuse Targets: 40 % Transport, 10 % Grouped and 10 % Beverage Packaging from 2030

From 1 January 2030 Article 29 of Regulation (EU) 2025/40 requires at least 40 % of transport packaging, 10 % of grouped packaging in boxes and 10 % of beverages sold by final distributors to be reusable within a re-use system, and 100 % of transport packaging between an operator's own sites and within one Member State. The 2040 values of 70 %, 25 % and 40 % are endeavours, not obligations. Every target is measured per calendar year (Art. 29(17)).

The re-use targets are part of the PPWR, the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2025/40 (CELEX 32025R0040, OJ L, 2025/40, 22.1.2025), in force since 11 February 2025 and generally applicable since 12 August 2026. The refill rules of Art. 28(1) to (4) apply since 12 August 2026, while the targets start on 1 January 2030 and the calculation act is not adopted as of 24 October 2026.

This page covers the targets, who meets which share, the exemptions, calculation and reporting, refill and the national layer; case-by-case questions go to the competent authority of the Member State concerned.

Compiled by the PackagingRegulation.org Editorial Team from the Regulation's text on EUR-Lex and the cited official sources. Every date and article reference is checked; see our methodology and fact-checking.

What Are the PPWR Re-use Targets under Article 29?

The PPWR re-use targets are minimum shares of packaging that economic operators must make available as reusable packaging within a re-use system, set per calendar year in Article 29 and applying from 1 January 2030 (Art. 29(1), (17)).

Which packaging can count? Only packaging meeting all 9 cumulative criteria of Art. 11(1)(a) to (i), which cover packaging placed on the market from 11 February 2025. Sales packaging counts toward the transport target only where it has an evident transport function, according to Commission Notice C/2026/3084 (OJ C, 10.6.2026), point 18, which is non-binding.

The 12 transport formats that Art. 29(1) names are listed below.

• Pallets, foldable plastic boxes, boxes, trays, plastic crates, intermediate bulk containers, pails, drums, canisters, flexible formats, pallet wrappings and straps.

Annex VI defines two types of re-use system: a closed loop system circulates packaging without a change of ownership (point (b)), while an open loop system has unspecified participants and ownership changes (point (c)).

Are the 2040 re-use percentages binding?

No: the 2040 values of 70 % for transport packaging, 25 % for grouped packaging and 40 % for beverages are endeavour targets ("shall endeavour"), while the 2030 values are binding (Art. 29(1), (5), (6)). The Commission reviews the targets in a report due by 1 January 2034, and Member States provide employment data for that review by December 2032 (Art. 29(19)).

PPWR Re-use Targets from 1 January 2030: Who Must Meet Which Share

Three groups carry re-use targets from 1 January 2030: users of transport packaging, users of grouped packaging in boxes and final distributors of beverages (Art. 29 PPWR); HORECA final distributors carry separate take-away duties from 12 February 2027 and 12 February 2028 (Art. 32, 33). The beverage target falls on final distributors, never on beverage producers (Art. 29(6)).

The table summarises the PPWR reuse targets for transport packaging, the 100 % rule, the grouped packaging target, the PPWR reuse targets for beverage packaging and the PPWR rules for takeaway food and drinks.

Who is responsible for re-use targets on imported goods?

The user of the transport packaging is responsible, meaning the manufacturer, importer or distributor that places the product on the Union market in that packaging, according to Commission guidance (Notice C/2026/3084, points 19 and 20), which is non-binding.

Imported goods count from the moment they are placed on the EU market, from the first warehouse in the Union onwards, and a consignment with a single final destination need not be repacked (Notice points 19, 20). For beverages the same guidance reads Art. 29(6) as met by offering at least 10 %, treats a website seller as the final distributor and excludes kegs supplied business to business to bars (points 22, 23). The wider product duties are set out in PPWR obligations of importers.

Exemptions from the PPWR Re-use Targets

The PPWR exempts packaging and operators from the re-use targets on five legal bases: product exclusions (Art. 29(4) and 29(7)), the micro-enterprise and 1,000 kg rule (Art. 29(13)), the small-shop and remote-area rules for beverages (Art. 29(10), (11)), a Member State exemption (Art. 29(14)) and delegated acts (Art. 29(18)). The bases are listed below.

• Product exclusions: dangerous goods, custom-designed packaging for large-scale machinery, equipment and commodities, flexible food and feed contact formats and cardboard boxes (Art. 29(4)(a) to (d)); highly perishable beverages, milk products, listed wine products, CN 2206 00 and spirits of CN 2208 (Art. 29(7)).
• Small operators: micro-enterprises with no more than 1,000 kg (Art. 29(13)).
• Small shops and remote areas: final distributors with a sales area of not more than 100 m2 (Art. 29(10)); a Member State option for islands under 2,000 inhabitants and municipalities under 54 persons per km2, except population centres over 5,000 inhabitants (Art. 29(11)).
• Member State exemption: five years, renewable (Art. 29(14)).

Further exemptions require a Commission delegated act (Art. 29(18)), and Delegated Decision (EU) 2026/429 is the only one adopted as of 24 October 2026.

The micro-enterprise and 1,000 kg exemption (Article 29(13))

An economic operator is exempt from the re-use targets for a calendar year only if it is a micro-enterprise and makes available no more than 1,000 kg of packaging in the Member State that year; both conditions must be met (Art. 29(13)). A micro-enterprise has fewer than 10 persons and a turnover or balance sheet total not above EUR 2 million (Recommendation 2003/361/EC). The take-away rules differ: Art. 33(4) exempts micro-enterprises from the reusable offer, while the own-container duty of Art. 32 has no micro-enterprise exemption. Micro-enterprise reliefs across the Regulation are compared in PPWR rules for micro-enterprises.

The Member State five-year exemption (Article 29(14))

A Member State may exempt economic operators from the re-use targets for five years, renewable, if it exceeds the 2025 material recycling targets by 5 percentage points, is on track for the prevention targets with at least 3 % less packaging waste per capita by 2028 than in 2018, and the operators have a corporate waste prevention and recycling plan (Art. 29(14)).

The three cumulative conditions are numbered below.

1. Recycling: 5 points above the 2025 and expected 5 points above the 2030 material targets in PPWR recycling targets by material.
2. Prevention: on track for the Art. 43 targets.
3. Operator plan: a corporate prevention and recycling plan.

Commission guidance reads condition 1 as not requiring every material target to be exceeded: where aluminium recycling exceeds its target, retailers may deduct cans from the base of the 10 % beverage target (Notice point 24, non-binding). Re-use also feeds back into recycling: a Member State may adjust its recycling targets by the three-year average share of reusable sales packaging, by at most 5 percentage points (Art. 54(1)).

How Are Re-use Targets Calculated and Reported?

Re-use targets are calculated in equivalent units per calendar year for transport and grouped packaging and in sales units or volume for beverages and take-away, and operators must demonstrate them from 1 January 2030 or 18 months after the Art. 30(3) implementing act, whichever is later (Art. 30(1), (2), (4)). The implementing act on the calculation method is due by 30 June 2027 (Art. 30(3)).

Operators report yearly to the Art. 40 competent authority within 6 months; the first reporting year is 2030, so the first report is due by 30 June 2031 (Art. 31). Documentation for reusable packaging is kept 10 years, against 5 for single-use (Annex VII point 4). The re-use targets belong to the PPWR 2030 deadlines, and the table lists every dated re-use obligation, oldest first.

What is still pending on 24 October 2026?

Four Commission acts that shape the re-use targets are not adopted as of 24 October 2026, and one body is still to be set up. All five are tracked among the PPWR delegated acts and implementing acts, and their deadlines are listed below.

• Calculation implementing act: due 30 June 2027 (Art. 30(3)).
• Minimum-rotations delegated act: due 12 February 2027 (Art. 11(2)).
• Beverage guidelines: due 12 February 2027 (Art. 29(8)).
• Pooling delegated acts: due 1 January 2028 (Art. 29(12)).
• European observatory on re-use: to be established by 12 February 2027 to monitor the re-use measures, collect data on re-use practices and contribute to best practices (Art. 31(7)).

The only adopted act under the re-use chapter is Commission Delegated Decision (EU) 2026/429 of 25 February 2026 (OJ L, 2026/429, 6.5.2026), in force since 26 May 2026 under Art. 29(18)(a); no PPWR implementing act exists. Each adoption will be dated in PPWR news.

Refill Obligations under Article 28 of the PPWR

Article 28 of the PPWR sets the rules for operators that offer refill: information to end users, refill stations meeting Annex VI Part C, no free containers unless they are reusable or in a deposit system, and the right to refuse unsuitable containers, since 12 August 2026. The four rules are listed below.

• Inform end users about the rules for using refill (Art. 28(1)).
• Equip refill stations to meet Annex VI Part C, including a measuring device (Art. 28(2)).
• Charge for containers offered at the refill station unless they meet Annex VI or sit in a deposit and return system (Art. 28(3)).
• Refuse unsuitable end-user containers, without hygiene liability for them (Art. 28(4)).

From 1 January 2030 final distributors with a sales area of more than 400 m2 shall endeavour to dedicate 10 % of that area to refill stations for food and non-food products (Art. 28(5)). The hygiene of food-contact refill containers is covered on foodcontactmaterials.net.

Re-use Targets in the Member States: National Quotas, Authorities and Fines

The re-use targets are EU law and apply directly, but Member States designate the authorities that check them, set the penalties and may set higher targets only under Article 51 and where needed for the prevention targets (Art. 29(15), (16), Art. 40, Art. 68 PPWR). Art. 51(2)(c) also lets a Member State oblige operators to offer a percentage of products outside the Art. 29 targets in reusable packaging or through refill, provided the internal market is not distorted. The table compares PPWR in Germany, PPWR in Austria, PPWR in Ireland and PPWR in the 27 member states.

Article 68(2) PPWR makes administrative fines mandatory for breaches of Articles 24 to 29, and Member States lay down and notify their penalty rules by 12 February 2027 (Art. 68(1), (3)); the Regulation sets no EU fine amount. Persisting formal non-compliance with Art. 29, 32 or 33 leads to Art. 68 penalties (Art. 62(1)(g) to (n), 62(3)). Germany's VerpackDG § 66(3) shows what a national tier looks like: from 12 February 2027 a missed 40 % transport share can cost up to EUR 200,000, while a breach of the 100 % rules falls in the EUR 10,000 tier.

The Austrian quota sits in AWG 2002 § 14b and the Irish designation in S.I. No. 541/2025. Penalty rules of the other Member States are tracked in PPWR penalties and market surveillance.

How Do the Re-use Targets Connect to the Rest of the PPWR?

The re-use targets depend on six other parts of the PPWR: the legal text, the timeline, the reusable packaging and labelling requirements, the empty space ratio exemption, the recycling targets that re-use can lower, and the deposit and EPR systems Member States may extend to reusables. The table links the PPWR legal text, the PPWR timeline, the PPWR requirements for packaging, the PPWR empty space ratio, the PPWR labelling requirements, EU packaging EPR under the PPWR, EU packaging waste, deposit return systems under the PPWR and PPWR compliance. A "reusable" claim on packaging is also an environmental claim, covered on greenwashingdirective.com. Articles 29 to 33 do not apply in respect of Northern Ireland (Commission notice C/2025/946, OJ C, 4.2.2025).

Reusable packaging rules versus re-use targets

Reusable packaging rules apply since 12 August 2026 to every operator that chooses reusable packaging (Art. 11, 26, 27), while the re-use targets decide from 1 January 2030 how much of it an operator must use (Art. 29). An operator making reusable packaging available for the first time in a Member State ensures a re-use system with a collection incentive (Art. 26(1)). The reusable label applies from 12 February 2029 or 30 months after the Art. 12(6) act, whichever is the latest (Art. 12(2)). The criteria are explained in reusable packaging under the PPWR.

PPWR re-use questions answered

Must a final distributor take back reusable beverage packaging?

Yes: a final distributor subject to the beverage target takes back reusable packaging of the same type, form and size free of charge (Art. 29(9)).

Are pallet wrappings and straps exempt from the re-use targets?

Partly: Delegated Decision (EU) 2026/429, in force since 26 May 2026, exempts pallet wrappings and straps from the 100 % rules of Art. 29(2) and (3), but the 40 % target of Art. 29(1) still covers them. Format-specific rules are in pallets, wrapping and straps under the PPWR.

Can final distributors pool to meet the beverage re-use target?

Yes: a pool may join no more than 5 final distributors (unless they operate under the same brand) with a market share of not more than 40 %, and the delegated acts on pooling are due by 1 January 2028 (Art. 29(12)).

Does the beverage re-use target cover beer?

Yes: beer is not among the Art. 29(7) exclusions, so it counts toward the 10 % beverage target of final distributors from 1 January 2030.