SPI Intelligence for Personal and Home Care Packaging

Who this page is for

Brand owners in beauty, personal care, oral care and household cleaning, and the converters and resin suppliers who make their bottles, tubes, jars, pouches, sachets and refills. Four questions drive their packaging decisions. Will this format be recyclable under EU rules from 2030? How much recycled plastic must it hold in India or New Jersey? What does moving from a rigid bottle to a flexible refill do to EPR fees? And when does the label have to change?

The SPI Regulation Tracker classes its 79 rules by type. Four types carry most of the weight for personal and home care.

EPR fees: why format matters more than material

Definition. Extended producer responsibility (EPR) makes the brand owner or importer pay for collecting and recycling the packaging it places on a market, usually through a producer responsibility organisation (PRO) that charges a fee per tonne. Eco-modulation means the fee varies with recyclability or design.

EPR now applies in most markets where personal and home care brands sell. In Europe the national schemes run under Regulation (EU) 2025/40, which has applied since 12 August 2026 (PR-EU-001). In the UK, SI 2024/1332 requires UK-established producers supplying more than 25 tonnes of packaging with turnover of £1 million or more to register and report; large producers (over 50 tonnes and over £2 million) also pay disposal fees (PR-GB-002). In the United States, Oregon’s Circular Action Alliance (CAA) has charged fees since 1 July 2025 (PR-US-002), Colorado dues have been payable since January 2026 (PR-US-003), and California producers had until 1 June 2026 to join CAA, register as independent producers or apply for the small-producer exemption under the SB 54 permanent regulations (PR-US-004). Minnesota, Maryland and Washington have also passed their laws’ effective dates, with fees phasing in from 2028 to 2030; their tracker status is being updated in the 13 October check (PR-US-006, PR-US-007, PR-US-008).

For personal and home care the striking pattern is how much a flexible or complex pack pays compared with a rigid one, within the same scheme.

France is the exception: Citeo charges the same EUR 770.1 per tonne for a PE bottle and a PE flexible, and steps up only for PP flexibles, complex packs and PVC (EUR 2,100.1). Italy’s CONAI plastic bands run from EUR 51 per tonne (Band A1.1) to EUR 922 (Band C), but SPI data does not tie bands to formats. In the UK, PackUK’s illustrative 2026-27 plastic fees are modulated by recyclability rating rather than format: £415 green, £455 amber and £545 red per tonne (PR-GB-003). These are illustrative; PackUK’s operational plan targets the year 2 notice of liability by the end of November 2026.

Recyclability and recycled content

Definitions. Recyclable packaging is designed so it can be collected, sorted and recycled at scale. Post-consumer recycled (PCR) content is plastic recovered from used consumer packaging.

EU recyclability from 2030. Regulation (EU) 2025/40 requires packaging placed on the EU market to be recyclable from 1 January 2030, assessed against design-for-recycling criteria and graded A, B or C (PR-EU-010, recital 28). Packaging below grade C is treated as technically non-recyclable, and from 1 January 2038 the minimum is grade B. The grades will also feed the modulation of national EPR fees (recital 35). The delegated acts setting the criteria were not shown as adopted on the Commission pages consulted on 13 October 2026, so no format can yet be graded with certainty.

EU recycled content. Plastic packaging must contain minimum shares of post-consumer recycled plastic from 2030, with higher shares in 2040 (PR-EU-004, PR-EU-005). The 30% figure in the tracker is for single-use plastic beverage bottles; other categories, including most personal and home care packs, have their own percentages in Article 7 of the Regulation, which the SPI Regulation Tracker does not yet record. The implementing act on calculation and verification is due by 31 December 2026, and the EUR-Lex summary lists exceptions for pharmaceutical packaging and medical devices, which matters for consumer health brands.

India. Producers, importers and brand owners face category-wise recycled-content obligations under G.S.R. 237(E) of 2026 (PR-IN-002). Category III multilayer obligations count the plastic layers only. Recycled packaging must meet IS 14534:2023, and importers meet their share by buying certificates. India’s plastic packaging EPR runs through Schedule II of the Plastic Waste Management Rules and the CPCB portal, where brand owners file annual returns (PR-IN-001); the next return, for 2026-27, is due by 30 June 2027.

New Jersey. Brand owners of products in rigid plastic containers sold in New Jersey register annually with NJDEP (window 1 September to 31 December) and meet rising PCR levels: 10% from 2024, reaching 50% by 2036 (PR-US-010). Rigid containers for FDCA-regulated drugs, supplements, devices and cosmetics, and for FIFRA-registered products, are exempt, so many cosmetics packs fall outside while most other household products do not.

China. GB 23350-2021, in force since 1 September 2023, limits excessive packaging of food and cosmetics sold in China: no more than four layers for cosmetics, void ratios capped by net content, and packaging cost excluding the contact layer at no more than 20% of the sales price (PR-CN-003).

Refill and reuse targets

The PPWR sets binding 2030 reuse targets of 40% for transport and sales packaging used for transport and 10% for grouped packaging, and large retailers must endeavour to devote 10% of sales area to refill stations from 2030, according to the EUR-Lex summary (PR-EU-006). Spain’s Royal Decree 1055/2022 adds national targets of 20% reusable commercial and industrial packaging by weight in 2030 and 30% in 2035, and household packaging targets of 5% in 2030 and 10% in 2035 (PR-ES-002). India requires brand owners to reuse a rising share of Category I rigid plastic packaging, shown in the table above (PR-IN-003).

None of the 14 personal and home care companies in the SPI Buyers Database has a stand-alone refill target; refill appears inside combined goals such as Estée Lauder’s “recyclable, refillable, reusable, recycled or recoverable” target. The retail refill-station duty is the most direct route by which reuse will reach shampoo, detergent and household cleaner ranges in Europe.

Labelling: two waves of artwork change

• France (PR-FR-003, in force). The Triman logo with Info-tri sorting instructions has been required on household packaging since a phased roll-out from summer 2022, across 15 EPR categories.
• California (PR-US-011; status being updated in the 13 October check). SB 343 limits the chasing-arrows symbol and recyclability claims to items meeting CalRecycle’s criteria, such as collection by programmes serving at least 60% of the population, for products made after 4 October 2026. A preliminary injunction of 14 July 2026 in California League of Food Producers v. Bonta blocks enforcement; CalRecycle’s study work continues.
• EU (PR-EU-003, adopted). A harmonised material-composition label is due on packaging placed on the EU market by 12 August 2028 at the earliest. The label design depends on a Commission implementing act that was still in preparation in October 2026.

Key dates for personal and home care packaging

Personal and home care brands face a rolling calendar rather than one big date: EPR fee and reporting cycles every year in each market, India’s steps every April, and the EU recyclability and recycled-content tests on 1 January 2030.

What 14 personal and home care companies have committed to

The SPI Buyers Database lists 14 personal and home care companies among its 42 brand owners and retailers, which together publish 179 packaging targets. Each target is quoted from the company’s own report; status is SPI’s reading of the reported figure against the company’s own goal. SPI does not audit these figures.

Recycled content. Colgate-Palmolive reports 27% post-consumer recycled plastic against a 25% goal for 2025, and Unilever met its 25% target in 2025. Kimberly-Clark reports 18% against 20% by 2025, and Estée Lauder 20% against 25%, now moved to 2030. Reckitt reports 12% (2024) against 25% by 2025 and says it expects to report slightly behind. Henkel targets 35% or more by 2030 and reports 28%. L’Oréal reports half of the plastics in its packaging recycled or biobased in 2025, and has replaced that goal with 50% of all packaging materials by 2030.

Recyclability. Colgate-Palmolive reports about 96% of packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable at the end of 2025, missing 100%, and about 98% of its toothpaste SKUs in its recyclable tube. Reckitt reports 81% (2024) and says it will not reach 100% by 2025. Procter & Gamble reports 80% designed to be recyclable or reusable (fiscal 2024/25) against 100% by 2030, Henkel 88% against 100% by 2030, and Marico 95%, missing 100% by 2025. Unilever reports 57% overall, 75% of rigids and 15% of flexibles, against 2030 for rigids and 2035 for flexibles.

Virgin plastic. Kenvue reports a 33% cut from 2020, beating its 25% goal. Colgate-Palmolive reports 32% against one-third, so missed narrowly. Procter & Gamble reports 24% per unit against 50% by 2030, Reckitt 18% against 50% by 2030, and Unilever 29% against 30% by 2026. Kimberly-Clark reports its plastics footprint down 16% from 2019 against 50% by 2030.

How SPI builds this page

SPI Regulation Tracker. Each of the 79 rules has its official source, dates, last-checked date and its own page with an SPI note on scope, actions and open points. The 13 October 2026 check re-read 56 tracker records against their official sources and updated 46. SPI EPR & Plastic Tax Calculator. 216 published rate rows in 14 markets, each copied from the scheme’s own table; UK PackUK year 2 fees are illustrative, and Germany and Ontario are not included because no public fee table exists. Per-unit charges and bonus-malus adjustments in France, Spain and US states are not in the default result. SPI Buyers Database. Company-reported targets with links; no contacts, volumes, suppliers or specifications.

Limitations. The tracker does not yet record the PPWR recycled-content percentages for non-beverage categories, and it does not assess whether a specific pack is recyclable. SPI does not give legal or tax advice, test or certify packaging, certify life-cycle assessments or file on your behalf; we can point you to a qualified provider. See methodology and corrections.

Where this fits in your decision

• Discover: compare peers’ targets in the SPI Buyers Database.
• Understand: follow EPR, recycled-content, reuse and labelling rules in the SPI Regulation Tracker, with alerts.
• Evaluate: model fees for a rigid-to-flexible switch in the SPI EPR & Plastic Tax Calculator, and read plastic packaging taxes in 2026.
• Decide and implement: SPI Consulting applies the same data to your formats and markets.

Related pages: Food and beverage, Pharma and healthcare for consumer health ranges, and the Industries overview.

When you need more than the data

The SPI Trackers are free. Three SPI Consulting services fit personal and home care work:

• Sustainable Packaging Strategy: material alternatives, desk-based recyclability reviews against published guidance, refill options and peer benchmarks, delivered as an options matrix and redesign roadmap.
• Packaging Regulatory Intelligence: EPR, plastic tax, recycled-content and labelling rules mapped to your formats and markets, with exposure scenarios and a deadline calendar.
• Packaging Procurement & Supplier Intelligence: supplier mapping for recycled-content and mono-material packs, using public capability evidence.

Work is scoped as a Briefing, Sprint, Programme or Retainer, with pricing on request. To discuss a format or market question, send an enquiry.