Spain debuts the new European rules on packaging while dragging pending development duties. The European Regulation began to be applied this week and will gradually deploy its main measures over the coming years. Most of the obligations, which will be applicable from 2030, aim to reduce packaging waste, limit single-use products, and move towards a model based on reuse and recycling.
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Some of the obligations that Spain approved in 2022, with the waste law and the packaging royal decree, remain not fully developed.
Fruits and vegetables should have been plastic-free since 2022
Specifically, four years after the approval of the Spanish regulation, fruits and vegetables wrapped in plastic are still present on supermarket shelves. Royal Decree 1055/2022 required stores to present these products in bulk, except for products at risk of deterioration or loss, of a protected variety, with a differentiated geographical quality indication, or organic farming. This exception was to be defined in a list of products prepared by the Ministry of Agriculture.
Carlos Arribas, head of the waste and packaging area at Ecologistas en Acción, calls the delay a “scandal” and fears that the royal decree will be modified “to align it with the regulation.” In fact, the Ministry for the Ecological Transition states that it is working on a new royal decree to “adapt the national framework to the European one” and “ensure proper coherence” between both regulations.
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“Food safety must be guaranteed above all, but also minimizing the impact of packaging. Work is being done with the entire value chain, and manufacturers have already drafted a preliminary list of products that should be excluded from the obligation,” explains Ana Rivas, sustainability director of Asedas, the association of distributors and supermarkets. The spokesperson assures they are “expectant” about the publication of the list.
The list of product exceptions is still unpublished
Agriculture justifies to La Vanguardia that the delay in the list of exceptions is due to the entry into force of the new regulation. The department says it prefers to wait for the future guidelines from the European Commission, which must publish them by February 2027 at the latest, to determine which fruits and vegetables can be wrapped in plastic. Meanwhile, it recalls that EFSA is preparing “a scientific assessment” aimed at establishing the criteria that will serve as the basis for future exemptions.
For all these reasons, Agriculture does not specify a date for publication and considers it “coherent,” “in the interest of proper harmonization,” to wait for the new European guidelines.
The packaging return system is also not expected to be ready by November this year
Another pending duty for Spain is the implementation of the Deposit, Return and Refund System (SDDR). Spanish regulations establish that the system must be operational this November, after the collection targets were not met. The deadline is approaching, but the system is neither in place nor expected soon.
Its implementation was mandatory after, in 2023, the recovery rate of packaging in the yellow container (plastic packaging, cans, and cartons) was not met. The collection rate was 41.3%, while the legal target set by law was 70%. The new regulation establishes that by 2029, member states must have the SDDR ready for plastic bottles and metal cans with the goal of achieving a collection rate of at least 90%.
“Although four bids were submitted to manage the SDDR, all in the Community of Madrid, they are still waiting for that community to grant authorization,” denounces the spokesperson of Ecologistas en Acción.
The industry maintains that these points will require significant investments, logistical changes, and consumer adaptation. The director of competitiveness and sustainability of the food and beverage industry employers’ association FIAB, Paloma Sánchez Pello, told Efeagro that the adaptation “involves a significant investment effort,” in process modernization, development of new materials, and team training. An example she detailed is the implementation of return systems for beverages, which will have to coexist with the existing management system.
For its part, distribution has been working for months, according to Asedas, on designing and adapting the SDDR model to meet the European 2029 target. “Its implementation will require adapting different store models, but it will not be immediate,” warns Ana Rivas.
Reusable packaging in stores, the third non-compliance
The obligation set in the royal decree to start introducing reusable beverage packaging has also not been met. Retail stores with an area equal to or greater than 300 m² were required to offer at least four types (references) of products with reusable beverage packaging. However, they still do not offer them. Meanwhile, the European regulation establishes that from 2030, at least 10% of products must be marketed in reusable packaging within a reuse system. By 2040, the target will be 40%.
Beyond the pending duties of the government, the European regulation “falls short.” This is the view of Greenpeace, which calls the plastic packaging reduction targets set by the regulation “manifestly insufficient”: 5% by 2030, 10% by 2035, and 15% by 2040. “If you leave a tap open and the house floods, the first thing you do is close it before bailing out water. With plastic pollution, it’s the opposite: they create reduction rules but don’t close the production tap,” they exemplify.
In this regard, the international movement Break Free From Plastic, which fights for a future free of plastic pollution, calls the regulation a “historic milestone” in a European context where each citizen consumes 98 kg of packaging, according to a recent study by the Joint Research Centre (JRC).
The organization warns of growing concern about plastic packaging, the only category that has registered an increase between 2011 and 2025, with an 11% growth in absolute terms. “If Europe takes packaging waste reduction seriously, reuse must become the norm, not the exception,” concludes Larissa Copello, head of reuse and packaging policies at Zero Waste Europe.
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