Analyst Insight: New regulations such as the EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) are pushing companies to look beyond packing materials and examine how orders are actually packed. For many fulfillment operations, improving dimensional data, packaging assortments, packing processes and monitoring will be essential to reducing waste and meeting rising compliance expectations.
For years, the sustainability of packaging was related solely to materials. Companies focused on recyclable boxes, biodegradable void fill, and reducing plastic in packaging. These were the improvements most often highlighted in sustainability reports and ESG commitments.
But switching to alternative materials or minimizing usage alone does not solve one of the most persistent problems in fulfillment: wasted space.
Research by DHL found that roughly 24% of the volume inside e-commerce shipments is empty space. At scale, shipping that air is expensive. Oversized packaging increases material usage, triggers dimensional weight charges, and consumes valuable transportation capacity. Over time, inefficient packing practices can add up to millions in avoidable costs while drawing growing scrutiny from regulators, investors and sustainability stakeholders.
That focus is expanding. Governments are increasingly targeting not only what packaging is made of, but how it’s used. The question “Is this box recyclable?” is now joined by another: “Is this the right size container for this shipment?”
The PPWR is one of the clearest examples. Packaging accounts for roughly 35% of municipal waste in the EU, making it a major environmental policy priority. PPWR introduces rules aimed at reducing unnecessary packaging, and minimizing empty space in shipments. These requirements place new scrutiny on operational decisions made inside fulfillment centers where boxes are selected, items are arranged, and void fill is added.
While the U.S. has yet to introduce an equivalent regulation, companies that ship globally can’t treat packaging rules as regional issues. Businesses that place goods on international markets must still meet the standards of those markets.
As regulations like PPWR raise expectations around packaging efficiency, many fulfillment operations are discovering that improving packing performance requires fixing several long-standing operational gaps.
In practice, these gaps tend to fall into four core areas of fulfillment operations:
Product dimensional data. Efficient packing starts with accurate product data. That means having reliable length, width, height and weight measurements for every SKU in a catalog. Many fulfillment operations work with incomplete or unreliable dimensional data, oftentimes provided by suppliers.
Without reliable inputs, packers choose boxes based on experience rather than data. The result is oversized boxes, excess void fill, and shipments carrying more air than product.
Packaging assortment. Once reliable dimensional data is available, another issue often becomes visible: The packaging assortment itself may not fit the products the business ships.
Most fulfillment centers maintain a limited set of box sizes for practical reasons. A smaller mix simplifies procurement, reduces storage requirements, and keeps packing operations familiar for associates. But those choices may no longer reflect the current mix of products and orders. In some cases, they were never optimized using real order data in the first place.
When an appropriately sized box is unavailable, packers choose a box larger than necessary, creating a steady pattern of over-boxing. Companies increasingly need to evaluate whether their box lineups, and where appropriate mailers or other packaging formats, support efficient packing.
Standardized packing processes. Most fulfillment operations still rely on packers to decide how an order should be packed, with no formal packing guidance. Experienced associates develop instincts about how to place items, and when to add protective materials, while newer employees rely on quick decisions.
Consistency is important when regulators expect companies to demonstrate packaging efficiency. If packing decisions vary widely, it becomes difficult to show that packaging practices are controlled and repeatable. Providing clear, data-driven packing guidance helps ensure that similar orders are packed the same way every time.
Packing performance monitoring. Many of these inefficiencies persist for a simple reason: Packing performance is rarely measured. Fulfillment operations closely track metrics such as throughput, order accuracy, and on-time delivery, but metrics such as fill rate, void fill usage, and volume utilization reveal where packaging inefficiencies occur and whether operational changes are improving results.
For sustainability teams, these measurements provide operational data that reflects real environmental impact. For supply chain leaders, they connect packing decisions directly to material costs and transportation efficiency. In many cases, the necessary data already exists within warehouse systems.
PPWR’s emphasis on improving shipment efficiency and increasing volume utilization exposes operational gaps that are common across fulfillment operations worldwide.
Companies that use this moment to strengthen packaging discipline by improving dimensional data, aligning packaging assortments with order profiles, standardizing packing decisions, and monitoring packing performance will be better prepared for the regulatory environment ahead. Just as importantly, they will correct inefficiencies that have long existed within fulfillment operations.
