PPWR for Hotels: What Is Banned from 2030 and What to Buy Until Then
From 2030, EU Regulation 2025/40 bans placing single-use cosmetics packaging for hotels on the market. What it means in practice.
From 12 August 2026, Regulation (EU) 2025/40 on packaging and packaging waste applies directly in all member states. It does not need to be transposed into Romanian law: it is valid as it stands, from the same date, in Romania as in Germany.
For a hotel, the provision that changes purchasing decisions does not come into force now. It comes into force on 1 January 2030. But preparation starts now, and below we explain why.
What it says, exactly
Article 25 of the regulation prohibits economic operators from placing on the market packaging in the formats and uses listed in Annex V. Point 5 of that annex covers, in direct translation:
single-use packaging for cosmetic, hygiene and toiletry products, intended for use in the accommodation sector.
The application date for this point is 1 January 2030.
What is important to note: the text contains no volume threshold. It does not say "under 50 ml", nor "under 100 ml". The criterion is not size but use: packaging intended for a single booking, which is thrown away after the guest leaves.
What falls under the ban, in practice
It follows from the wording above that we are not talking only about small shampoo bottles. The whole category of individual formats offered in the room and discarded after each guest is covered:
- small bottles of shampoo, conditioner, shower gel;
- bottles of body and hand lotion;
- individually wrapped solid soaps, in a sachet or a small box;
- other toiletries packaged for a single stay.
Individually wrapped solid soap deserves emphasis, because it is the most widespread misconception in the market: that the regulation targets only plastic, or only liquids. It does not. The criterion is single-use packaging for a single booking, regardless of material and regardless of what is inside.
What the regulation does NOT say
Here it is just as important to be precise, because exaggerations in the opposite direction are also circulating in the market.
The regulation does not impose any particular dispenser system. Nowhere does it say "install membrane dispensers" or "use 5-litre refills". It prohibits placing single-use packaging per booking on the market and, in practice, leaves the hotel free to choose the means: wall-mounted refillable dispensers, countertop pump dispensers, reusable large formats, or solid products in reusable holders. Refillable dispenser systems do not, in principle, fall into the single-use category, but concrete compliance depends on the configuration of the packaging. The Commission must publish guidelines on Annex V by 12 February 2027, and the status of items offered on request at reception is still being clarified.
Nor does it ban cosmetics as such, brands, or hotel amenities as an idea. A five-star hotel can remain just as generous with its guests after 2030: the packaging changes, not the standard.
Why the decision is made now, not in 2029
Three practical reasons, in the order in which they hit a budget.
The purchasing cycle. Cosmetics contracts are signed for one to three years. A contract signed in 2028 for individual formats ends, at the last delivery, with goods that can no longer be placed on the market. The lines you buy today should already be the ones you will be working with in four years' time.
Renovations. Installing dispensers in the bathroom is an intervention done once, at renovation. A hotel that renovates in 2027 and fits holders for individual bottles will be redoing the same bathroom in 2029. The renovation window in Romania, October to March, means this decision is taken three or four times between now and the deadline.
The waste arithmetic. According to the ADA Cosmetics Sustainability Report 2024, the Refillution refill system reduces plastic consumption by up to 95%, according to the manufacturer's methodology, which means on average 4.5 kg of plastic waste saved per hotel room, per year (the automated Refillution system). For a 120-room hotel: 540 kg a year. For a 200-room hotel: 900 kg. The same source shows that in 2024, 17% of the ADA portfolio was refillable, compared with 13% in 2023, with one million euros invested in research and development that year: a useful reference point for where the industry is, not only where the regulation is.
The first question every hotelier asks
It is not about plastic. It is: and who guarantees hygiene, if it is refilled?
It is a fair question, and the answer has to be technical, not declarative. With professional refill systems, the safeguards are of three kinds: the container remains sealed during transfer, so the product does not come into contact with the air in the laundry room or the storeroom; each container receives an individual batch number, so the filling is traceable; and the pump is peristaltic, so the liquid touches only food-contact-compliant tubing, not the pump mechanism.
With membrane dispensers, hygiene comes from the design: the bottle empties completely, and the safe-lock seal shows whether the system has been opened. The independent Rhine-Waal institute in Germany has tested this principle and confirmed the absence of back-contamination.
The difference between a good answer and a weak one to this question is the difference between replacing the bottles and replacing them with something housekeeping is willing to use.
What to do, in practice
For a hotel that does not want to reach 2029 with the decision still unmade, the order is simple.
First, the inventory: how many individual formats are used today, by room category, and which contracts cover them. Then, the room categories: not all of them switch at the same time and not all to the same system; a hotel can start with standard rooms and keep reusable large formats in the suites. Then, testing: a system installed in a model room, with the housekeeping team using it for a month. And only then the contract.
Concept Hotels distributes ADA Cosmetics in Romania. We can carry out the first two stages together, the inventory and the configuration by room category, and we send samples for the third.
The information reflects EU legislation in force as at 24 September 2026. The Commission guidelines on Annex V, due by 12 February 2027, may clarify how the ban applies in practice. This article is for information only and does not constitute legal advice.
Dragoș Popescu
Dragoș Popescu founded Concept Hotels in 2001. Since 2004 the company has been ADA Cosmetics’ distributor for Romania and the Republic of Moldova, and it works directly with Indel B and Aliseo on equipping hotel bathrooms and guest rooms.
About Concept Hotels →Sources (3)
- Regulation (EU) 2025/40 on packaging and packaging waste, Article 25 and Annex V point 5. Date of first application: 12 August 2026 (EUR-Lex, ELI: reg/2025/40).
- European Parliament, written question E-002490/2025, "Ban on mini single-use packaging for cosmetics, hygiene and toiletry products in hotels, as provided for in the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR)", which quotes the wording of Annex V point 5 and the 1 January 2030 deadline.
- ADA Cosmetics, Sustainability Report 2024 (ada-cosmetics.com), Refillution case study: up to 95% reduction in plastic consumption, an average of 4.5 kg per room per year; 17% of the portfolio refillable in 2024 compared with 13% in 2023; one million euros in research and development in 2024.
