Spanish shoppers will face major changes to product packaging over the next four years as new European Union rules progressively restrict unnecessary plastics and require businesses to embrace recycling and reuse.
The EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation becomes directly applicable in Spain on August 12, 2026. However, the most visible restrictions will be introduced gradually, with many of the headline bans not taking effect until 2030.
The legislation applies to almost every form of packaging sold in Spain, affecting supermarkets, hotels, restaurants, cafés, takeaway businesses, online retailers and manufacturers.
Its objective is to reduce the amount of packaging discarded by European households while making the remaining material easier to recycle.
Spain must reduce packaging waste per person by five per cent by 2030, compared with 2018 levels. The target rises to 10 per cent by 2035 and 15 per cent by 2040.
Changes for Spanish Shoppers
From 2030, supermarkets will generally be prohibited from selling fresh, unprocessed fruit and vegetables weighing less than 1.5 kilograms in single-use plastic packaging.
The measure could remove plastic trays, bags, nets and wrapping from a large proportion of Spain’s supermarket produce aisles. Exemptions may be permitted when packaging is necessary for hygiene, food safety or to prevent waste.
Very lightweight plastic bags commonly provided for loose fruit, vegetables and other groceries will also be restricted unless required for hygiene or certified for an approved alternative use.
Plastic rings used to group cans and bottles are among the other unnecessary packaging formats expected to disappear.
Hotels across Spain will no longer routinely provide miniature single-use plastic bottles of shampoo, conditioner, shower gel and body lotion. Larger refillable dispensers are expected to become standard, although limited exceptions could apply.
Restaurants and cafés will also be affected. Single-serving plastic sachets containing ketchup, mayonnaise, sugar, salt and other condiments will be restricted for food consumed on the premises.
Reusable Takeaway Containers
The changes will begin earlier for takeaway businesses. From February 2027, cafés and restaurants must allow customers to bring suitable containers for takeaway food and drink without charging them extra for doing so.
By 2030, businesses will also face targets requiring part of their takeaway range to be offered in reusable packaging.
Tea bags, coffee pods, fruit labels and certain very lightweight bags will eventually have to meet compostability requirements.
Online retailers will be prevented from sending small products in unnecessarily large boxes. From 2030, empty space must not account for more than half the volume of most grouped, transport and e-commerce packaging.
New Recycling Requirements
All packaging placed on the European market will progressively have to meet stricter design and recycling standards. By 2030, packaging must be designed so that it can be recycled, with stronger requirements for recycling at scale following in 2035.
Manufacturers will also have greater responsibility for the entire life of their packaging, including the costs of collection, sorting and recycling. The approach follows the “polluter pays” principle.
Food-contact packaging containing PFAS—widely known as “forever chemicals” because of their persistence in the environment—will be prohibited when it exceeds limits set by the regulation.
Spain and other EU countries must also achieve a 90 per cent collection rate for single-use plastic drinks bottles and metal beverage containers by 2029. Deposit-and-return systems are expected to play a central role in reaching that target.
The changes will not happen overnight, but by the end of the decade shopping, dining and staying in hotels in Spain should involve substantially less disposable packaging.
