Transport packaging: efficiency factor, not waste problem

A recent EU Commission decision signals a long-overdue shift in how European regulation treats industrial packaging — from a sustainability liability to an essential component of efficient, low-waste supply chains.

A correction, not a concession

In a delegated decision on the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), the EU Commission has exempted pallet wrap and strapping bands from the planned 100% reusable packaging requirement for domestic and intra-company transport. While this may sound like a regulatory footnote, it reflects a meaningful change in direction.

The original requirement would have been technically unworkable and — crucially — ecologically counterproductive. Stretch films and strapping bands are not interchangeable materials. They serve a structural role in keeping palletised goods stable, intact, and deliverable. Mandating their replacement with reusable systems without accounting for logistics realities would have created new problems rather than solving existing ones.

Protection is part of the environmental equation

The sustainability case for transport packaging is often underappreciated. When goods are damaged in transit, the consequences extend far beyond a replacement shipment: additional production, extra transport journeys, higher CO₂ emissions, and wasted raw materials. Packaging that prevents damage is, by definition, packaging that saves resources.

~24 g of plastic packaging per 1 kg of goods — average across all plastic packaging

71% of household plastic packaging materially recycled (ZSVR/UBA, 2024)

82% of household plastic packaging already recyclable or reusable

37,000 t of agricultural plastics collected and recycled via Initiative ERDE in 2025

Sources: IK Sustainability Report 24/25; ZSVR Packaging Recycling Fact Check, January 2026; Initiative ERDE 2025.