The enforcement of the European Union Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation is introducing sweeping changes to fulfillment operations and secondary packaging workflows across Europe. The primary objective of this regulation is to drastically reduce commercial waste by targeting single use plastics, minimizing excessive packaging material, and mandating that all transit containers become fully recyclable.
Within the pharmaceutical sector, this regulation creates a complex operational balancing act. Primary packaging, which directly touches the medicine, is governed by strict sterilization and safety laws that take precedence over waste mandates. However, secondary and tertiary packaging, meaning the outer boxes, pallets, and wrapping utilized during transport, must comply fully with the new environmental restrictions. A critical update is the strict requirement that empty space inside transit boxes must not exceed fifty percent of the total volume.
To comply with this mandate, logistics facilities in Greece are completely restructuring their packing and consolidation processes. Operations are moving away from standard, oversized boxes filled with plastic air pillows. Instead, teams are adopting smart sizing technologies that analyze product dimensions to select the optimal container size. Furthermore, there is a significant shift toward validated reusable thermal shipping boxes that can be collected, sanitized, and reused across the distribution network. This approach reduces environmental waste, lowers transit costs, and guarantees that delicate medicines remain completely insulated against physical shocks.
