A New Era for European Packaging: Why PPWR Could Strengthen Nexam’s Market

On 12 August 2026, the EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) generally becomes applicable across the European Union. It marks the beginning of a major transition in how packaging is designed, produced, recycled and ultimately valued.

For Nexam Chemical, the significance goes beyond recycling regulation. The more interesting question is what happens to the economics of plastic packaging as manufacturers are required to use significantly more recycled material.

The direction is now written into European law.

Under PPWR, plastic packaging will be subject to minimum post-consumer recycled-content requirements. By 2030, the targets include 30% for contact-sensitive PET packaging, 10% for contact-sensitive packaging made from other plastics, 30% for single-use plastic beverage bottles and 35% for other plastic packaging. By 2040, these levels increase to 50%, 25%, 65% and 65%, respectively.

The regulation also goes beyond recycled content. Packaging placed on the EU market will increasingly have to meet recyclability requirements, pushing the industry towards materials that can circulate at scale while retaining sufficient quality for new applications.

This is where the investment case becomes particularly interesting.

Regulation can create demand for recycled plastic, but it cannot remove the technical and economic challenges associated with using it.

Higher recycled content can introduce variations in material quality, brittleness, reduced mechanical performance and production inefficiencies. For manufacturers, the challenge therefore becomes more complex than simply purchasing recycled feedstock. They need to increase recycled content while maintaining product quality, production speed and competitive economics.

Nexam’s recent Canadian customer case provides a useful real-world example.

The manufacturer produces rigid food packaging from 100% recycled PET. According to Nexam, brittleness had resulted in cracking in thermoformed food trays. The customer had responded by increasing the proportion of higher-quality bottle-grade material and reducing production speed, negatively affecting both efficiency and cost.

Following industrial trials, Nexam reported that its Reactive Recycling technology delivered the strongest performance among the alternatives tested. The project has since moved towards planned commercialization, with the initial application representing an estimated annual potential of approximately SEK 6 million for Nexam.

This illustrates the broader opportunity created by PPWR.

The regulation creates pressure to use more recycled material. Manufacturers then need to determine how to do so economically.

That could increase the value of technologies capable of improving recycled polymers within existing manufacturing processes. Instead of treating recycled content purely as a sustainability objective, manufacturers increasingly have an economic incentive to extract more performance from recycled feedstock.

For an additive supplier such as Nexam, this is an important distinction. The addressable opportunity is not simply tied to growth in recycling volumes. It is tied to the increasing technical challenge of making higher recycled-content levels work commercially.

And the requirements become considerably more demanding over time. By 2040, several categories of plastic packaging will require recycled-content levels of 50-65%.

This creates a long runway for material innovation.

PPWR does not guarantee growth for Nexam. Customer qualification, conversion and recurring industrial volumes remain the factors that ultimately determine commercial success.

But the regulatory direction is increasingly aligned with the problem Nexam is trying to solve.

Europe is effectively requiring manufacturers to use more recycled plastic.

The next challenge is making the economics work.

References
European Commission - Packaging & Packaging Waste. Official overview of Regulation (EU) 2025/40, including its entry into force and application from 12 August 2026.
https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics/waste-and-recycling/packaging-waste_en

EUR-Lex - Regulation (EU) 2025/40 on packaging and packaging waste. Official legal text, including Article 7 and the minimum recycled-content requirements for 2030 and 2040.
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2025/40/oj/eng