PPWR meets the French 3R decree: what Brussels harmonizes, and what France keeps

On November 8, 2024, France's highest administrative court, the Conseil d'État, struck down the decree banning plastic packaging around fresh fruit and vegetables. Not on the merits: the European Commission had asked France to hold its text, because a European regulation in the making covered exactly the same ground. That regulation is now law. The Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), Regulation (EU) 2025/40 of December 19, 2024, entered into force on February 11, 2025 and applies in every member state from August 12, 2026, with no transposition step. For a French company, the question is no longer whether packaging rules change. It is what survives of the national ones: the AGEC anti-waste law, the 3R decree, the Triman sorting mark, and the bonus-malus on producer fees.

France legislated first, and often earlier than Brussels

France's anti-waste and circular economy law of February 10, 2020 (loi AGEC, law no. 2020-105) set a national goal of ending the sale of single-use plastic packaging by 2040, reached through five-year decrees. The first of those, the "3R" decree of April 29, 2021 (decree no. 2021-517, for reduction, reuse, and recycling), covered 2021 to 2025: cut single-use plastic packaging by 20% by the end of 2025 against 2018 tonnage, with at least half of the cut coming from reuse, work toward eliminating "unnecessary" single-use plastic packaging, and aim for 100% recycling from January 1, 2025.

The same law generalized the Triman logo and its Info-tri sorting instructions on consumer packaging (article 17, implemented by decree no. 2021-835 of June 29, 2021), and banned specific formats outright, plastic around fresh produce under 1.5 kilograms among them. By the time the EU institutions agreed on the PPWR, France had five years of packaging law in place that went further than the 1994 European directive it grew up under.

The PPWR is a regulation, and that changes who decides

The PPWR replaces the 1994 packaging directive with a directly applicable regulation, and its article 4 carries a free-movement clause: a member state cannot refuse packaging that complies with the regulation's harmonized requirements. Those requirements arrive on a published calendar.

• From January 1, 2030, packaging must reach a recyclability performance grade of A, B, or C to be placed on the market, and grade C is scheduled to drop out in 2038.
• From January 1, 2030, plastic packaging must contain minimum recycled content: 30% for contact-sensitive PET packaging, 10% for contact-sensitive packaging in other plastics, 30% for single-use plastic beverage bottles, and 35% for most other plastic packaging.
• From January 1, 2030, the formats listed in Annex V are banned EU-wide: single-use plastic around fresh fruit and vegetables under 1.5 kilograms, single-use plastic for food and drinks consumed on site in hotels, restaurants, and cafés, single-use condiment portions in that same sector, and miniature toiletries under 50 ml or 100 g in hotels.
• From August 12, 2028, a harmonized EU label on material composition applies, and member states may not require additional national sorting marks.
• Each member state must cut packaging waste per capita by 5% in 2030, 10% in 2035, and 15% in 2040 against 2018, and 40% of transport packaging must be reusable by 2030.

Good to know: the free-movement clause works in one direction only. Packaging that complies with the PPWR cannot be refused in France on a harmonized point, but packaging that only complies with French law earns nothing against the 2030 recyclability grades.

Produce and the Triman: two files where Brussels takes over

The produce ban is the cleanest before-and-after. Written into French law by article 77 of the AGEC law in 2020, annulled by the Conseil d'État on November 8, 2024 because France ignored the Commission's standstill request, and reinstated by Annex V of the PPWR for all 27 member states on January 1, 2030. France lost the decree and won the rule, five years late and continent-wide.

The Triman is heading the other way. The Commission has long treated a mandatory national sorting mark as a barrier to the single market, and it referred France to the Court of Justice of the European Union on July 17, 2025. The PPWR settles the outcome regardless of the ruling: from August 12, 2028, the harmonized EU labels apply and member states cannot impose extra marking requirements. As of March 2026, French law still requires the Triman and the Info-tri, so keep applying them; just do not invest in signage tooling built to last past 2028.

What stays in French hands

Extended producer responsibility (EPR) stays a national machine. Producer fees, and the bonus-malus that raises or lowers them by design choices, remain set within the French scheme. The PPWR's article 45 will eventually tie fee modulation to the recyclability grades under harmonized criteria, but until those implementing acts land, the eco-modulation you see on your fee schedule is a French lever, and it is already the cheapest early warning of where your portfolio will sit in 2030.

The national trajectory also survives, inside new walls. The per-capita reduction targets are obligations on the state, which chooses its means, and the AGEC law still requires a new five-year decree for 2026 to 2030. That next 3R decree can push reduction and reuse harder than Brussels does. What it can no longer do is ban a format the PPWR allows, or require a mark the PPWR harmonizes. The 2040 goal remains a French ambition; the instruments now have a European ceiling.

Between now and August 12, 2026, map your packaging portfolio against three dates: 2026 for general application, 2028 for labeling, 2030 for the format bans, the recyclability grades, and the recycled-content floors. Keep the Triman on while French law demands it, and start asking your packaging suppliers today which recyclability grade each reference is aiming for. The answer decides both your 2030 market access and your future fees.

FAQ

Does the PPWR replace the French AGEC law?

No. The PPWR takes precedence on the points it harmonizes, such as recyclability requirements, recycled content, format bans, and packaging labeling. The AGEC law continues to apply where the regulation leaves room, including the national 2040 goal on single-use plastic packaging and the extended producer responsibility scheme with its fee bonus-malus.

Is the Triman logo still mandatory in 2026?

Yes. French law still requires the Triman and the Info-tri sorting instructions on household packaging. The European Commission referred France to the EU Court of Justice over the requirement in July 2025, and the PPWR's harmonized labels apply from August 12, 2028, after which member states cannot impose additional national sorting marks.

When will plastic packaging on fresh fruit and vegetables be banned again?

On January 1, 2030, under Annex V of the PPWR, for quantities under 1.5 kilograms, across all EU member states. The earlier French ban was annulled by the Conseil d'État on November 8, 2024 for procedural reasons.

What happens to the 20% reduction target of the French 3R decree?

The 2021 decree covered the 2021 to 2025 period, with a 20% reduction of single-use plastic packaging against 2018, at least half through reuse. The AGEC law requires a successor decree for 2026 to 2030, and that decree must stay compatible with the PPWR: it can set more ambitious reduction and reuse goals but cannot ban packaging the EU regulation allows.