Beyond the Box: EPR, PPWR and Our Approach to Regulation

Our responsibility for packaging goes beyond protecting a product on its journey to your home. It also includes what happens to those materials afterwards, and, increasingly, how packaging is designed from the outset.

Two European regulatory frameworks are helping shape this transition: Extended Producer Responsibility and the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation. Together, they are changing how packaging is designed, financed and managed at the end of its life, and reinforcing work already underway at Westwing.

Extended Producer Responsibility: Supporting the Packaging Cycle

Extended Producer Responsibility, or EPR, is based on a simple principle: companies that place packaging on the market also contribute to managing it once it becomes waste. In practice, this means financing the systems that collect, sort and recycle packaging in each country where we operate.

For us, EPR is an important part of a more circular approach to packaging. Across every European market in which Westwing sells its products, we finance our share of packaging collection, sorting and recycling, contributing to the infrastructure that enables materials to be recovered and used again.

That responsibility also influences decisions much earlier in the process. Packaging needs to protect the product first and foremost, but its end of life matters too. This means considering from the design stage how materials can be separated, sorted and recycled once the packaging has served its purpose.

As we expanded into new European markets in 2025, we registered for the relevant EPR schemes ahead of launch, in some cases several months before the first order was even placed.

PPWR: A Common European Standard for Packaging

The EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) takes this approach further by introducing common European requirements for packaging minimisation, recyclability, recycled content and reuse. It became applicable from 12 August 2026, with certain requirements being phased in over subsequent years.

Our preparation for PPWR is therefore not only about meeting individual regulatory requirements. It is also an opportunity to apply a more consistent approach to packaging across 28 markets.

Together with our suppliers, we are reviewing packaging to ensure that it is safe, compliant and designed for recycling. In several areas, this builds on work that began well before the regulation came into effect.

Reducing empty space is one example. For several years, we have measured the relationship between box size and its contents so that we can reduce unnecessary volume, use material more efficiently and avoid shipping space that serves no purpose.

In many respects, regulation is now moving in the same direction as the packaging work we had already begun.

Part of a Broader Approach

EPR and PPWR are two examples of a broader shift in European sustainability regulation towards greater traceability, stronger documentation and clearer requirements for products and materials.

This is closely aligned with the approach set out in our Sustainability Strategy 2030: building reliable processes, improving traceability and using recognised standards and certifications to support better decisions.

The same principle applies to packaging as it does to material sourcing and certification, which we explore in our Products stories. By putting the right processes and information in place from the beginning, we can respond to evolving requirements while continuing to improve how our products and packaging are designed and managed.