Innovative materials can support companies as they adapt to new European packaging rules, helping reduce non-compliance risks while creating new opportunities for brand differentiation.

From 12 August 2026, the new European Packaging Regulation will begin to apply throughout the European Union. For companies, this will not simply be a regulatory transition: it will be an opportunity to rethink packaging, materials and the value each product leaves behind.

Issue 74 of COM.PACK, the magazine dedicated to eco-packaging, captures this moment of transition particularly well.

The magazine devotes considerable attention to the PPWR, the new European Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, as well as to the innovations presented at Packaging Première: natural materials, distinctive surfaces, regenerative solutions and projects capable of turning sustainability into an experience.

Among these, on page 53, MATER by Piantami® is presented as “the label that grows”.

The connection between regulation and innovation is not accidental.

The new rules indicate what packaging will progressively need to reduce, document and improve. New materials show what packaging can become.

PPWR 2026: what changes from 12 August

The European Regulation 2025/40 on packaging and packaging waste, known as the PPWR, entered into force on 11 February 2025 and will generally apply from 12 August 2026.

It is a regulation covering all packaging placed on the European market, regardless of the material used.

The path introduced by the PPWR will progressively involve several areas:

• reducing unnecessary packaging and components;
• increasing attention to substances contained in materials;
• designing packaging for recyclability;
• minimising weight and volume;
• providing verifiable technical information;
• increasing responsibility throughout the supply chain;
• introducing new criteria for labelling, reuse and end-of-life management.

Not all obligations will take effect at the same time. Several technical criteria will be defined through delegated acts, implementing acts and subsequent deadlines.

However, the message for businesses is already clear: packaging will need to be understood, designed and documented with greater precision.

The European Commission provides a dedicated section on the PPWR, which is useful for following updates and the next stages of implementation.

Not a threat, but a path to build

For many companies, the PPWR may appear to introduce a further level of complexity: new controls, documentation, technical testing, material reviews and possible compliance costs.

This concern is understandable.

However, the transition should not be approached solely as an obligation to endure. It can become an opportunity to analyse what is currently being used, remove unnecessary elements and focus investment on what genuinely creates value.

It is not necessary to redesign every package immediately.

Companies can begin with one product line, one label, one neck tag, one box or one pilot project. They can work together with suppliers, printers, designers and converters, gradually assessing performance, production processes and end-of-life scenarios.

The transition requires time, but above all it requires method.

Compliance will be necessary. Differentiation will remain a choice

When a requirement becomes mandatory, meeting it allows a company to remain on the market. On its own, however, compliance does not create distinction.

In the coming years, many companies will reduce weights, volumes and components. They will review adhesives, coatings, varnishes, labels and materials. They will prepare more complete technical documentation and make their supply chains more transparent.

When everyone has started along the same path, the decisive question will be different:

how can packaging remain recognisable, desirable and consistent with the value of the brand?

This is where research into new materials becomes strategic.

Not to add an environmental claim to a package, but to turn material, form, function and end of life into parts of the same project.

From the luxury of abundance to the luxury of legacy

For many years, luxury packaging was associated with abundance: more layers, more components, more effects, more finishes and more material.

The new regulatory and cultural landscape invites us to change perspective.

Reducing does not necessarily mean impoverishing.

It can mean removing what adds no value and making every remaining choice more meaningful.

Premium packaging does not need to be precious because it contains a large quantity of material. It can be precious because the chosen material has an origin, an authentic texture, a story and a function capable of continuing beyond its first use.

Abundance is consumed. Legacy remains.

In wine, cosmetics, perfumery, fashion and hospitality, this legacy may be the story of a territory, a supply chain or an action that the consumer is invited to perform.

It is a new interpretation of luxury: more measured, more conscious and richer in meaning.

When material becomes language

COM.PACK’s feature on new materials highlights an important development: natural textures are no longer hidden, but enhanced.

Fibres, colour variations, tactile surfaces and natural irregularities can become distinctive signs.

The material is no longer merely the surface on which a message is printed. It becomes the message itself.

For premium brands, this transformation opens new possibilities.

A recognisable surface can communicate authenticity and uniqueness without relying on an excess of decorative elements. The material can convey the value of the project even before the consumer reads the words printed on the package.

MATER: the label that continues the story of wine

It is within this context that COM.PACK presents MATER by Piantami®, a project selected for the Avant-Garde 2026 area at Packaging Première and already awarded at Vinitaly.

MATER transforms the bottle label into an active part of the story.

It is made from Piantami® Paper, the bioactive material containing seeds integrated into its fibres. Once removed from the bottle, it can be placed in contact with soil, watered and supported through the germination process.

The project is also printed using natural pigments obtained from Aglianico wine, beetroot and cardamom.

The consumer does not simply receive a message about sustainability.

The consumer receives an action to perform.

The label communicates the character of the wine during its first use and can later begin a new function. It does not merely describe nature: it seeks to rebuild a tangible connection with it.

The value of the project lies precisely in this continuity.

The territory generates the product, the product generates the story and the packaging can leave behind a new form of life.

Innovative materials are not regulatory shortcuts

Choosing an innovative material does not automatically make the finished packaging compliant.

Every project must be assessed by considering its entire composition:

• function and intended use;
• quantity of material employed;
• inks, adhesives, varnishes and coatings;
• possible barriers;
• additional components;
• separability of the different elements;
• information provided to the consumer;
• the appropriate end-of-life scenario.

Compliance concerns the packaging as a whole, not one raw material considered in isolation.

For this reason, Piantami® does not offer a universal solution to be applied indiscriminately to every product. It offers a material to be studied together with brands, agencies, printers, packaging converters and label manufacturers.

Print, folding, die-cutting, adhesive application and converting tests are an essential part of the process.

Innovation becomes truly useful when it can be verified, industrialised and communicated accurately.

How to prepare for change without losing identity

Companies can begin the transition through a number of practical steps.

Map existing packaging

Understanding materials, components, weights, coatings and functions makes it possible to identify what can be simplified.

Choose a pilot project

A label, neck tag, limited edition or box can become the first field of experimentation.

Involve the supply chain from the beginning

Brands, designers, printers, converters and material suppliers must share the same technical and narrative objectives.

Test before communicating

The performance of both the material and the finished packaging must be verified before environmental claims are made.

Give consumers clear instructions

A new function can only be understood and used when it is explained simply, accurately and credibly.

The packaging to come

The PPWR will bring new responsibilities, investment requirements and the need for continuous updates. It can, however, also become an accelerator of innovation.

It can help companies reduce what is unnecessary and give greater value to what remains.

The role of new materials is not to make packaging more complicated, but to make it more consistent with the product, the territory and the future the brand wishes to represent.

For premium companies, this transition can mark the passage from abundance to legacy.

Not adding material in order to appear precious.

Choosing a material that has something to leave behind.

Piantami® supports companies, agencies, printers and converters in the development of bioactive paper projects: from selecting the appropriate grammage to print testing and final packaging production.

Request a consultation for your sustainable packaging project.

This article is provided for informational purposes and does not replace a technical or legal assessment of the compliance of a specific packaging solution.

A Shopping Bag Lasts a Few Minutes. Its Material Can Tell a Brand’s Story for Much Longer

A shopping bag may accompany a purchase for only a few minutes.

The time it takes to leave a store.

Walk down a street.

Reach a car or return home.

And yet, creating it required the choice of a material, a shape, a colour, a graphic design, a finish and a precise way of presenting the brand.

Its practical function may be brief.

Its meaning does not have to be.

Because a shopping bag is not simply something used to carry a product.

It is the first element that makes a purchase visible in a public space.

It walks alongside the person carrying it.

It enters the streets.

It is noticed.

It communicates something about the product and the company that created it.

But what happens when this first function ends?

A Brief Function, a Much Longer Presence

A shopping bag is designed to contain and carry.

A simple, practical function that often lasts only a short time.

The material used to make it, however, may remain in the environment for much longer than the action for which it was produced.

It is precisely within this imbalance that a question emerges.

Does it still make sense to design a material that will last far longer than its function without imagining what will happen next?

The sustainability of a shopping bag cannot depend solely on replacing one material with another.

Its entire life cycle must be reconsidered.

Where it comes from.

How it is processed.

How much material it uses.

What it communicates.

And what possibility it retains after the purchase.

A Shopping Bag Is More Than a Container

In fashion, beauty and luxury, the shopping bag is part of the experience.

It does not merely accompany the product.

It helps shape its perceived value.

The texture of the paper.

The sound it makes when touched.

The feel of the handles.

The quality of the printing.

The colour.

The structure.

Every element communicates a choice.

For this reason, a shopping bag should not be considered a secondary medium.

It is one of the most visible forms of a brand’s packaging.

It can express care, quality and attention.

But it can also reveal how carefully the brand has considered what will happen afterwards.

The Material Communicates Even Before the Graphics

We are used to thinking that the logo is what tells the story of a brand.

In reality, the material begins communicating even before the message is read.

A natural surface communicates something different from a perfectly uniform one.

A tactile paper creates a different sensation from a laminated substrate.

A material capable of transforming tells a different story from one designed simply to be used and discarded.

The choice of material therefore becomes part of the brand’s language.

It is not merely a technical decision.

It is a statement.

It expresses the value we attribute to resources.

The relationship we imagine between the product and the environment.

And how far beyond the moment of sale we are willing to design.

From Reuse to Transformation

A high-quality shopping bag can be reused.

It can hold other objects.

It can be kept.

It can accompany another purchase.

Reuse extends its function and already represents value.

The new European packaging rules also encourage waste prevention, reuse, recyclability and packaging design that considers the entire life cycle more carefully.

But another possibility also exists.

The material can be designed so that, once its use has ended, it does not simply continue to exist as a shopping bag.

It can transform.

This is the transition from a second life to a new life.

A second life keeps the object in the same function or gives it a different use.

A new life allows the material to become something else.

When the Entire Shopping Bag Becomes Bioactive

Carta Piantami® can be used to create the entire shopping bag.

The shopping bag itself can be designed using a bioactive material.

During its first life, it contains the product, accompanies the purchase and communicates the brand.

It can then be planted and returned to the earth.

The seeds incorporated into the material can germinate and generate new vegetation.

The shopping bag therefore does not complete its journey when the product reaches its destination.

It can begin an entirely new function.

First, it protects and communicates.

Then, it transforms.

Designing a Shopping Bag Means Designing What Happens Next

When a brand chooses a bioactive material, it is not simply replacing one type of paper with another.

It is changing the meaning of the entire packaging.

The graphics can tell the story of the transformation.

The instructions can invite the person to perform a gesture.

The shape can make the next phase easier.

In this way, the shopping bag can become a relationship between the brand and the person who receives it.

Its journey does not end when the product is delivered.

It continues when the bag is kept, reused, torn into pieces, planted and cared for.

Packaging stops being merely what remains after a purchase.

It becomes what can still happen.

A Visible Gesture in Public Spaces

A shopping bag moves through cities.

It is carried along streets.

It enters workplaces, homes and public transport.

For a few minutes, it becomes one of the most visible expressions of a brand’s presence.

But precisely for this reason, it should communicate more than a logo.

It can express a different way of using materials.

It can show that packaging has been designed not only to be seen, but also to transform.

It can make a choice visible.

The value of a shopping bag therefore does not depend solely on how long it is used.

It also depends on what it communicates during that time and on what it can become afterwards.

The Brand’s Story Can Continue

A shopping bag lasts only a few minutes.

But its material can continue to live for much longer.

It can be remembered.

It can be reused.

It can return to the earth.

It can become a plant.

And as it transforms, it continues to tell the story of the brand that chose to imagine its future.

Piantami® was born from this vision.

Not to consider the shopping bag as a container destined to complete its journey after the purchase.

But as packaging capable of accompanying the product and subsequently generating new life.

Because the value of a material is not measured only by the time during which it is used.

It is also measured by what it can continue to generate.

Piantami hangtang for Harmont&blein

Fashion Is Giving Clothes a Second Life. What About Packaging?

For many years, fashion taught us to desire what was new.

A new collection.
A new season.
A new garment to add to our wardrobe.

Today, however, something is changing.

More and more people and companies are beginning to ask themselves not only how to create a product, but also how to extend its life after its first use.

Repair.

Resell.

Recover.

Transform.

A garment does not necessarily have to reach the end of its journey when the person who purchased it stops wearing it.

It can be passed on to someone else, reinterpreted or returned to the market with a new identity.

A second life is no longer merely an individual choice.

It is one of the central directions in the transition towards a circular economy for fashion, in which garments and materials are kept in use and at their highest value for as long as possible.

It is becoming part of the way fashion is rethinking itself.

When a Second Life Becomes Part of a Brand’s Project

The second life of clothing is no longer limited to vintage fashion or the second-hand market.

It is becoming part of collection design and brand strategies.

A significant example is Harmont & Blaine, which, through its RE-LOVED project, chose to recover garments from previous collections and fabrics preserved in its archives.

Materials that could have been regarded as outdated are rediscovered, combined and transformed through a new creative process.

What belongs to the past is not treated as waste.

It becomes new material for design.

A pair of trousers can be reconstructed.

Two garments can become a new design.

Fabrics with different stories can meet and give shape to something that did not exist before.

Within this vision, a second life is not a fallback solution.

It becomes a way of recognising the value already present in materials, quality and the memory carried by a garment.

A Garment Can Be Reborn. But What Happens to Its Packaging?

Fashion is therefore learning not to consider a product’s life complete after its first use.

But what happens to the elements that accompany it?

The hangtag.

The shopping bag.

The card included inside the package.

The band wrapped around the product.

Very often, these items complete their function only a few minutes after the purchase.

The garment enters a new model of longevity.

Packaging, on the other hand, often remains tied to a linear journey:

it is produced, used and discarded.

This is where a contradiction emerges.

If we invest in recovering and transforming a garment, can we continue to think of the material that tells its story as something destined to disappear immediately?

From the Second Life of a Garment to the New Life of a Hangtag

Harmont & Blaine chose to extend this reflection to some of the elements accompanying its products by using hangtags made from Carta Piantami®.

The hangtag initially performs its traditional role as the garment’s identity card: it communicates the brand, accompanies the garment, provides information and contributes to its presentation.

But its journey does not necessarily have to end when it is removed.

Carta Piantami® contains seeds and can be planted in the soil.

After telling the story of the product, the hangtag can therefore transform and generate a plant.

The garment is recovered and reinterpreted.

The hangtag returns to the earth and takes on an entirely new function.

They are two different journeys, but they arise from the same question:

what can happen next?

A Second Life and a New Life Are Not the Same Thing

Giving something a second life means extending the value of what already exists.

A garment can be repaired, resold, reconstructed or used again.

In the case of bioactive paper, packaging does not simply continue to exist as paper.

It can become a plant.

It can generate flowers.

It can provide nourishment for pollinating insects.

It can enter into a new relationship with people and the environment.

It is therefore not simply a matter of extending the lifespan of an object.

It means rethinking its destiny.

Packaging Can Become Part of the Same Vision

A brand communicates its values through many different elements.

Not only through its main product.

The choice of materials, the hangtag, the package and the way a product reaches the customer all contribute to building its identity.

For this reason, a second life should not concern only the garment.

It can involve everything that shapes the brand experience: the hangtag, the shopping bag, the package and its communication materials.

This is the vision behind sustainable packaging for brands: not simply a container, but a material designed to continue generating value even after use.

A hangtag can be designed to germinate.

A shopping bag can be imagined as something that can return to the earth.

A card can continue communicating even after the sale, transforming into a tangible gesture.

Packaging therefore becomes more than simply less harmful.

It becomes part of the story the brand has chosen to tell.

Sustainability Does Not End with the Choice of Product

True innovation does not always consist in creating something completely new.

Sometimes it means learning to look at what already exists and asking what other possibilities it might contain.

Fashion is beginning to do this with garments, fabrics and past collections.

Now it can do the same with packaging.

Because a material does not necessarily have to exhaust its value after performing its first function.

It can continue.

It can transform.

It can generate a new relationship.

It can be reborn.

Piantami® was born from this vision: not simply to sell paper, but to propose a new way for packaging to live beyond the product.

If a garment can live twice, everything accompanying it can also have a future.

Piantami Paper reel

Seed paper in reel opens a new possibility for wine packaging: transforming labels, neck tags and communication materials into supports that can tell the story of wine and, after use, return to the earth.

A label can tell the story of a vineyard.

It can tell the story of a hill.
A landscape.
A family.
A harvest.
A production choice.
An identity.

In the wine world, a label is never just a graphic support. It is the first encounter between a bottle and the person who will choose it. It anticipates the character of the wine, suggests its positioning, and holds a fragment of the territory from which it was born.

But today, a label can do something more.

It does not have to simply tell the story of the earth.
It can return to the earth.

From Vision to a Real Supply Chain

In recent years, there has been growing discussion around sustainable packaging, responsible materials, special papers, recyclable labels, impact reduction and new solutions for the wine & spirits sector.

These are important steps.

But for Piantami® Formanex, the question has always been different:

what can packaging become after it has fulfilled its function?

This question has led to a new possibility for the wine world: a plantable paper with integrated seeds, also produced in reel, already self-adhesive and already used for real applications.

Not only sheets.
Not only samples.
Not only special projects.

A reel of Piantami paper designed to bring this material closer to the concrete supply chain of wine packaging: labels, neck tags, communication materials, limited editions, gift boxes and projects dedicated to telling the story of a territory.

Why the Reel Changes Everything

In wine packaging, the beauty of an idea is not enough.

A material must also be able to speak to those who print, those who apply adhesive, those who convert, those who apply labels, and those who need to bring a vision into a real production process.

The reel represents exactly this step.

It means taking plantable paper beyond the idea of a gadget or a single creative project and bringing it closer to a more industrial language, one that is more aligned with the needs of wineries, printers, label producers and wine & spirits brands.

Because the point is not simply to say:

“this label can be planted.”

The point is to make it real.

A material that can be designed.
Printed.
Made self-adhesive.
Applied.
Told.
And then, after use, planted.

As far as we are aware, this is one of the first experiences in the world in which plantable paper with integrated seeds has been brought into reel form and made self-adhesive for packaging-related applications.

The Label Piantami Paper as a Living Part of the Story

Wine is born from a natural cycle.

The earth.
The vine.
The fruit.
Time.
Transformation.

And yet, very often, packaging remains outside this cycle. It accompanies the bottle, tells the story of the territory, communicates the value of the brand, but once its primary function is over, it becomes something to be disposed of.

Piantami® proposes a change in perspective.

The label can continue telling the story of the wine even after the last sip.

With seeds integrated into the paper, which can be selected according to the brand’s narrative, packaging can become a living gesture: local essences, bee-friendly flowers, symbolic plants, native varieties or dedicated mixes created for a special project.

This is one of the central elements of the Piantami® line for wine & spirits: transforming labels, neck tags and packaging into an experience that does not end with consumption, but can be planted and generate new life.

In this way, the label is no longer just the support on which a story is written.

It becomes part of the story itself.

From the MATER Award to a New Line for Wine Packaging

With the MATER project, awarded at the Best Innovation Design Award Vinitaly 2025, Piantami® showed a possibility: a label can be more than a graphic sign.

It can become narrative matter.
It can tell the story of the earth not only through an image, but through its own nature.
It can accompany the wine and then continue its journey in another form.

The reel of plantable paper represents a further step.

From a manifesto project to a vertical line.
From a single award-winning label to the possibility of bringing this vision into new applications for the wine & spirits world.

This is where Piantami® is building a new direction: a paper designed for wineries, designers, printers and label producers who want to give packaging an additional function.

Not only to protect.
Not only to dress.
Not only to communicate.

But to continue.

A New Possibility for Wineries and Wine Brands with Piantami Paper Reel

For a winery, choosing plantable paper in reel means opening a new level of storytelling.

A label can speak about biodiversity.
A neck tag can tell the story of a project linked to the territory.
A limited edition can leave the customer with something that continues to grow.
A gift box can transform the act of giving into a gesture towards the earth.
A tasting material can become a living memory of the experience.

The value is not only aesthetic.

It is relational.

The bottle meets the person.
The person meets the story of the winery.
The packaging, after use, can return to the earth.

In this passage, the customer does not simply receive a message about sustainability.

They receive a gesture to perform.

After the Last Sip

The future of wine packaging will not be made only of materials that are more beautiful, lighter or more sustainable.

It will also be made of materials capable of imagining what comes after.

After the purchase.
After the tasting.
After the last sip.

With its self-adhesive plantable paper in reel, Piantami® brings this vision one step closer to production reality.

Because if wine is born from the earth, perhaps its label can also find a way to return to it.

And, by returning, generate new life.

To explore the applications dedicated to wine, spirits, wineries and label producers, visit the Piantami® Wine & Spirits page.