Packaging is everywhere. It protects our products, makes transport possible, and helps customers receive goods safely. But it also creates waste, and that is something governments, businesses and consumers can no longer ignore.
Europe is responding with the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), a new framework designed to make packaging more sustainable and to ensure that it can effectively enter the recycling chain.
For Beaulieu, this means new responsibilities and a significant amount of work. But it also creates an opportunity: to better understand the packaging we use, identify where we can improve and rethink whether we need all of it in the first place.
“We welcome regulation when it pushes everyone in a better direction,” says Nele, Regulatory Compliance & Reporting Lead. “It adds complexity and creates a lot of work, but ultimately, that was the goal: to make companies think differently about packaging.”Before we can improve our packaging, we need to know exactly what we use. And there is more of it than it might seem at first sight. A cushion vinyl roll, for example, can involve a cardboard tube, wrapping film, plugs, stickers, printing ink and other components. The same applies across all of Beaulieu’s European operations, from the wrapping foil and pallets used for fibres to the cardboard boxes in which flooring products are sold.
Teams across the divisions are working with the Regulatory team to build a complete overview of our packaging: what materials we use, where they come from, which suppliers are involved, and what information is available.
“It seems simple before you start,” Nele explains. “But the more you talk to the divisions, the more complicated it becomes. Every business has its own specific cases.”
The work is giving Beaulieu something we did not have before: a much clearer picture of our packaging across the Group.
One of the key principles of PPWR is recyclability. But being technically recyclable does not automatically mean that packaging is effectively recycled.
“For something to be considered recyclable, you cannot only ask whether it is technically possible to recycle it,” Nele explains. “You also have to consider whether it is actually collected, sorted and recycled.”
The regulation therefore pushes companies to think beyond the packaging itself and consider what happens to it after use.
It also means understanding what is actually in the packaging we purchase. Information from suppliers helps us assess materials and substances of concern and make sure that the packaging entering the recycling chain is safe.
For food-contact packaging, additional requirements apply, including considerations around substances such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
Much of this work is driven by compliance. But the value goes beyond compliance. For the first time, Beaulieu is building a much more comprehensive picture of the packaging used across European operations. This allows us to ask a bigger question: where can we improve?
“We have already taken action in different places,” says Clara, Group SHE, Sustainability & Quality Director. “Sometimes we reduced the amount of material, sometimes we increased recycled content, sometimes we made packaging lighter.”
The progress can already be measured. In 2023, 34% of our packaging materials by weight came from recycled sources. By 2025, this had increased this to 37% at Group level, exceeding our initial milestone of 35%.
Our ambition is to continue this progress and increase the share of recycled content in our packaging – including both post-industrial and post-consumer recycled content – to more than 50% by 2030.
The PPWR is complex, and its implementation will continue to evolve. Working with suppliers also brings challenges, particularly when smaller suppliers are still getting familiar with the new requirements.
For Beaulieu, the priority is therefore not to have every answer immediately. It is to build the right knowledge, close gaps, and improve step by step: “If there is a regulation, no matter how complex it is, we will try to work through it and do things as well as we can,” says Clara. “That may require a lot of effort, but it shows that we want to be a reliable and responsible supplier.”
And that reliability increasingly matters to customers. Beaulieu is already receiving questions about packaging compliance, and these requests are likely to grow as the regulation develops.
The PPWR will be phased over time, with further requirements around recycled content, packaging composition, labelling, and packaging waste coming into play in the years ahead.
But the bigger opportunity is not simply to comply with new legislation. It is to use what we learn to make better choices.
“We now know much more about our packaging than we did before,” says Clara. “That gives us the opportunity to move from compliance to actually improving our impact, both our own impact and that of our customers.”
Regulation alone will not solve the packaging challenge. But it can encourage businesses to better understand the impact of their packaging, both on their own operations and on the environment, and use that insight to make better choices.
NEWS
30/09/2026
