The obligation for companies to contribute to the management of professional packaging waste, scheduled for July 1, 2026, will be postponed, the Ministry of Ecological Transition said on Friday.
This postponement is “necessary” in particular because “all the contributors to the sector have not yet been fully identified”, due to the “late publication”, in June 2026, of the instructions from the European Commission, indicated the office of the Minister Delegate for the Ecological Transition, Mathieu Lefèvre.
Professional packaging is used by companies for other businesses, such as in catering. Among these packaging that the consumer hardly sees: wooden pallets, barrels, cans or large packages to contain food for catering or chemicals and cleaning products for industry.
A colossal deposit to recycle
The implementation of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for this packaging could be an important lever for progress in recycling in France. The source of waste that they represent for recyclers is potentially colossal, “eight million tonnes of packaging” per year, compared to the five million tonnes of household packaging put on the market each year, according to Citeo Pro, one of the eco-organizations approved to finance the collection, recycling or reuse of this packaging from the eco-financial contributions paid by manufacturers.
The recycling rates of different materials vary greatly: cardboard and wood have already exceeded the objectives set for 2030, i.e. 80 and 30% of recycled packaging respectively. The recycling of steel (51% of recycled packaging with a target of 80% in 2030), aluminum (35% for a target of 60%) or plastic (26% for a target of 55%), on the other hand, shows significant room for progress, according to figures communicated by Citeo Pro.
Certain areas of extended producer responsibility are in the sights of the authorities and communities that they are supposed to support in waste management, taking into account the dysfunctions observed.
Mathieu Lefève underlined Friday in the daily Ouest-France the “need to review their governance so that they are more efficient, more rational and more economically sustainable, and that they ensure better environmental performance”.
