The EU Goes Mad Over Packaging Recycling

Brussels’ regulatory activism offers repeated insights into the logic of bureaucratic systems. 

Thomas Kolbe | June 10, 2026

In August, a new EU packaging regulation will come into force. A costly and cumbersome compliance regime comes with it. It increasingly appears that nothing can stop Brussels’ bureaucratization machine anymore.

Regulation follows regulation. On August 12, the so-called EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) will enter into force, reorganizing the recycling framework for packaging across Europe. Adopted last year, the regulation becomes binding for all EU member states and companies on August 12 and, as an EU regulation, does not require transposition into national law. The PPWR will replace the current patchwork of national packaging recycling laws with a unified framework for the EU single market. Until then, Germany’s existing Packaging Act (VerpackG) remains in effect.

Brussels always tells the same story: regulation is supposed to strengthen the European single market and harmonize economic and environmental objectives. A beautiful narrative -- especially for those who stand to profit from it. Similar dynamics have already emerged in other sectors, such as carbon emissions trading. In the end, compliance costs for affected businesses rise, the bureaucratic apparatus expands through new control and sanctioning mechanisms, and the overall economy loses competitiveness.

According to the European Commission, the goal of the regulatory push is to ensure that by 2030 only recyclable packaging........

© American Thinker