EU PPWR: Are you prepared for the August 12 deadline?

What is the EU PPWR?

The EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) is a new regulation designed to reduce packaging waste and improve packaging sustainability across the European Union. From August 2026, companies placing packaged goods on the EU market must provide verifiable compliance data, including material composition, recyclability, and Declaration of Conformity documentation.

What is the PPWR deadline?

The 12 August 2026 deadline for the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) is fast approaching, and it represents a critical turning point for any company sourcing packaging supplies. Under the PPWR, simply claiming your packaging is eco-friendly is no longer enough; you must be able to legally prove it.

If a supplier fails to provide accurate technical data by the August 12 deadline, your packaged goods risk being legally blocked at EU borders or pulled from shelves entirely. This is no longer just an administrative task, it’s an urgent matter of market access and revenue protection.

Which companies are affected by PPWR?

Whether you are an EU brand needing to avoid heavy fines, or a UK and US exporter who risks being dropped by EU distributors for non-compliance, ensuring your supply chain is verified for packaging compliance is paramount. This regulation heavily impacts Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG), Cosmetics, Retail, Pharmaceuticals, and Food & Beverage companies.

What supplier data is required under PPWR?

Any packaged goods placed on the EU market must be accompanied by a formal EU Declaration of Conformity (DoC). This must be backed by extensive technical files, including proof of material composition, strict limits on harmful substances, and verifiable recyclability grading.

The reality for procurement and compliance teams is that 90% of this critical data currently lives directly with your suppliers. 

For Chief Procurement Officers (CPOs) the risk is massive supply chain disruptions, while Heads of Sustainability/Compliance will be faced with a manual nightmare of processing and managing emailed PDF data sheets. 

If your team has no automated way to collect data from different packaging suppliers, the scale of the challenge becomes clear.

Why are spreadsheets risky for PPWR compliance?

Many sourcing teams attempt to manage compliance via spreadsheets, but under the PPWR, manual processes are your biggest vulnerability. The PPWR mandates a ‘5-to-10-Year Vault’ i.e. single-use packaging records must be securely retained for 5 years, and reusable packaging records for 10 years.

Spreadsheets simply cannot safely accommodate this. Anyone can accidentally delete a single cell, column or row, instantly invalidating your entire audit trail. Furthermore, if a European regulator audits your Declaration of Conformity, an email chain of PDFs will fall short. You need an immutable, timestamped audit trail of supplier compliance.

PPWR compliance checklist for procurement teams

Here’s a simple checklist of how to get started with your PPWR compliance

1. Identify all packaging suppliers

2. Collect material composition data

3. Obtain Declaration of Conformity documents

4. Verify recyclability classifications

5. Store supplier documentation securely

6. Maintain a 5–10 year audit trail 

7. Automate supplier onboarding workflows

How can procurement teams automate PPWR onboarding?

To survive the August deadline and ensure only compliant suppliers are used moving forward, companies must transition their processes from manual data-chasing to an automated, urgent, regulatory shield.

Market Dojo’s Supplier Onboarding module serves as the ultimate solution for this, functioning as the legally required audit trail. 

Market Dojo Supplier Onboarding helps you to

• Set up a PPWR onboarding template effortlessly using AI-powered prompts
• Ensure all mandatory supplier information is collected consistently
• Significantly expand your supplier reach by automating the onboarding process
• Save time by eliminating the need to build questionnaires and emails from scratch or manually collate responses and data
• Maintain the PPWR’s 5-10 year legally required audit trail

Act now to secure your supply chain

Don’t let your products be blocked at the border because of outdated data collection methods. Market Dojo protects your EU revenue from being shut down on August 12th by auditing your packaging supply chain at scale.

Take action today. Book your PPWR readiness assessment to explore how Market Dojo can help you be ready for the August deadline.

Nick Drewe
Co-founder and COO at Market Dojo

Nick has more than 20 years of experience helping procurement teams automate and streamline supplier onboarding, supplier performance, and supplier management processes. He also advises organisations on sourcing strategy and reverse auctions. You can find Nick on LinkedIn