A new statement from the Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI) outlines recent progress in the recycling standardisation of paper and board packaging and its role in advancing circular economy objectives across Europe.
The document highlights the transition from fossil-based plastics to more recyclable paper packaging, increases in recycling rates, and coordinated industry efforts to support harmonised recycling standards under evolving EU regulatory frameworks.
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Industry shift towards recyclable paper packaging and circularity
The report notes that the European packaging market has increasingly shifted from plastics to paper packaging, driven in part by the EU’s Single-Use Plastics Directive and broader sustainability pressures.
Paper and board packaging is widely used across markets and has established itself as a key contributor to recycling efforts. In Europe, the recycling rate for paper packaging stands at around 87%, surpassing legal EU targets for the end of the decade and outpacing recycling rates in other regions.
CEPI emphasises that this performance results from decades of investment in design for recycling, better materials recovery technologies and collaborative initiatives.
The industry’s efforts are framed as essential to building a circular fibre economy, wherein recycled fibre remains in continuous use and supports broader sustainability goals.
Role of standardisation in recyclability and compliance
Standardisation of recycling criteria and recyclability testing methods is central to industry and regulatory ambitions.
CEPI’s widely adopted recyclability test method, developed with partners across the pulp and paper value chain, is a core tool in these efforts. The method supports the consistent assessment of packaging products’ suitability for industrial recycling processes.
Industry stakeholders, including testing laboratories, are contributing to a network that uses harmonised protocols to evaluate paper packaging recyclability. These initiatives are intended to align with the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), which sets out requirements for packaging to be recyclable or reusable by specific future dates.
Recyclability standardisation is expected to improve transparency and comparability of recycling performance across products, simplifying compliance with emerging extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes and other regulatory frameworks.
Europe’s strategic position and global competition
CEPI’s statement also points to growing global competition for recycled fibre resources. While European producers have historically led in recycling performance, other regions are increasingly active in paper recovery markets.
The EU’s Waste Shipment Regulation limits exports of recyclable waste to jurisdictions with equivalent environmental and operational standards, which may help maintain high-quality circular processing within Europe.
The European Commission’s Bioeconomy Strategy further reinforces the strategic value of bio-based materials such as paper, and encourages ongoing investment in recycling infrastructure and sustainable material design.
Together with industry standardisation efforts, such policies are seen as central to strengthening Europe’s leadership in circular packaging solutions.
For the packaging industry, understanding recyclability standards and compliance mechanisms is increasingly important as regulators tighten criteria and set ambitious recycling targets through initiatives like PPWR and EPR schemes, which are reshaping obligations for producers and recyclers alike.
