Footwear glossary · Compliance & Testing
What is PPWR and does it apply to shoe boxes?
PPWR (EU packaging regulation)
PPWR is the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2025/40, applying from 12 August 2026. It covers all packaging on the EU market, including shoe boxes, cartons and hangtags, and limits heavy metals in every packaging component to 100 mg/kg combined.
PPWR replaces the old Packaging Directive 94/62/EC with a directly applicable regulation. Beyond recyclability and labelling requirements that phase in over the following years, Article 5(4) sets the first rule factories meet today: lead, cadmium, mercury and hexavalent chromium together must stay under 100 mg/kg in packaging and its components.
Article 5(5) adds PFAS limits, but only for food-contact packaging. A shoe box is not food-contact, so PFAS testing is not legally required for it, although some brand restricted-substances lists ask for it anyway.
For footwear the practical step is third-party testing of the packaging materials themselves — box board, cartons, tissue, tags and labels — rather than only the shoes. Test reports on the packaging supplier's materials are the usual evidence.
DOING's shoe-box board, cartons and swing tags are SGS-tested to the PPWR heavy-metal limit by our packaging suppliers, with PFAS, REACH SVHC and Prop 65 tests on the boards. Reports are shared on request.
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