For years, e-commerce packaging was mostly an operational choice.

The warehouse needed a box that was cheap, quick to pack and strong enough to survive the journey. If the product was small and the available carton was too large, some paper or air cushions usually solved the problem.

That logic is starting to change.

Since 12 August 2026, the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation — PPWR — has applied across the European Union. Many of its most important practical requirements will phase in over the next few years, so this is not a story about boxes suddenly becoming illegal overnight.

It is a story about packaging becoming something an e-commerce business needs to understand rather than simply buy.

Empty space is becoming measurable

One of the most practical PPWR changes concerns the amount of unused space inside e-commerce packaging.

Under the regulation, businesses filling e-commerce and transport packaging will eventually have to respect a maximum empty-space ratio of 50%. The rule is due to apply from 2030, or later if the EU methodology needed to calculate that ratio is not ready in time.

There is an important detail hidden inside that requirement.

Filling an oversized box with paper, bubble wrap, foam or air cushions does not necessarily solve the problem. For the purposes of the empty-space calculation, those materials are still treated as part of the empty space.

That changes the economics of a very familiar warehouse practice.

Many fulfillment operations deliberately use a limited number of standard carton sizes because fewer box formats simplify purchasing, storage and packing. A small product goes into the nearest available carton, the unused space is filled, the parcel leaves.

It is efficient from one perspective.

Under the future PPWR framework, however, excessive packaging volume becomes something that needs to be justified.

The cheapest box may not be the cheapest packaging solution

Right-sizing packaging sounds straightforward until it reaches an actual fulfillment centre.

Using more carton sizes can reduce wasted volume, but it also requires more packaging stock, more storage locations and better rules for selecting the right format. Some products may work better in mailers. Other businesses may eventually find automated packaging or box-on-demand systems worthwhile.

Product data becomes more important too. If dimensions inside the warehouse system are inaccurate, automated carton selection cannot make a sensible decision.

None of this means every business should now redesign its packaging operation.

PPWR itself recognises that products differ. Fragile goods, irregular shapes, liquids and products requiring additional protection cannot be packed according to a simplistic “smallest possible box” rule. Packaging still has to protect the goods, leave enough room for necessary elements such as labels and survive the delivery process.

A damaged product followed by a replacement shipment is hardly an environmental success.

The real direction of travel is therefore not minimal packaging at any cost. It is packaging whose weight and volume can be explained by what the package actually needs to do.

The problem often starts before the warehouse sees the product

E-commerce shipping packaging is only the outer layer.

A product may already arrive at the fulfillment centre inside a large retail box, surrounded by presentation packaging, inserts and protective material. The warehouse then has to place that package inside another carton suitable for transport.

By the time the final parcel is created, much of its size has already been determined upstream.

PPWR also pushes manufacturers and importers towards reducing packaging weight and volume to what is necessary for functionality. Packaging designed largely to make a product appear bigger — unnecessary layers, false bottoms or oversized presentation formats — is increasingly difficult to justify under the new framework.

This connects packaging design with fulfillment much earlier than many brands are used to.

A decision made by the product team can affect the carton needed in the warehouse. Supplier packaging influences shipping dimensions. Shipping dimensions influence transport cost. And all of them increasingly sit inside the same regulatory framework.

The cardboard box at the end of the process may simply expose decisions made much earlier.

Multiple warehouses make packaging harder to ignore

Now imagine a brand operating from three fulfillment centres in Europe.

One warehouse uses five standard cartons. Another uses twelve. The third relies heavily on plastic mailers. Each has different packaging suppliers and packing processes.

Until recently, the brand might have considered this a minor operational difference between its 3PLs.

Under PPWR, understanding those differences becomes much more useful.

The company needs visibility into what packaging is being used, in what quantities and under which rules. It may need reliable information about materials and packaging volumes across several fulfillment locations. If different warehouses solve the same order profile in completely different ways, that can affect both compliance and cost.

This does not mean every fulfillment centre needs identical boxes.

A network serving different products and markets may have good reasons for using different packaging locally.

But those choices should be intentional.

Within UNIQ, packaging can therefore become part of the wider design of a multi-country fulfillment project. A client may standardise certain packaging rules across locations while allowing individual warehouses to adapt where products, carriers or operations require it.

The aim is not uniformity for its own sake. It is visibility and control.

PPWR and EPR are related, but they are not the same question

Packaging regulation becomes especially confusing when PPWR and extended producer responsibility are treated as if they were one obligation.

They are not.

PPWR covers a much broader set of issues, including packaging design, minimisation, recyclability, labelling, reuse and waste-management requirements, with different obligations becoming applicable at different times.

Extended producer responsibility adds another layer: registration, reporting and financial responsibility for packaging placed on individual national markets.

That distinction becomes particularly important in fulfillment.

The seller may own the product. A 3PL may buy the cardboard box. The warehouse physically packs the parcel. The carrier transports it. The packaging ultimately becomes waste in another country.

Who carries which responsibility cannot always be answered by looking at who taped the box shut.

We deal with that question separately because it deserves more than a footnote in an article about packaging design.

Packaging is becoming part of fulfillment strategy

The immediate response to PPWR should not be panic.

Many of the requirements that will most visibly affect everyday e-commerce packing still have implementation periods ahead of them.

But businesses have an opportunity now that will disappear if they wait until the deadlines are close.

They can start understanding what packaging actually leaves their warehouses.

Which carton sizes are used most often? How much void fill is needed? Which products regularly create oversized parcels? Do several fulfillment locations apply completely different packing logic? Is the packaging data available when compliance reporting eventually needs it?

Those are useful questions even without regulation.

Smaller, better-fitted packaging can improve transport efficiency. Better product dimensions can improve warehouse automation. Fewer unnecessary materials can reduce cost.

PPWR simply makes the consequences of ignoring those questions harder to postpone.

The cardboard box is still doing the same basic job it always did: protecting the product until it reaches the customer.

What has changed is how much the business needs to know about the box before it leaves the warehouse.