CBE JU-funded projects are solving Europe’s packaging challenges

As the first provisions of the EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) begin to apply across the European Union, the Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking (CBE JU) is highlighting EU-funded innovations already helping industry prepare for the transition to a more circular packaging.

The PPWR is the most significant reform to European packaging legislation in decades, replacing the previous Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive with directly applicable rules across all Member States. It aims to reduce packaging waste, improve recyclability, increase the use of recycled content and promote more circular packaging systems, with additional requirements introduced progressively until 2030, when all packaging placed on the EU market must be recyclable. As industry adapts to meet these ambitions, several of the innovations needed to comply with the new rules were developed years in advance through CBE JU-funded research.

CBE JU has supported 26 projects in the packaging sector, developing nearly 70 innovative packaging solutions. Through its funding programme, CBE JU is investing in innovations that address many of the key objectives of the PPWR. Projects are developing safe and sustainable- by-design packaging, improving recyclability through product design, advancing bio-based alternatives to fossil-based materials, and increasing the recovery and recycled content of bio- based plastics through better sorting and recycling technologies.

‘The PPWR sets ambitious objectives for Europe’s packaging sector but delivering them requires more than regulation. It calls for collaboration across the entire value chain to develop, validate and scale innovative solutions. At CBE JU, we bring together researchers, SMEs and industry to de-risk breakthrough technologies and accelerate their path to the market, helping ensure that Europe’s regulatory ambitions are matched by industrial innovation’, said Nicoló Giacomuzzi-Moore, CBE JU’s Executive Director.

The examples below show how these innovations are already preparing Europe’s packaging sector for the implementation of the new Regulation.

TERRIFIC project, coordinated by Novamont, in Italy, is developing the next generation bio-based food packaging, combining renewable raw materials with innovative packaging designs. The project is setting up a first-of-its-kind multipurpose biorefinery to produce the bio-based building blocks needed for industrial-scale production.
In the Netherlands, PEFerence successfully established the world’s first commercial-scale FDCA (furandicarboxylic acid) flagship plant, creating a new European value chain for the industrial production of bio-based chemicals and materials. The facility now produces FDCA, the key building block for polyethylene furanoate (PEF), enabling the manufacture of a wide range of high-value products, including bottles, films, fibres, textiles, coatings and cosmetic packaging. By demonstrating production at industrial scale, the project is paving the way for replacing fossil-based PET with a fully recyclable, 100% bio-based alternative across multiple sectors.

“The future of packaging is not a choice between circularity and biobased, but the combination of both,” said Ingrid Goumans, Director of Public Affairs and Sustainability at Avantium, PEFerence project. “The PPWR sets an important direction by promoting recyclability and recycled content, and projects like PEFerence demonstrate how innovative biobased materials can contribute to those goals. The next step is scaling these innovative biobased materials in a circular manner, alongside recycling, because a truly circular economy can only be achieved when we keep carbon in circulation and progressively move away from fossil sources.”

MoeBIOS is developing integrated solutions to improve the sorting, conditioning and upcycling of mixed bioplastic waste across the packaging, textiles and agricultural plastics sectors, increasing the availability of high-quality recycled materials. This will help support the implementation of the PPWR by improving the quality and supply of recycled feedstock needed to meet recycled content targets.
CelluWiz developed fully cellulose-based food packaging that combines high barrier performance with recyclability, compostability and biodegradability, replacing conventional multi-material packaging that is difficult to recycle.
PROSPER is strengthening Extended Producer Responsibility schemes through digital tools and improved data management, helping optimise packaging waste collection and support higher-quality material recovery.

“Even the most sustainable packaging can only fulfil its potential if it is effectively collected, sorted and recycled. PROSPER focuses on making those systems more efficient through digitalisation, helping valuable materials stay in circulation for longer”, said Steven De Meester, from the Center for Sustainable Chemistry, Prosper project.

These projects demonstrate that implementing the PPWR is not only about complying with new legislation. It is also an opportunity to accelerate innovation, strengthen European industrial competitiveness, expand the market for sustainable bio-based solutions and respond to growing consumer demand for packaging that is more circular, recyclable and environmentally responsible.

About CBE JU

The Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking is a €2 billion public-private partnership between the European Union and the Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC), funding research, innovation and demonstration projects that accelerate the transition to a sustainable, circular bio-based economy in Europe. CBE JU has so far invested a total of €1.4 billion in 243 projects. The public funding comes from the Horizon Europe R&I programme. Each euro of EU funding has triggered more than 3 euros in private investments.