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Switzerland: a packaging ordinance that is not the PPWR
Switzerland is not a Member State and does not apply the PPWR. The Federal Council adopted the Packaging Ordinance (VerpV) on 24 June 2026. It applies from 1 January 2027 and repeals the 2000 beverage-packaging ordinance. The only consumer-facing on-pack duty in the adopted text is Art. 17: mark reusable packaging as such (restauration excluded) and state the deposit on deposit-bearing beverage packs. There is no Swiss Triman, no Union composition pictogram, and no general sorting label. Until 31 December 2026 the 2000 beverage ordinance remains the current instrument.
MehrwegPrescribed or scheme wording — not production artwork
Pfand: mindestens 30 RappenPrescribed or scheme wording — not production artwork
Wording lock-ups and sourced marks are for identification and commentary. They are not production artwork.
The question this report answers
The Federal Council’s press release of 24 June 2026 is the public account; the ordinance PDF published with it is the legal object. VerpV replaces the Ordinance of 5 July 2000 on beverage packaging (VGV). Art. 27 repeals VGV. Art. 29 brings VerpV into force on 1 January 2027, with later articles staged to 2028, 2030, 2031 and 2032. This report does not treat a 2026 pack as already bound by 2027 law.
What Switzerland did not copy is as important as what it did. There is no Article 12 composition label, no recycling class A–C, no PFAS concentration table, and no 2029 one-way deposit mandate of the PPWR kind. Art. 17 is the labelling article. Everything else in the ordinance is take-back, advance disposal fees, recycling-rate floors, and a deposit that is held in reserve if those floors are missed. PET-Recycling Schweiz and similar collection schemes remain voluntary systems; they are not promoted to statutory pictograms by VerpV.
Legal status at a glance
| Requirement | Status | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Reusable beverage marking (Art. 17) | adopted | Applies 1 January 2027. Mark Mehrweg as such; state the deposit on deposit-bearing packs. Not restaurants. |
| Mehrweg deposit (Art. 18) | adopted | At least 30 Rappen on reusable beverage packaging supplied to end consumers. Take-back against refund. |
| One-way PET/metal take-back (Art. 19) | adopted | In-store take-back and a visible notice at the point of sale. Not an on-pack logo. |
| Carton and SUP-plastic take-back (Art. 4) | adopted | Applies 1 January 2031. Take-back at the place of handover, with a visible notice. Not a pack mark. |
| Recycling-rate floors | adopted | Art. 20: 75% glass, PET, aluminium (current architecture). Art. 7 from 1 January 2032: 70% beverage cartons, 55% one-way plastic. Missed floors can trigger a minimum deposit. |
| General consumer sorting label | none | VerpV does not prescribe one. PPWR Art. 12 does not apply in Switzerland. |
What Article 17 says — and what it does not
The German authentic text, as retrieved from the Federal Council PDF of 24 June 2026, requires Händler and Hersteller who supply Mehrwegverpackungen or pfandbelastete Getränkeverpackungen to consumers or end users to (a) mark those reusable packs as such — this does not apply to Restaurationsbetriebe — and (b) indicate the deposit levied on pfandbelasteten Getränkeverpackungen. That is the whole of the consumer-facing pack duty. It is a status mark and an amount, not a sorting instruction and not a recyclability verdict. Art. 18 sets the reusable deposit at a minimum of 30 Rappen and requires take-back against refund. Branch organisations with at least ten members and a 70 per cent return rate can operate as the fulfilment vehicle. That architecture is the existing Swiss reusable-bottle practice written into the new ordinance; it is not a newly invented national logo. No millimetre specification is stated in Art. 17. No statutory pictogram file is published with the ordinance.
What is not on the pack
Art. 19 requires, for one-way PET and metal beverage packaging, take-back at every point of sale during opening hours, material recovery at the actor’s cost, and a clearly visible in-store notice that take-back is offered. Art. 4, from 1 January 2031, requires the same pattern for filled beverage cartons and one-way plastic packaging, at the place of actual handover or in its immediate vicinity. Those are shelf and store duties. Copying them onto the pack as if they were Info-tri is a misread. Art. 5 sets take-back de minimis at CHF 1 million turnover and 500 kg. Further UVEK exemptions exist for packs not suitable for material recovery.
Art. 7 (from 1 January 2032) and Art. 20 set recycling-rate floors. If the floors are missed, the authorities can require a minimum deposit on the affected one-way packs, take-back against refund, and recovery at the actor’s cost. That is a contingent deposit, not a current DRS mark. The Federal Council’s 24 June 2026 release states the policy choice expressly: beverage containers are given an exception from a general deposit duty; rates come first. Design-for-recyclability and recycled-content maximisation in Art. 3 apply from 1 January 2030. They are product-design rules, not a printed recycling class. Advance disposal fees on glass (Art. 8, from 1 January 2028, extending beyond beverage glass) finance collection; they do not print.
PPWR is a different market
A SKU placed on the Union market is in PPWR. A SKU placed only in Switzerland is in VerpV. Dual-market artwork that carries a future Union composition pictogram does not discharge Art. 17, and Art. 17 does not discharge Article 12. Switzerland is not bound by the PPWR’s PFAS limits, recycling classes, recycled-content quotas or 2029 one-way deposit. Cassis-de-Dijon recognition under Swiss technical-barriers law can ease some product rules; it is not a licence to drop a Swiss Mehrweg mark or to treat a Union sorting pictogram as Swiss take-back. Printing a one-way Swiss DRS logo because Germany, Austria and the Union have one is the second collapse this report is written to prevent. The ordinance’s one-way deposit is a sanction for missed rates, not a 2027 artwork file. PET-Recycling Schweiz, Igora and similar scheme marks remain collection systems. Triman or Fost Plus PMD artwork on a Swiss-only SKU does not make Alpine collection Belgian PMD or French Info-tri.
Primary sources and verification
Swiss Federal Council. Medienmitteilung, 24 June 2026, Verordnungspaket including VerpV. Open source
Switzerland. Verordnung über Verpackungen (VerpV), 24 June 2026, AS 2026 358 (Federal Council PDF). Open source
Switzerland. Ordinance of 5 July 2000 on beverage packaging (VGV), still in force until 31 December 2026. Open source
Fedlex. Official collection entry AS 2026 358 (JavaScript required in-browser). Open source
German authentic text of the Federal Council PDF controls. Fedlex HTML was not retrievable without JavaScript; article numbers and quotations were read from the published PDF. No millimetre specification is stated in Art. 17. Last verified: 23 August 2026.