The International Molded Fiber Association (IMFA) has launched a European Regulation Tracker to help its members understand and adjust to policy changes that could affect their access to the European market, all through a single platform.
Available exclusively to IMFA members, the tracker covers 46 EU-wide regulations and 11 national laws. This is hoped to help moulded fibre businesses keep track of legal requirements across multiple regions and ensure their products and operations are compliant.
The tracker is described as a ‘central starting point’ for understanding the policies that apply to moulded fibre. Legal, regulatory and technical teams can use its information to inform their own evaluations.
IMFA emphasizes that legal measures applying to the EU will impact international businesses serving European customers, and suggests that its European Regulation Tracker can help businesses understand how their product design, materials, labelling, documentation, and supply chain information align with the relevant laws.
The platform is set to be especially beneficial after the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation began to apply in August, and with the EU Deforestation Regulation applying to wood and certain derived products from 30 December 2026.
“Regulatory change is shaping business decisions long before a compliance deadline arrives,” said IMFA’s executive chairman, Gary Visser. “For an industry with global customers and supply chains, visibility matters.
“This tracker gives our members a clearer view of what is changing so they can assess the implications earlier, prepare their teams, and make more informed decisions about the markets they serve.”
“Companies are not dealing with one European rule in isolation,” continued industry affairs manager Tom Hendrickson. “They are navigating EU-wide frameworks alongside country-specific requirements, implementation timelines and continuing guidance.
“We developed the tracker to bring that larger picture together and make it easier for members to identify the developments most relevant to their businesses.”
The European Regulation Tracker is available alongside IMFA’s American Legislation Tracker to follow legislative changes across the United States. IMFA also publishes monthly newsletters under its Industry Affairs Program, alongside policy memos to keep members up-to-date with the latest legal updates.
“The regulatory landscape will continue to evolve, and so will this program,” added Hendrickson. “Our goal is to help members understand what is ahead while strengthening the industry’s ability to respond collectively when molded fiber’s interests are at stake.”
The tracker is also set to support IMFA’s wider advocacy efforts by helping to identify incoming policy issues at an earlier stage and coordinate input from its members. Reportedly, this approach has already contributed to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection’s decision to classify uncoated moulded fibre packaging as recyclable and compostable under the statewide packaging stewardship programme in 2025.
It is currently helping IMFA, GreenBlue and the Sustainable Packaging Coalition gather information from materials recovery facilities, identify gaps in recyclability data, and highlight concerns that California’s SB 343 law could prevent moulded fibre products from carrying recyclability labelling.
In similar news, R-Cycle and TILISCO have developed the PPWR Compliance Compass, a software-as-service-solution that uses AI-powered data capturing to overcome issues with scattered and incomplete data. The idea is to gather the information required for compliance, compare the data set with current PPWR requirements, and generate the legally required Declaration of Conformity (DoC).
Specright has developed an automated DoC reporting capability, designed to help companies quickly and easily source documents across workflows to comply with the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation. It aims to help brands bring together documentation spread across suppliers, spreadsheets, and disconnected systems and avoid the time-consuming process of sourcing paperwork across company operations.
Additionally, Vivian Loftin recently joined us on the Packaging Europe podcast to discuss Recyda’s PPWR Navigator. This ‘all-in-one’ solution is set to overcome the challenges of manual or spreadsheet compliance, covering everything from collecting data to generating “bulletproof” DoC templates informed by legal representatives.
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