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From today, the first provisions of the EU's Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) begin to apply. The Regulation introduces a harmonised framework for how packaging is designed, manufactured and managed across the European Union, marking the most significant reform of European packaging legislation in decades. Long before the first provisions came into effect, CBE JU-funded projects were already developing the bio-based materials, circular designs and innovative technologies needed to support this transition.
The PPWR replaces the previous Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive with uniform rules that apply directly across all Member States. It aims to reduce packaging waste, improve recyclability, minimise unnecessary packaging and increase the use of recycled content. Additional requirements will be introduced progressively over the coming years, culminating in 2030, when all packaging placed on the EU market must be fully recyclable.
The PPWR sets ambitious objectives for Europe's packaging sector but delivering them requires more than regulation. It calls for collaboration across the entire value chain to develop, validate and scale innovative solutions. Through CBE JU, we bring together researchers, SMEs and industry to de-risk breakthrough technologies and accelerate their path to the market, helping ensure that Europe's regulatory ambitions are matched by industrial innovation.
Nicoló Giacomuzzi-Moore, CBE JU Executive Director
Meeting these objectives will require innovation across the entire packaging value chain. Solutions will increasingly need to be recyclable by design, use resources more efficiently and enable high-quality material recovery, while continuing to meet demanding performance, safety and market requirements. CBE JU-funded projects are already contributing to these objectives: from bio-based packaging materials and circular-by-design products to advanced recycling technologies and digital tools supporting extended producer responsibility schemes, they are bringing the solutions needed for the PPWR closer to the market.
Developing the next generation of bio-based packaging
Through its funding programme, CBE JU has backed projects tackling many of the challenges now becoming regulatory priorities, from new bio-based polymers and fibre-based packaging materials to digital tools that improve packaging design and recyclability. Together, they show how Europe's bioeconomy can help build more sustainable packaging systems.
Bringing together 18 partners from nine countries, TERRIFIC is helping pave the way for the industrial deployment of bio-based, compostable and barrier packaging in Europe. The project is developing the next generation of sustainable food packaging by creating eight flagship bio-based compostable packaging solutions, including coffee capsules, films laminated onto paper and pulp, as well as rigid and flexible thermoplastic biomaterials. The project is targeting more than 95% bio-based content while developing the first multipurpose biorefinery dedicated to producing the renewable building blocks from sugars and vegetable oils needed for these packaging materials. By combining high-performance packaging with renewable feedstocks and up to 40% reduction in CO₂-equivalent emissions with respect to alternative bio-based benchmarks, TERRIFIC is supporting the objectives of the PPWR and accelerating the transition towards more circular packaging solutions.
PEFerence successfully established the world's first commercial-scale FDCA (furandicarboxylic acid) flagship plant, demonstrating how next-generation bio-based materials can contribute to the objectives of the PPWR by combining renewable feedstocks with high-performance packaging. The project developed and validated the full value chain for polyethylene furanoate (PEF), a fully bio-based alternative to polyethylene terephthalate (PET) : from the production of its key building block, FDCA, to the manufacture and testing of bottles, trays and flexible packaging. Thanks to its oxygen and carbon dioxide barrier properties, PEF can help extend the shelf life of food and beverages, reducing food waste while lowering reliance on fossil-based plastics. By demonstrating the material's performance, recyclability and potential for industrial deployment, PEFerence has helped pave the way for wider market uptake of bio-based packaging solutions that support a more circular packaging sector.
The future of packaging is not a choice between circularity and bio-based, but the combination of both. The PPWR sets an important direction by promoting recyclability and recycled content, and projects like PEFerence demonstrate how innovative bio-based materials can contribute to those goals. The next step is scaling these innovative materials in a circular manner, alongside recycling, because a truly circular economy can only be achieved when we keep carbon in circulation and progressively move away from fossil sources.
Ingrid Goumans, Director of public affairs and sustainability at Avantium, PEFerence project
The transition to circular packaging is not only about developing new materials, it also requires more effective systems to collect, sort and manage packaging waste. PROSPER contributes to this by developing digital tools and decision-support solutions that strengthen extended producer responsibility schemes and improve data across the packaging value chain. By enabling more efficient waste management and supporting higher-quality material recovery, the project complements innovations in packaging design and recycling technologies, helping to deliver the objectives of the PPWR.
Even the most sustainable packaging can only fulfil its potential if it is effectively collected, sorted and recycled. PROSPER focuses on making those systems more efficient through digitalisation, helping valuable materials stay in circulation for longer.
Steven De Meester, Center for Sustainable Chemistry, Prosper project
MoeBIOS tackles one of the key challenges of Europe's circular bioeconomy: improving the recycling of bio-based plastics across three major value chains: packaging, textiles and agricultural plastics. Despite growing demand for recycled materials, only 6.3% of recycled content currently re-enters the EU packaging market, highlighting the need for more effective sorting and recycling technologies. The project is developing integrated solutions to improve the sorting, conditioning and upcycling of mixed bioplastic waste within existing recycling infrastructure. At industrial scale, when the MoeBIOS model is implemented, it is calculated that approximately 232,500 tonnes of mixed bioplastic waste per year will be processed, helping increase the availability of high-quality recycled materials and support the transition to a more circular plastics value chain. The project aligns closely with the objectives of the PPWR, particularly by advancing high-quality material recovery, increasing the use of recycled content and addressing complex waste streams across multiple sectors.
CelluWiz addressed one of the biggest challenges in food packaging: conventional multi-material packaging combines paper, plastic and other barrier layers to deliver high performance, but these combinations are difficult to recycle. To overcome this, the project developed two complementary technologies: a patented wet lamination process that applies a thin layer of microfibrillated cellulose (MFC) to paperboard without adhesives, and chromatogeny, a solvent-free grafting process that enhances moisture resistance. Together, these technologies enabled the production of high-performance, all-cellulose packaging with barrier properties against grease, oxygen, water and water vapour, without plastic or glue. The resulting material is recyclable, compostable and biodegradable, including in marine conditions. CelluWiz scaled its MFC wet lamination pilot from an initial target of 1–10 kg per day to 80 kg per day, and used the material to produce clamshells, cups and trays. Life cycle assessments estimated that the material could reduce the carbon footprint by up to 40% compared with recyclable fossil-based packaging and by 75% compared with non-recyclable alternatives.
Celluwiz has demonstrated cellulose-based packaging contains less than 5% weight plastic while remaining fully recyclable, two of the PPWR's key objectives. Following the successful pilot-scale validation of the technology, the next milestone is to demonstrate MFC wet lamination at industrially relevant speeds, paving the way for large-scale industrial deployment and market adoption.
Philippe Martinez, Centre Technique du papier, Celluwiz project
Sustainable solutions across the value chain
Beyond these examples, many other CBE JU-funded projects are contributing to the future of sustainable packaging. Across Europe, researchers and industry are developing novel recyclable fibre-based materials, bio-based barrier coatings, innovative adhesives compatible with recycling processes, as well as new business models and value chains that enable bio-based packaging solutions to reach the market.
Together, these innovations demonstrate that compliance with the PPWR is not only about meeting new regulatory requirements. It is also an opportunity to accelerate innovation, strengthen European industrial competitiveness and reduce reliance on fossil resources through sustainable bio-based alternatives.
As the Regulation starts to apply across Member States, CBE JU-funded projects show that many of the technologies needed to support this transition are already moving from the laboratory to the market, helping build a competitive bioeconomy where sustainable packaging is designed not only to comply with new legislation, but to create lasting environmental and economic value.
