IN Brief:
- Switzerland’s new packaging ordinance is due to apply from the beginning of 2027.
- Minimum recycling rates of 55% for plastic packaging and 70% for beverage cartons are planned.
- The rules will influence packaging design, material choice, collection systems, and market access.
Swiss Federal Council has adopted a new packaging ordinance that will introduce minimum recycling rates, wider packaging requirements, and new obligations for companies placing packaging on the Swiss market.
The framework is scheduled to apply from the beginning of 2027 and will replace packaging legislation introduced in 2000. It introduces minimum recycling rates of 55% for plastic packaging and 70% for beverage cartons, alongside requirements covering collection, design, waste prevention, and material recovery.
Packaging placed on the Swiss market will need to be designed for the highest practical level of recyclability. Companies will also be expected to eliminate unnecessary packaging by 2030 and avoid packaging containing certain hazardous substances. The rules will affect packaging producers, importers, retailers, food manufacturers, beverage producers, and brand owners selling into Switzerland.
Plastic packaging will face a separate collection requirement, creating a more structured recovery route. Certain glass formats, including food packaging, will become subject to an advance disposal fee, although beverage containers remain outside a mandatory deposit requirement under the announced approach.
The main workload will sit in packaging specification and evidence. A pack may be theoretically recyclable, but compliance will depend on material composition, labels, adhesives, inks, closures, coatings, barriers, format design, and the actual capacity of collection and recycling systems to process it.
The Swiss changes add another layer to the regulatory pressure already building across Europe. Packaging groups have warned that manufacturers need stability while adapting to the EU’s wider packaging and single-use plastics framework, including PPWR, extended producer responsibility, recycled-content rules, and recyclability requirements.
Switzerland’s position creates a market-specific compliance issue for businesses selling across both Switzerland and the EU. Similar environmental objectives may be expressed through different legal structures, definitions, thresholds, and reporting routes. That can make packaging harmonisation more difficult for companies running pan-European product ranges.
Food packaging also has a functional burden that cannot be pushed aside. Packs protect hygiene, extend shelf life, prevent damage, carry mandatory information, support traceability, and help products move through filling, sealing, distribution, retail, and consumer use. A packaging redesign that improves recyclability while weakening barrier performance or line efficiency can increase waste or cost elsewhere.
The pressure will be strongest on formats that are hard to sort or recycle. Multilayer films, dark plastics, mixed-material beverage cartons, coated paperboard, small flexible packs, complex labels, and certain lidding systems may require technical reassessment. Glass and metal formats will also be reviewed where fees, collection routes, or material recovery costs change.
European packaging flow analysis has already placed food and beverage packaging under sharper scrutiny, with recent data highlighting the scale of packaging material moving through the food system. Every food product requires protection and information, which makes the sector central to circular economy policy.
Compliance teams will need stronger packaging data. Bills of materials, supplier declarations, recycled-content evidence, recyclability assessments, pack weights, market placement records, and producer responsibility data must become more accurate. Packaging decisions will increasingly need technical, legal, procurement, manufacturing, sustainability, and commercial input at the same stage.
The Swiss ordinance reinforces a broader shift in European packaging policy. Packs are being judged by performance across the full life cycle, not only at the filling line or on the shelf. Food manufacturers will still need packaging that runs, seals, protects, and sells, while also proving that it can be collected, recovered, and recycled under the rules of each target market.
