The Event

Packaging Waste & Sustainability Forum 2027 Brussels · April 6–8 2027

Informa Connect runs this forum over three days at the Thon Hotel Bristol Stephanie in Brussels, from April 6 to April 8 2027. The agenda is built around implementation of PPWR, the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, along with how Extended Producer Responsibility is evolving, reuse and circular systems, material innovation, and Digital Product Passports.

Brussels is the point. This is a multi-stakeholder room of regulators, producers, waste managers and brand owners, held in the city where the rules are written, which makes it an early-warning system rather than a shopping trip.

View event site → What this means for EU expansion

The Room

Who's expected at Packaging Waste & Sustainability Forum 2027

Informa Connect has not published an attendance figure for 2027, but the 2026 edition gives a clear picture of the mix: the European Commission in the same room as Amazon, P&G, Nestlé, ExxonMobil, ALDI and DS Smith. Regulators, large producers, waste managers and brand owners, talking to each other rather than past each other.

That composition is what makes the forum unusual. You rarely get to hear how the people drafting a regulation and the people complying with it describe the same problem on the same afternoon.

Packaging and sustainability leads Compliance managers Brand owners Regulators and policy teams Waste and recycling operators Material and packaging innovators

For a growing brand seeking the next step up, is Packaging Waste & Sustainability Forum 2027 a good fit?

This is a policy room rather than a commercial one, so it suits a brand that wants to see where packaging rules are heading before they land, not one looking for a box supplier. If your priority right now is getting a first European market live, your time is better spent on the registrations already in force than on three days of regulatory horizon-scanning. If you sell a lot of physical packaging into Europe and expect to for years, sitting in Brussels while the direction of travel is argued out is a genuinely different kind of preparation.

Regulators and policy teams

European Commission representatives and national policy staff. The reason to listen is timing: you hear how an obligation is being interpreted months before it turns into something your compliance provider sends you an invoice for.

Brand owners

Large consumer goods companies working through the same rules with bigger teams. Their published packaging decisions are a useful preview of what will become normal expectation in your category.

Packaging and sustainability leads

The people who own the specification. Worth finding if you are trying to work out whether your current packaging survives the European market or needs redesigning before you ship.

Waste and recycling operators

The organisations that actually process what you put on the market, and whose costs feed into the fees you pay. A blunt source on what genuinely gets recycled versus what merely claims to be recyclable.

Programme

What's on at Packaging Waste & Sustainability Forum 2027

Informa Connect has confirmed the themes the three days run across: PPWR implementation, EPR evolution, reuse and circular systems, material innovation covering chemical and mechanical recycling and bioplastics, Digital Product Passports and AI, and recycling infrastructure alongside consumer behaviour. Session titles below are indicative, built from those confirmed themes rather than a released schedule.

01 PPWR implementation

PPWR is the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, and implementation is where abstract requirements become things you have to print, declare and pay for. For a US brand the useful content is the gap between what the text says and what enforcement actually looks like in each member state.

From regulation text to packaging specification
How member states are interpreting the same requirement differently
Enforcement in practice, and who gets asked first

02 EPR as it evolves

Extended Producer Responsibility already makes you financially responsible for the packaging you put on a market, paid through registration and fees, and it is administered country by country. This track deals with where that structure is going, including fee modulation and what gets counted.

Registering in every market you sell into
Fee structures and what makes them rise
Marketplace obligations and seller accountability

03 Reuse, circularity and materials

Reuse systems, chemical and mechanical recycling and bioplastics all sit here, alongside recycling infrastructure and consumer behaviour. It is the most technical part of the programme, and the part where a claim that sounds good in a US deck meets European evidence standards.

Reuse systems that survive contact with real shoppers
Chemical and mechanical recycling: what each can actually take
Bioplastics and the infrastructure they assume exists

04 Digital Product Passports and AI

Digital Product Passports attach structured data to a product across its life, and they are the direction packaging information is travelling. For an ecommerce brand this is a data problem long before it is a materials problem, which makes it the most quietly expensive theme on the programme.

What a Digital Product Passport asks you to hold about a product
Getting product data ready before the requirement arrives
AI in packaging data, sorting and compliance reporting

Live Intelligence

What's being said about Packaging Waste & Sustainability Forum 2027

These are the themes we expect to dominate Brussels based on the published programme and the shape of the 2026 edition, and this block will be refreshed with real coverage nearer the date.

PPWR implementation is the centre of gravity

ORGANISER SITE · SEP 2026

The forum is organised around putting the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation into practice rather than explaining what it says. That shift, from text to implementation, is where the cost lands for anyone selling physical goods into the EU. Expect member-state variation to be a recurring complaint.

Regulators and brand owners in one room

EVENTS INTELLIGENCE · SEP 2026

The 2026 edition drew the European Commission alongside Amazon, P&G, Nestlé, ExxonMobil, ALDI and DS Smith. A multi-stakeholder room in Brussels tells you where enforcement thinking is going before it reaches a compliance newsletter. No 2027 attendance figure has been published.

Digital Product Passports move from concept to workload

ORGANISER SITE · SEP 2026

Digital Product Passports and AI have their own place on the programme, which is a sign of how fast the data side of packaging is developing. For an ecommerce brand the hard part is not the passport, it is holding accurate product data in the first place. Catalogue quality becomes a compliance question.

A policy event, not a supplier hunt

EVENTS INTELLIGENCE · SEP 2026

Three days in a Brussels hotel with regulators and waste managers is a different proposition from a packaging trade show. You come away with a view of what is coming rather than a folder of quotes. Useful or not depending entirely on which of those two things you actually need.

The bigger picture

Packaging is the EU rule set that US brands consistently underestimate

Ask a US founder what could stop a European launch and they will usually say tax or shipping. Packaging rarely makes the list, which is why it causes so much trouble. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) makes you financially responsible for the packaging you put on a market, it is administered country by country, and marketplaces increasingly check that you have registered before they let you sell. Brussels in April is where the next version of all that gets argued over.

EPR applies per country, not EU-wide. Germany, France and others each need their own registration, and selling without one risks marketplace suspension and fines.
Labelling obligations differ. France requires the Triman and Info-Tri marking, while Spain and Italy require the disposal information, which plain text satisfies. One artwork does not cover the continent.
PPWR, the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, is what the whole forum is built around, so its implementation detail is being settled in rooms like this rather than in your supplier's catalogue.
Packaging registration belongs in the pre-launch sequence alongside VAT (value-added tax) registration and appointing an EU Responsible Person, not in the tidying-up afterwards.

Seeing the rules take shape is useful. Meeting the ones already in force is urgent. Expandly handles packaging registration alongside VAT, product compliance and fulfilment for 2,000+ brands through the Global Expansion Pathway (GEP™), so the obligations are done in the right order rather than discovered when a listing goes down.

Who turned up last time

The 2026 edition drew the European Commission alongside Amazon, P&G, Nestlé, ExxonMobil, ALDI and DS Smith. Named as 2026 attendees by the organiser, with no 2027 figure published.

2026 edition's attendee mix

Packaging rules stop at every border

EPR registration is done market by market, and labelling obligations differ between France, Spain and Italy. A brand selling into five EU countries has five sets of packaging homework.

Country by country EPR registration and labelling

Packaging inside the launch plan

The Global Expansion Pathway (GEP™) sequences packaging registration with VAT, product compliance, fulfilment and marketplace launch, with Amazon as our Recommended E2E Expansion Partner.

GEP™ Global Expansion Pathway

Good to Know

Questions about Packaging Waste & Sustainability Forum 2027

What is PPWR and why does it matter to a US brand?

PPWR is the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, and implementing it is what this forum is built around. It matters because packaging obligations attach to anyone placing goods on an EU market, including a US brand selling online, and because the practical detail is still being worked out. Three days in Brussels is a way to see where that detail is going before it reaches your packaging specification.

Who attended the 2026 edition?

The organiser lists the European Commission, Amazon, P&G, Nestlé, ExxonMobil, ALDI and DS Smith among 2026 attendees. No attendance figure has been published for 2027 and no delegate price is listed as at September 2026. Those organisations are named as past attendees of the event only.

Is this a packaging trade show?

No. It is a policy-weighted summit in a Brussels hotel bringing regulators, producers, waste managers and brand owners together, rather than an exhibition floor of suppliers. If you need quotes for cartons, this is the wrong event. If you need to understand what your cartons will legally have to do in two years, it is the right one.

What is EPR and does my brand need to register?

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) makes you financially responsible for the packaging and certain products you put on a market, paid through registration and fees. It applies per country, so Germany, France, and others each need separate registration. Selling without it risks marketplace suspension and fines, so it is part of the pre-launch setup.

What are the main compliance requirements for selling in the EU?

The main pillars are: product safety and an EU or UK Responsible Person, packaging registration under Extended Producer Responsibility rules, VAT (value-added tax) registration, and correct labelling. Requirements vary by product category, so what applies to cosmetics differs from electronics or food. Getting the applicable set confirmed before launch avoids expensive corrections.

What does a US brand need in place before selling in the EU?

Four things: VAT (value-added tax) registration in each market you hold stock in, an EU Responsible Person for product compliance, packaging registration under Extended Producer Responsibility rules, and a fulfilment setup that ships locally. Getting these in the right order before launch avoids the costly retrofits that catch brands out.

Make Your Move

Packaging rules do not arrive quietly they arrive as a suspended listing

Three days in Brussels will show you where EU packaging obligations are heading, which is worth knowing if physical packaging is a permanent feature of your business. It is preparation rather than procurement, and it works best for a brand already selling into Europe.

Before you book, it is worth checking what already applies to you. We can tell you which markets need packaging registration for your product and how the labelling obligations differ across the countries you sell into, so you go to Brussels asking about the future rather than discovering the present.

Expandly handles those registrations alongside VAT, compliance and fulfilment for 2,000+ brands through the Global Expansion Pathway (GEP™). If your packaging homework has been sitting on a list since your first European order, start there.