The compliance flow, end to end

Overview

This page walks the whole PPWR journey in kolum once, end to end, so you can see how the pieces fit together before you work through any single step in detail. The flow has a company track and a packaging track, and they meet in the obligations you fulfil and the declarations you make.

The flow at a glance

Step by step

1. Set up your companies. Every legal entity that places packaged products on the EU market is added under Master Data. Production facilities give the organisational context for where goods are made.
2. Run the applicability check. For each company, you answer a set of questions about its activities. kolum derives whether PPWR applies, which roles the company holds (manufacturer, importer, distributor, producer per member state), and the standing obligations that follow.
3. Add your packaging items. Every packaging unit you place on the EU market is added to the Packaging section, manually or by uploading a packaging list.
4. Classify and complete each item. Each item gets a verdict (packaging or not packaging), a category, and its attributes, then works through the compliance steps: substance limits, supplier information, technical documentation, and the Declaration of Conformity where needed. The goal is Compliance Status Complete for every item, or Not relevant for PPWR for items that are not packaging.
5. Fulfil the company-level obligations. Registration and EPR per member state, marking and labelling duties, and the packaging-category duties that phase in through the 2028 to 2030 waves.
6. Keep it alive. The regulation evolves through delegated and implementing acts, new packaging items arrive, and activities change. Re-run applicability checks when they do, and keep packaging classifications current.

A worked example

A German food company sells snacks in its own branded wrappers, imports packaged ingredients from a non-EU supplier, and ships online orders to France.

• The applicability check finds PPWR applies: the company is a manufacturer for its own-brand wrappers, an importer for the packaged ingredients, and a producer in Germany and France, so it must register and meet EPR in both countries, with an EPR representative where required.
• Its packaging items include the snack wrapper (sales packaging, single-use, food-contact, so the PFAS limits of Article 5(5) matter), the display carton (grouped packaging), the shipping box and filler (e-commerce packaging, so the 2030 empty-space ratio of Article 24(1) matters), and pallets with wrapping film (transport packaging, so the 2030 reuse target of Article 29(1) matters).
• Each item is classified and completed in kolum; the wrapper and carton get technical documentation and a Declaration of Conformity; the item bought from the non-EU supplier is checked before it is placed on the market.

ℹ️ Regulatory context. The flow mirrors the regulation's structure: conformity and substance rules (Articles 4 and 5), economic-operator obligations (Chapter IV), documentation and declaration duties, and registration and EPR (Chapter VIII). See Regulation (EU) 2025/40.

Common Questions