Digital Supply Chain (DSC)
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SAP RDP: Intelligently managing packaging data Keeping an efficient, data-driven eye on PPWR, EPR, and plastic taxes
Imagine this: Packaging that met all requirements just yesterday will become a cost factor tomorrow. New regulations require different materials, additional documentation, or higher fees. What used to be primarily a matter of protection, transportation, and cost-effectiveness is increasingly becoming a strategic decision.
After all, it’s no longer just what’s inside the packaging that matters—it’s also what materials it’s made of, how recyclable it is, and what happens to those materials after the packaging is used.
The good news: Companies don’t have to tackle these challenges with Excel spreadsheets and manual analyses. With SAP Responsible Design and Production (SAP RDP), companies can leverage existing business data to meet regulatory requirements more efficiently and evaluate the impact of material and packaging decisions based on data.
New Rules for Packaging
With the European Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), the EU is setting the course for less packaging waste, improved recyclability, and a stronger circular economy.
The PPWR will generally take effect on August 12, 2026. However, certain requirements and obligations will be phased in or further specified by additional legislation.
For companies, this means they must have a clearer understanding of the materials they use, the composition of their packaging, and the documentation that will be required. Added to this are regulations on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and country-specific plastic taxes. Companies operating internationally, in particular, must keep track of varying requirements, reporting obligations, and fees.
The question, therefore, is not only: How do we comply with the regulations? But also: How can packaging processes be managed in a way that is both transparent and cost-effective in the long term?
When Data Becomes Informed Decisions
Many companies already have the necessary information on hand: material master data, product information, packaging compositions, and transaction data are already stored in SAP systems. However, the link to regulatory requirements is often missing.
This is exactly where SAP Responsible Design and Production comes in. The cloud-based solution links existing company data and data from third-party systems with information on global regulations. By integrating with SAP S/4HANA, existing business contexts, data, and structures can be reused.
This creates transparency regarding which packaging materials are used, what regulatory obligations arise from their use, and which fees or taxes may apply.
Instead of laboriously compiling information from various systems, companies can analyze their data in a structured manner and use it for reporting and decision-making. This reduces manual effort and creates a reliable data foundation.
Less Effort, More Clarity: What SAP RDP Actually Does
SAP RDP does more than just help companies manage their packaging data. Among other things, the solution enables the calculation and reporting of EPR fees, plastic taxes, and other obligations, as well as the analysis of various product and packaging material scenarios.
Specifically, this means:
- Consolidate packaging data: Merge product and packaging compositions from SAP and other data sources.
- Keep track of costs: Determine EPR fees, plastic taxes, and other obligations based on relevant company data.
- Simplify reporting: Prepare information for country-specific reporting requirements in a structured manner.
- Evaluate alternatives: Compare materials and packaging concepts in terms of regulatory implications and potential costs.
- Leverage existing data: Integrate SAP S/4HANA and other data sources instead of maintaining information multiple times.
This transforms a complex regulatory requirement into a transparent and more manageable process.
Evaluate Material Choices Early On
What if companies could determine, even before introducing a new packaging design, how a different choice of material would affect regulatory requirements and costs?
This is exactly where SAP RDP opens up new possibilities. Material type, composition, and recyclability can influence regulatory costs. The solution allows companies to compare different scenarios and identify their implications early on—for example, when a higher proportion of recycled content or a changed material mix is under consideration.
This helps companies avoid making decisions based solely on the immediate purchase price. Regulatory requirements, potential fees, and long-term impacts can also be factored into material and packaging decisions early on. As a result, compliance is increasingly evolving from a downstream reporting task into a factor that can be taken into account as early as the packaging design phase.
From Compliance to a Controllable Packaging Strategy
Regulatory requirements continue to evolve, as do reporting obligations and requirements for material and packaging data. Companies therefore need more than just ad hoc analyses and isolated data sets: they need a robust database that can be integrated into existing processes.
SAP Responsible Design and Production provides the technological foundation for this. Responsibility for compliance with regulatory requirements remains with the company. However, SAP RDP helps make relevant packaging data available in a structured manner, identify obligations, and transparently analyze the impacts of different material and packaging scenarios. SAP explicitly positions the solution for global EPR requirements, plastic taxes, and the EU PPWR.
In this way, compliance becomes more than just an obligation; it can also serve as an impetus to make packaging processes more transparent and to base decisions more strongly on data.
SAP RDP in conjunction with existing SAP processes
The key factor is how well regulatory requirements and the necessary packaging data can be integrated with existing SAP processes and data structures.
SAP Responsible Design and Production demonstrates how existing company data can be used to make regulatory requirements more transparent and to better evaluate material and packaging decisions.
This makes it clear that packaging data is increasingly evolving from an operational information source into a key factor for compliance and strategic decision-making.
We look forward to hearing from you!
