Regulation (EU) 2025/40 grades packaging recyclability on a three-step scale set in Annex II. The scale stops at C: Annex II defines exactly three grades and nothing below them. This page covers the thresholds, the market-access ladder, and what "recyclable at scale" adds in 2035.
| Grade | Recyclable by weight | 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 2030, and off the market from 2038. |
| Below 70 percent | under 70 percent | Non-recyclable under the regulation. Cannot be placed on the EU market from 2030. |
Article 6(1) requires that all packaging placed on the market is recyclable, and carries no separate application date, so it applies from 12 August 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 the A, B, C grades themselves, applies from 1 January 2030 or 24 months after the Article 6(4) delegated act enters into force, whichever is the latest. That act is due by 1 January 2028, so if it slips the 2030 date slips with it.
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.