Does the product passport also apply to packaging aluminium?

What you must concretely do

What is expected of you

The ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781) is a framework regulation: Article 1 makes clear that the regulation itself does not mandate a digital product passport for a specific product group. That happens only per product group, via a delegated act. For packaging aluminium, this is slightly different than for profiles or castings, because packaging as a product category may also fall under separate, dedicated European packaging regulations. This makes the question "does this apply to us" less unambiguous than for, say, an aluminium profile sold as a building material. What, given the current state of affairs, is concretely expected of a company breaks down into a few recognisable points.

Determining whether packaging aluminium falls under the ESPR product groups or under packaging regulations

Article 2 of the ESPR provides the definitions that determine what counts as a "product" under this regulation. For a company that produces or trades aluminium foil, cans, caps or other packaging components, the first practical step is: determining under which regime its own product will fall. That is precisely where which products from the aluminium sector fall under the ESPR applies. For a company of 10 to 100 employees, this means above all: do not blindly follow what competitors or industry organisations are already doing, but compare your own assortment against the product groups as soon as these are established via delegated act.

Distinguish between semi-finished product and packaging as end product

Packaging aluminium is often supplied as a semi-finished product — a roll of foil, a sheet that is still formed into a can — before it serves as packaging at the end user. That distinction is relevant, because the question a product passport must already be in place if my aluminium is still a semi-finished product applies more strongly here than to an aluminium profile that is sold directly as an end product. A company that only supplies the aluminium coil to a packaging manufacturer may have a different position in the chain than the company that brings the can to the market.

Follow when the product group packaging aluminium is established

Because no delegated act has yet been published that specifically designates packaging aluminium, monitoring is just as important as preparing. What a delegated act exactly is and why it determines whether and when an obligation arises is explained on what is a delegated act and why does it determine what I must do. For a mid-sized company, this means in practice: designating someone — often in the quality or compliance function — to monitor the ESPR work plan and announcements concerning packaging aluminium, without taking action now that is not yet necessary.

Taking account of overlapping legislation

Packaging already has its own European rules outside the ESPR. For a company that produces aluminium packaging, it is therefore conceivable that requirements will apply from multiple sources at the same time. This is no cause for panic, but it is a reason to establish internally which legislation is considered applicable to which product, so that this overview is already in place at the moment the delegated act is published.

Where things go wrong in practice

A number of situations come up repeatedly in practice at companies that produce or process packaging aluminium.

A producer of aluminium foil assumes that "aluminium is aluminium" and applies the same approach as a profile builder describes in his newsletter — whereas the product group classification for foil and packaging may look different from that for profiles.

A company thinks that because it "only" supplies a semi-finished product, the obligation nonetheless lies with the customer, and therefore does not compile a dossier — whereas it is precisely unclear which link in the chain will be held responsible for which data.

A procurement department assumes that packaging aluminium is excluded from the ESPR because it is called "packaging", and thereby misses the fact that the ESPR is a horizontal framework that can designate packaging products through each delegated act.

A company waits passively for news to circulate in the sector instead of actively monitoring when a delegated act for its own product category is published, and is thereby caught off guard by a deadline that in fact has been looming for some time.

An export-oriented packaging manufacturer focuses only on Dutch or German customers and assumes that regulations only become relevant "when the time comes", while preparation — particularly around data collection — takes time that cannot be made up in the final months.

What you can document now

• An overview of the company's own product range, with a note for each product line whether it goes out the door as a semi-finished product or as a finished product, and whether it could fall under packaging regulations, the ESPR, or both.
• An internal note on the supply chain: who supplies what to whom, and which party in the chain should supply which data once a product passport becomes mandatory — comparable to the question that also arises at does the digital product passport apply to my aluminium a given point.
• A fixed moment (for example quarterly) to check the ESPR work plan and announcements about delegated acts, with a designated responsible person.
• A note on the composition of the aluminium — primary, secondary, or a mix — because that data may become relevant for a product passport and because the difference between them is set out separately on makes the difference whether my aluminium is primary or secondary.
• A list of data currently available on the origin, composition and recycled content of the packaging aluminium, so that these do not have to be obtained later under time pressure.
• Use of the template for a basic file per product line, so that the data currently being collected aligns with what a product passport will likely require later.