On July 20, 2026, the European Union published a corrigendum to Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2026/1425, replacing the calculation formulas and reporting tables that PET beverage-bottle producers and Member States must use to track recycled plastic content under Directive (EU) 2019/904 (the Single-Use Plastics, or SUP, Directive). The corrigendum, published as OJ L 2026/90601, rewrites Annex I (formulas) and Annex II (reporting format) of the Decision adopted on June 30, 2026 and originally published on July 3, 2026. It does not change the underlying recycled-content targets of the SUP Directive; it corrects the methodology and reporting template that compliance teams feed into their annual declarations.
The corrected annexes are binding and apply immediately as the reference methodology for the calculation, verification and reporting of recycled plastic content in single-use plastic beverage bottles. Producers placing PET bottles on the EU market, and the packaging converters that supply them, must align their data collection and reporting workflows to the corrected formulas and table structure now, ahead of the next reporting cycle. The Decision repeals the older Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2023/2683.
What exactly does the corrigendum change?
The corrigendum replaces the annexes of Implementing Decision (EU) 2026/1425 in full. Annex I now fixes the formulas for the proportion of recycled plastic content in PET bottles. The core calculation is RC = R / W x 100%, where RC is the proportion of recycled plastic content, R is the weight of recycled plastic used in PET bottles placed on the market, and W is the weight of plastic used in those bottles. Because a PET bottle is made of its body, cap, lid, label and sleeve, both R and W are decomposed into component weights: R = R_b + R_c + R_l and W = W_b + W_c + W_l, covering body, caps/lids and labels/sleeves respectively.
Annex II replaces the reporting format. It sets two tables: Table 1 captures the weight of plastic used in PET bottles placed on the market (in tonnes), and Table 2 captures the weight of recycled plastic used (in tonnes) together with the proportion of recycled plastic content (in percent). Each table is keyed by country and reference year, with mandatory and voluntary fields clearly marked. The corrected structure makes explicit which reporting paths are acceptable when a Member State adjusts its figures for exports or movements of bottles to other Member States.
Who has to comply, and by when?
The methodology applies to every producer placing single-use PET beverage bottles on the EU market, and to the converters in their supply chain that must evidence recycled-plastic weights. Major exposed actors include Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Danone and Nestle Waters, alongside their PET packaging suppliers. Member State authorities use the same Annex II tables to report national data to the Commission.
The corrigendum is corrective rather than transitional: it fixes the annexes of an already-applying Decision, so there is no separate entry-into-force date for the methodology itself. Compliance teams should treat the corrected formulas and tables as the operative reference from the OJ publication date of July 20, 2026, and reconcile any in-flight 2025 reference-year reporting against the corrected template before submission. The substantive SUP Directive targets remain unchanged, including the 25% recycled-plastic threshold for PET bottles and the 30% threshold for all single-use plastic beverage bottles by 2030.
How should reporting teams adjust their process?
The practical fix is to update the calculation pipeline and the reporting workbook. Three adjustments cover the bulk of the change:
- Component-weight decomposition: ensure the system records body, cap/lid and label/sleeve weights separately for both total plastic (W) and recycled plastic (R), so that formulas 2 and 3 in Annex I can be computed and audited.
- Cross-border adjustments: where a Member State adjusts figures for bottles moved to or from other Member States, or exported to third countries, apply the corrected formulas 4 to 7, which decompose R and W into manufactured-in-state, moved-from-other-MS, imported, moved-to-other-MS and exported components.
- Table mapping: re-map internal data fields to the corrected Annex II Table 1 and Table 2 rows, respecting the mandatory/voluntary shading and the alternative reporting paths (reporting W_MS directly, or its three sub-components).
| Annex | Content | What compliance teams must do |
|---|---|---|
| Annex I | Calculation formulas (RC = R/W x 100%, with R and W decomposed by bottle component and by cross-border flow) | Reconfigure calculation pipeline to component-level weights; apply formulas 4-7 where exports or inter-Member-State movements apply |
| Annex II, Table 1 | Weight of plastic in PET bottles placed on the market, in tonnes, by country and reference year | Map internal data to the corrected rows; respect mandatory and voluntary fields |
| Annex II, Table 2 | Weight of recycled plastic (tonnes) and proportion of recycled plastic content (percent) | Report the proportion using the corrected RC formula; align audit trail to component weights |
Continuous, per-jurisdiction real-time monitoring surfaces this kind of methodology correction the moment it publishes in the Official Journal, so reporting teams can re-baseline their templates before the next submission deadline rather than after.
Take advantage of this real-time watch
What to do next
Confirm whether your portfolio falls under the PET single-use beverage-bottle scope of Directive (EU) 2019/904; verify that your current 2025 reference-year data still reconciles to the corrected Annex I formulas; and brief your packaging procurement and data-reporting teams on the Annex II table changes before the next reporting cycle closes.
