Setting the course for the future

As guest speaker, Mr Wolfgang Trunk, author of the PPWR for the European Commission, congratulated the EPT members for their exemplary commitment and achievements to date.

Market participants will only be allowed to use single-use plastic packaging for national transport and transport within a company for around 1,000 working days. From 1 January 2030, the obligation to use 100% reusable packaging will then apply to most supply chains.

Despite the increasing time pressure, however, many companies are still reluctant to implement this. EPT therefore also expects demand to be much higher than current production capacities, especially in 2028 and 2029.

Felix Thun-Hohenstein, board member of EPT eG: ‘Now is the right time to start the transition to reusable trays - this will secure you inflation-protected prices for up to 20 years and the necessary quantities to fulfil the PPWR requirements by the end of 2029 at the latest.’

In order to encourage market participants to switch from disposable to sustainable reusable packaging and to ensure planning security for production and the availability of trays in the coming years, all orders received by EPT GmbH by 31 December 2025 will continue to be invoiced at the current rate - even if delivery is not requested until 2026 or 2027. It will also be possible to extend these contracts for a further term at today's conditions. From 2026, a price adjustment will be unavoidable due to external financing costs.

In addition to fulfilling legal requirements, there are also significant cost benefits to using EPT trays: With a 3-year contract with annual instalment payments and 4 assumed rotations per year, the rental costs for EPT members for a Normpack 400 format model amount to just €0.17 per rotation - a single-use tray costs an average of €0.35. Existing (e.g. Spain, France) and planned taxes on the use of single-use plastic (e.g. Germany) will make the use of reusable systems even more financially attractive in future.

In the almost 3 years of its existence, EPT eG has so far developed 4 reusable trays to market maturity, which have already been used extensively in retail since the 2025 season. With the EPT 768 (format 200, 10.5 - 13 cm), 769 (format 200, 9 - 10.5 cm), 775 (format 400, 10.5 - 13 cm) and 777 (format 400, 12 cm) models, more than half of the existing disposable trays can be replaced.

Rick van der Eijk, board member of EPT eG: "The multi-tray design is extremely important when it comes to efficiency. One tray can be used for different products, over the course of a year or alternating with different producers. This saves on material usage and storage capacity and ensures even better utilisation of the EPT reusable system.“

The members of Euro Plant Tray eG are unanimous: reusable packaging must happen now! Those who wait until the deadline in 2029 will not be able to fulfil legal requirements in time. It is important to prepare yourself and your partners now in all aspects of the new process and to involve employees, IT and logistics in the process. Rick van der Eijk: "We can't understand the reluctance of the market. We all already use reusable packaging today: for CC Containers or in cut flower delivery. So reusable is not new, EPT is just a new item in the system. The EU's PPWR is coming! So why wait when you can act sustainably now and even save costs."