Does packing tape affect a carton's recyclability? What the EU decides by 2028

A corrugated box is mostly paper. The strip of tape across its top weighs a few grams. Under the EU's new packaging law, those few grams will be part of the box when it is graded for recyclability.

So yes, tape can affect a carton's grade.

But the criteria that decide by how much are not written yet. The EU has to adopt them by 1 January 2028, and they apply from 2030 at the earliest. The useful work in 2027 is to know what your tape is made of, how much of it goes on each box, and what evidence your supplier can give.

Checked against official sources on 28 October 2026.

We have been making tape in Jaipur since 1997, both BOPP and kraft paper tape, and we export to 20+ countries. I have written this for customers who seal cartons that end up in Europe. I am not a lawyer, so read it as a technical guide and confirm the legal points with your EU customer or adviser.

What the EU law says today

The law is the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2025/40, published in the Official Journal on 22 January 2025. It has applied in every EU country since 12 August 2026.

Article 6 is the recyclability article. These are the parts that matter for tape:

1. Article 6(1) says all packaging placed on the market shall be recyclable.
2. Article 6(4) says the Commission must adopt delegated acts with design-for-recycling criteria and performance grades by 1 January 2028. The criteria must "cover all packaging components".
3. The design-for-recycling condition applies from 1 January 2030, or 24 months after those acts enter into force, whichever is later.
4. Grades are given per packaging unit. Annex II, Table 3 sets grade A at 95% or more, B at 80% or more and C at 70% or more. Below 70%, the packaging counts as technically non-recyclable and cannot be placed on the market.
5. From 2038, grade C is also off the market.

Until the new acts apply, the old rules hold.

The Commission's guidance, Commission Notice C/2026/3084 (Official Journal, 10 June 2026), says manufacturers need only meet the old Directive's requirement and the harmonised standard EN 13430:2004 until then.

Is the tape part of the box?

The word "tape" does not appear anywhere in the Regulation. I read it as part of the box anyway, for two reasons.

First, Annex I lists examples of items that are packaging. Under components and ancillary elements it names staples and "sticky labels attached to another packaging item". A strip of tape on a carton does the same job as a staple.

Second, Table 4 of Annex II lists the parameters the criteria will be built on. Two of them fit tape exactly. "Closures and other small packaging components" covers components used to close or seal the packaging. "Adhesives" says adhesive residues can downgrade the quality of the recycled material.

So when the grade is worked out, the tape will most likely be counted with the box it closes. The tape maker is not the one who signs for the grade. Under Article 16, a supplier has to give the manufacturer the information needed to show the packaging conforms.

That is our part. When we ship tape for EU-bound boxes, we expect to be asked for the backing, the adhesive and the coat weight, and we would rather have those figures ready than chase them later.

What happens to tape in a paper mill

Old boxes are pulped in hot water, a bit like a giant mixie. The paper falls apart into fibres. Then screens and cleaners take out whatever is not fibre.

A strip of plastic film usually stays in one piece or a few, which screens are built to catch. Adhesive is the trickier part. Some adhesives soften in the warm pulp and break into tiny sticky particles that slip through the screens.

The UK paper industry describes this plainly. The Confederation of Paper Industries' Design for Recyclability Guidelines (4th edition, February 2024) say some adhesives on tape and labels can soften in the process and form "stickies" that end up on the finished paper. It asks designers to keep adhesive to the minimum and to use adhesives that break into larger particles a mill can screen out.

So every tape has to answer two questions.

What is the backing, and what is the adhesive?

What the industry guidance says now

The detailed rules do not exist yet, but the paper industry has published its own. The most complete one I know is the 4evergreen Circularity by Design Guideline, Version 4 (February 2026), from an alliance of companies across the paper packaging chain. These are its ratings for paper mills with a conventional recycling process, the kind that recycle brown corrugated.

Two things stand out for me. The adhesive gets a good rating only with a test result behind it. And plastic tape backing has no row of its own, so the nearest guide is how the same document rates other polyolefin parts on a paper pack.

The 4evergreen guideline has no legal force. The binding criteria will come from the Commission. The groundwork for paper is being drafted by a European standards working group, CEN/TC 261/SC 4/WG 3, according to a June 2026 presentation by three European packaging EPR organisations (Verpact, Fost Plus and Valipac). The same presentation reports that CEN and the Commission agree to score a whole packaging unit at 0% if an integrated component is rated red. That is a working position, not an adopted rule, but it shows why a small strip of tape could matter.

How much tape is on your box?

I would not guess the amount of tape on a box. Measure it.

Afera, the European adhesive tape association, surveyed its members (article of 28 May 2025) on the real ratio of carton sealing tape to board. It recommended 3% by mass for testing. The 4evergreen recyclability test protocol uses a default of 5% for such packaging aids.

You can check your own boxes in ten minutes:

1. Take five boxes of the sizes you ship most, taped the way your line tapes them.
2. Weigh each taped box on a scale that reads to 1 gram.
3. Cut the tape off with a blade, peeling slowly so you do not tear the liner of the box.
4. Weigh the tape strips. Divide that by the weight of the bare box, which is the taped weight minus the tape.

If your figure is well above 3%, ask why. Look for an extra strip that someone added "for safety". Keep the seal strong, though. A box that opens in transit is the bigger waste. The tape data sheet guide explains which holding power figure to look at before you cut back.

BOPP, paper or gummed tape?

We make both BOPP and kraft paper tape, so I have no reason to push one. This is how I compare them for EU-bound boxes in 2027.

1. BOPP tape with an acrylic adhesive is the most common carton tape, and damp godowns rarely trouble it. Film that comes away in large pieces can be screened out, as the CPI guidelines note, and the adhesive is rated well when it has a test result. Expect it to be judged like other plastic parts on a paper pack.
2. Self-adhesive paper tape has a backing that pulps with the box, which is the cleanest result on paper. The adhesive still matters, so ask which one it is. Test the hold on your own boxes in the monsoon before you switch a whole line.
3. Water-activated gummed paper tape needs a wet dispenser and a clean board surface. If its adhesive is starch-based, that chemistry is rated fully compatible in the guideline above. Ask your supplier what the adhesive is rather than assuming.

Here I have to be honest. I cannot give you a PPWR grade for any tape today, ours included. Nobody can, because the criteria are not written. If a box of tape arrives in 2027 printed "PPWR compliant, 100% recyclable", ask what test and what criteria stand behind it.

What to do before the criteria arrive

These steps cost little and will make 2028 easier:

1. List every tape and label used on EU-bound boxes, with backing, adhesive type and grams per box.
2. Ask each supplier for the layer structure: backing material and thickness, adhesive chemistry, and coat weight in grams per square metre.
3. Ask whether a recyclability test exists for that tape under the Cepi method, the 4evergreen protocol or PTS-RH 021/97, and get the report.
4. Run the weighing check above on your top box sizes and keep the sheet.
5. Trial a paper tape on one line, through one wet season, if your products allow it.
6. Watch the Commission's "Have your say" portal for the draft delegated act on design for recycling, and read the paper rules the day they appear.

We can give you step 2 for any tape we make, and we will tell you plainly if a test report from step 3 does not exist for it.

Do not reprint boxes or change suppliers on the strength of a rumour.

The legal deadline is 1 January 2028, and the grades bite from 2030 at the earliest.

Two related guides on this site go further. The documents EU buyers ask for with tapes and films covers the paperwork side. Are adhesive tapes PFAS-free? covers the chemicals side.

If you buy tape from us for boxes that go to Europe, write to us through the contact page with the product name, your box sizes and how you tape them. We will send the backing, adhesive type and weight per metre of the tape you use, so your customer's file starts with real numbers.