What large packaging users have been hashing out with compliance departments for months has become a question at the shop counter for a family-run business in Oldenburg. In an Instagram reel, Thies Cordes, managing director and master baker at the Janssen bakery, explains to his customers why their familiar bread roll bag is at risk: „We might lose by far the coolest bread roll bag in Oldenburg.“ The trigger is the PPWR – long a matter of course for experts, but a surprise to customers.
The video struck a chord. It garnered more than 5,200 likes, over 2,000 comments, was shared hundreds of times and filled the comment sections with incomprehension, support and anger. This makes the case a textbook example of how the criticism levelled by the industry against the regulation plays out in a single craft business and among the public.
The case: Why the carrier bag is becoming a problem
Previously, the bakery, founded in 1954, obtained its printed bags fully licensed from its supplier. With the implementation of the PPWR on 12 August 2026, responsibility shifts: anyone who has packaging designed under their own name or brand is considered the producer – with the well-known obligations regarding declarations of conformity and technical documentation. „If you have your own branded bread roll bags, just like we have our bags, we are automatically the manufacturer,“ Cordes summarises; in addition, there are forecasts for disposed quantities and material evidence down to the question of the glue.
The business is therefore faced with a dilemma, which it lays bare in the video. The simplest solution would be unbranded goods without design – at the cost of recognition. The obvious way out via a sticker does not work: as soon as the company's own motif is stuck on the neutral bag, it is personalised again, and the business ends up back in the role of producer. „The savvy customer probably thinks, why doesn't he just put a sticker on it?“ says Cordes – and immediately provides the answer.
No exception for this establishment
The regulation certainly does provide for easements – they just don't apply here. A special rule applies to micro-enterprises with fewer than ten employees and an annual turnover or balance sheet total of a maximum of two million euros: if such a company has its packaging developed by a supplier based in the EU, this supplier steps into the producer role and takes over the declaration and documentation. By contrast, there is no general exemption for small and medium-sized enterprises.
However, a bakery with around a dozen branches in Oldenburg and the surrounding area clearly sits above this threshold. For it, full producer responsibility remains in place – precisely the kind of situation in which many medium-sized businesses find themselves, having neither a dedicated legal department nor packaging management in place to implement it. The fact that the regulation is also controversial at EU level and that several lawsuits regarding individual rules are pending before the European Court of Justice underlines the fact that the debate over its practical feasibility is far from over.
The effect: A local Reel strikes a chord
Cordes deliberately directed his message at the customers and put the decision to a vote: neutral goods and a quieter life, or fight and take on the bureaucracy? The comments show how immediately the issue hits home as soon as it concerns a familiar product. „Such utter nonsense!!! What's the point of that? Didn't they want to cut red tape!?“ writes one user. Many rally behind the business: „The Janssen bag is part of the Oldenburg townscape. Definitely fight for it!“ Others bring reusable options into play – „Limited multi-purpose bags with branding would be awesome“ – or react with emphasized loyalty: „I'll just bring my fabric bag. Best rolls ever.“
What is striking is how quickly the debate goes beyond the bag. Other self-employed people recognise their own situation: „You lot in your bubble are taking away any kind of perspective for every medium-sized business.“ An FDP city councillor comments that here „unnecessary bureaucracy“ is being created „from a sensible goal“; in the city council the regulation can neither be suspended nor bypassed, but it needs to be made „more practical“ at EU level. And some are openly calling for a boycott: "Just ignore it, if everyone joins in, maybe they'll wake up!"
For the packaging industry, the case is instructive for a reason that goes beyond the bag. It shows how an abstract compliance requirement becomes a public issue as soon as it bears the face of a local brand – and how effectively a single reel brings together the criticism that companies otherwise formulate in official statements and association papers. Cordes sums up the mood with a phrase that he uses as a hashtag: „Law changes aren't cool.“ The bakery has not yet made a public decision about the future of the bag.
