Unpacking the EU’s plastic and packaging waste requirements for SA exporters

South African exporters are being urged to comply with the EU's packaging rules or risk market loss and missed sustainability opportunities. Octavia Avesca Spandiel reports.

- Octavia Avesca Spandiel

South African agricultural exporters targeting the EU market are facing a new regulatory landscape following the enforcement of the EU's Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) in February 2025.

With its ambitious goal to make all packaging recyclable by 2030 and reduce packaging waste per person by 15% by 2040, the PPWR has introduced binding targets and restrictions that could significantly impact South African export practices.

Speaking to Farmer's Weekly, Dr Solly Molepo, manager of trade research at the National Agricultural Marketing Council, said at the centre of this legislative shift was the EU’s push towards a circular economy that minimised environmental and health impacts by tackling packaging waste. The regulation, which applied to all packaging in the EU regardless of origin, now demanded full life cycle compliance from production to end-of-life disposal.