The EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) and the Digital Product Passport (DPP) are reshaping how packaging is designed, produced and tracked. For printers and converters, that means new demands on data, traceability and color. Here is a printer-focused checklist of what to prepare.
What PPWR changes
PPWR pushes packaging toward recyclability, recycled content and waste reduction across the EU. It affects substrate and ink choices, design for recycling, and the documentation you need to show compliance, which in turn affects how you set up and prove a job.
What the Digital Product Passport adds
The DPP attaches a digital record to a product, accessible through a data carrier such as a code on the pack. For printers, the relevant part is producing and tracking the data and the printed carrier reliably, job after job.
Printer readiness checklist
- Standardize color to ISO 12647 so jobs are repeatable and documented.
- Capture color data per job: targets, measurements and DeltaE results.
- Make that data traceable and exportable, not locked in an operator's head.
- Validate that codes and carriers print and scan reliably on your substrates.
- Review substrates and inks for recyclability and recycled-content requirements.
- Keep an auditable record linking each run to its standard and its results.
Where color and data meet
Compliance is easier when color control already produces clean, auditable data. A closed-loop workflow records what was printed and how close it was to target, which is exactly the kind of traceable evidence PPWR and DPP reward.