For years a recyclability claim was something a brand asserted and a supplier nodded along with. The EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation ends that arrangement. Recyclability becomes a documented property of the pack, assessed against defined criteria, and the evidence has to exist before the product reaches a shelf.
The practical consequence for a brand is simple: the information you need lives with whoever manufactures your packaging. If your supplier cannot produce it on request, you cannot produce it for a regulator.
There are four documents worth asking for at quotation stage rather than after the order lands. Material composition by weight, broken down by component. Fibre origin with chain-of-custody references. A declaration covering inks, coatings and adhesives. And a recyclability assessment for the destination market, because kerbside streams differ.
The reason to ask early is not administrative. A pack that fails an assessment fails at the die-line, and the die-line is decided in the first week of a project. Retrofitting compliance onto a finished structure usually means retooling.
Our position is to prepare that documentation alongside the quotation. If your compliance team has its own template, send it — we would rather complete yours than send you ours.