More than 60 European associations, including AIM, FoodDrinkEurope and Cosmetics Europe, reject the planned colour and text-based labelling of packaging waste. They see this as a threat to the EU internal market and are calling for a harmonised, language-neutral pictogram system instead.
The joint industry statement published in July 2025 is directed against the current orientation of the EU guidelines on waste separation on packaging, as formulated in the draft of the Joint Research Centre (JRC). In the statement, the signatory organisations strongly oppose the mandatory use of colours and national language text on packaging labels. They see this as a return to special national regulations that would significantly impair the free movement of goods in the internal market.
Criticism of the JRC draft
Specifically, the signatories criticise the fact that the JRC draft does provide for pictograms, but restricts their use to exceptional cases such as small packaging or economic hurdles. The focus on coloured text labels contradicts Article 12 of the EU packaging regulation (PPWR), which provides for uniform EU-wide consumer information on waste separation.
According to the statement, such a system would not only lead to higher production costs and more bureaucracy, but also to consumer confusion. A product could be forced to list up to 24 different national terms for waste separation, which would run counter to the actual idea of clear consumer information.
Call for a political course correction
The associations are therefore calling on the European Commission to reconsider the planned requirements. The harmonisation of sorting instructions should not only serve to improve recycling, but also ensure the integrity of the internal market. In the past, the Commission had already taken legal action against individual national sorting systems that ran counter to the internal market.
The declaration is supported by numerous European industry associations, including Applia, Digitaleurope, Europen, Edana, Pro Europe, Plastics Europe, The Brewers of Europe and many other industry organisations from the packaging, retail, household and consumer goods sectors.
Source: Europen
