Regulation (EU) 2025/40 grades packaging recyclability on a three-step scale set in Annex II. Annex II defines three grades, A, B, and C; packaging under 70 percent is technically non-recyclable, not a lower grade. This page covers the thresholds, the market-access ladder, and what "recycled at scale" adds from 2035 at the earliest.
| Grade | Recyclability performance | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| A | 95 percent or more | Top grade. Expected to attract the largest eco-modulation discounts once grade-based modulation binds. |
| B | 80 percent or more | Still on the market after 2038, when Grade C is phased out. |
| C | 70 percent or more | The minimum to be placed on the EU market from January 1, 2030, or 24 months after the Article 6(4) delegated acts enter into force, whichever is the latest, and off the market from January 1, 2038. |
| Below 70 percent | under 70 percent | Non-recyclable under the regulation. Cannot be placed on the EU market from January 1, 2030, or 24 months after the Article 6(4) delegated acts enter into force, whichever is the latest. |
Article 6(1) requires that all packaging placed on the market is recyclable, and carries no separate application date, so it applies from August 12, 2026. Until the Article 6(4) act applies, compliance is measured against the previous Directive requirements and the related harmonized standard EN 13430:2004, and the Article 38 conformity assessment is not yet run for recyclability.
Article 6(2)(a), the design-for-recycling criteria, and Article 6(3), the A, B, C grades, apply from January 1, 2030, or 24 months after the Article 6(4) delegated acts enter into force, whichever is the latest. That act is due by January 1, 2028, so if it slips the 2030 date slips with it.
Annex II has two category lists, one for each test. Table 1 is an indicative list of 22 packaging categories, set by predominant material, packaging type, and format, such as PET rigid bottles and flasks (category 7) or PE flexible films (category 11). The design-for-recycling criteria and the A, B, and C grades are developed for these categories (Art. 6(4)(a)). Table 2 groups the same 22 categories into broader material categories; the films and flexible plastics category (Table 1 categories 9, 11, 13, and 18), for example, is one. The recycled-at-scale test uses Table 2: a category is recycled at scale when, at Union level, the annual quantity of recycled material reaches at least 55 percent, or 30 percent for wood (Art. 3(1)(39)), measured under the Art. 6(5) implementing acts. That test applies from January 1, 2035, or five years after the Art. 6(5) implementing acts enter into force, whichever is the latest. The tables are on the Annex II page.
Grade-based eco-modulation of EPR fees is imposed by Article 6(8), which requires contributions under Article 45 to be modulated in accordance with the recyclability performance grades. Article 6(4)(d) empowers the Commission to set the framework and Article 45(1) is the EPR obligation the modulation acts on; neither is the duty itself. It binds 18 months after the design-for-recycling delegated act (due January 1, 2028) and the Article 6(5) implementing act (due January 1, 2030) enter into force. On the later of the two that is about mid-2031. Article 46 governs producer responsibility organizations and does not govern eco-modulation. Harmonized EU-wide fee amounts are not set: member states keep their own rates, and national schemes already modulate by design today.