European PET industry encourages adoption of the CEN Design-for-Recycling Standards
The European PET value chain encourages the adoption of the pr EN18120 series for design for recycling and recyclability assessment protocols for plastics packaging developed by CEN TC261/SC4/WG10 Design for Recycling (DfR) standards for plastic packaging, developed under the European Commission’s mandate, as published in a statement by PETCORE EUROPE. These standards are claimed to form the technical backbone for the delegated act the Commission will adopt by January 1, 2028 under the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR – EU 2025/40).
According to PETCORE EUROPE, this achievement is the result of three years of intense collaboration, nearly 150 expert meetings for plastics (more than 25 meetings only for PET bottles), and the direct involvement of hundreds of specialists across the entire packaging ecosystem: material producers, converters, brands, retailers, recyclers, academia, testing laboratories, technology providers and national standardisation bodies.
The association calls the commission to confirm the support it has been showing to the development of these standards during the last three years by adopting them as the basis for the recyclability performance assessment provisioned in the PPWR under article 6.
A transparent, consensus-driven, value-chain-wide process
The CEN process provided a neutral, rules-based platform where each technical element was examined repeatedly, supported by data, and agreed under the formal consensus rules that govern European standardisation.
Importantly:
- Recycling industry representatives, including their representative association (including national and European associations), participated fully in the process, engaged in discussions and contributed with technical expertise.
- Every requirement in EN 18120 and related standards passed with consensus, meaning no element could be included without agreement from all participating sectors, including recyclers.
- The standards integrate real-world experience, drawing on many years of best practices and established guidelines, including nearly two decades of proven technical foundation from the European PET Bottle Platform (EPBP) and the Tray Circularity Evaluation Platform (TCEP).
- The PET value chain was represented by PETCORE EUROPE and many of its members (Retailers, Brand Owners, Raw Material Manufacturers, Converters and recyclers) were also present, via National Standardization Bodies.
This process is claimed to ensure that the resulting standards reflect both the realities of packaging production and the operational needs of European recyclers.
A foundation for Europe’s circularity ambitions
According to the statement, these standards are not the final endpoint, but the first harmonised foundation Europe has ever created for:
- improving recyclability at scale,
- enhancing material quality,
- ensuring investment certainty,
- and enabling the PPWR’s 2030 recyclability and recycled-content targets.
For manufacturers and brands, the standards provide clear and unified design criteria, bridging a long-standing gap in the internal market. For recyclers, they offer predictability, support for high-quality output and a mechanism to guide future investments, says the association.
Deploy, monitor, and continuously improve
While robust and technically grounded, the standards represent the first version. As innovation accelerates (new materials, new sorting technologies,…) the standards will naturally require refinements and updates.
A creation of a PET value chain permanent platform is therefore proposed, led by PETCORE EUROPE to:
- Support and monitor the standard’s deployment
- Observe their impact on quality, yield, economics
- Monitor technology evolutions that are relevant to be included in the standards for both design for recycling and recyclability assessment
- Get feed-back from brand owners, collectors, converters, pre-processors and recyclers and other PET value chain stakeholders
- Aggregate experience and prepare material for the update and the improvement of the standards within the framework of the CEN.
This platform aims to allow the value chain to jointly assess the effectiveness of the standards. The first formal revision is expected before the end of 2027 and PETCORE EUROPE is committed to contributing operational insights, scientific data and field results to further strengthen future versions.