PPWR and the future of single-use products: why drinking straws are becoming a procurement issue

Amsterdam / Berlin
With the upcoming EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), hospitality, retail, event organisers and catering companies across Europe face increasing pressure to ensure that single-use products are not only more sustainable, but above all regulatorily compliant, food-safe and operationally viable.

What is becoming apparent across the European market: even minor single-use items such as drinking straws are increasingly reassessed as strategic procurement decisions, rather than low-risk consumables.

Regulatory background: why drinking straws are being reassessed

The PPWR will significantly tighten requirements for packaging and certain single-use products across the European Union. For companies, this implies:

increased documentation and traceability requirements

higher expectations regarding product safety and material transparency

growing relevance of food-contact compliance

closer linkage to ESG- and CSRD-related procurement frameworks

Especially in HORECA, aviation catering, healthcare and large-scale events, products that were previously considered interchangeable are now subject to closer regulatory and operational scrutiny.

Food safety as a decisive criterion

Against this backdrop, Roots Europe B.V. has developed Earth Saver Straws as a drinking straw solution designed specifically for verifiable food safety and regulatory clarity, rather than marketing-driven sustainability claims.

The product has been tested by TÜV Rheinland, an EU-accredited testing body, and complies with the requirements of EU Regulation (EC) No. 10/2011 on food contact materials.

Material approach and operational use

Earth Saver Straws are based on a hybrid plastic material with a defined biogenic content.
The material choice is not driven by communication effects, but by functional requirements related to food safety, stability and regulatory classification.

Within the PPWR framework, the straws are positioned as a clearly classifiable plastic product with full material transparency, enabling straightforward documentation for procurement, labelling and compliance across EU markets.

This approach reflects a pragmatic, system-oriented development logic, increasingly observed in European procurement environments where operational reliability outweighs symbolic sustainability narratives.

Market context: comparison with alternative solutions

Paper straws often lose stability during extended use

PLA-based solutions depend on industrial composting infrastructure, which remains unevenly available across EU member states

Bamboo products can raise sensory and hygiene concerns in certain professional applications

As a result, hybrid material solutions are increasingly viewed as a pragmatic interim option between classic single-use and fully reusable systems, particularly where return logistics or washing infrastructure are not feasible.

Relevance for procurement and ESG strategies

Across Europe, procurement and sustainability teams are reassessing low-cost items with disproportionately high regulatory and documentation impact.
In this context, verifiability and decision certainty are becoming more relevant than communicative sustainability positioning.

Products with transparent material composition, validated food-contact compliance and clear regulatory classification can be more easily integrated into existing procurement, ESG and compliance frameworks at EU level.

Outlook

Earth Saver Straws are listed within the innovation ecosystem of GRIDX Luxembourg,

The listing underlines the positioning of Earth Saver Straws as a validated, innovation-driven solution within the context of bioeconomy, sustainable materials and regulatory future-proofing. Further applications based on the same material approach are currently in development, with a view toward EU-wide scalability.

Press & EU Market Contact

Behrentin Communication GmbH
Berlin, Germany
Email: info@behrentin.com

Website: https://www.behrentin.com/en

Press & EU Market Contact

Behrentin Communication GmbH
Berlin, Germany
Email: info@behrentin.com

Behrentin Communication GmbH is an independent consulting and innovation agency based in Germany. The company supports manufacturers, scale-ups and institutions in regulatorily positioning sustainable and bio-based products, translating them into market-ready offerings, and making them procurement-ready for the European market.

The firm focuses on the intersection of regulation (including PPWR, food-contact compliance, ESG/CSRD), market access and operational implementation across sectors such as HORECA, retail, healthcare, events and the bioeconomy. Behrentin Communication works in a deliberately fact-based and structured manner, with the aim of creating decision certainty for procurement teams, management and public-sector stakeholders.

The company's network includes innovation ecosystems, research institutions, industry partners and public-sector actors across the DACH region and the EU. Behrentin Communication supports projects from strategic regulatory assessment and market positioning through to innovation concepts and the preparation of concrete market entry processes.

This release was published on openPR.