An Existential Challenge
One of Heirbloom’s founding principles has always been simple: gardening should have no borders.
From the very beginning, we’ve wanted to connect gardeners across Europe and beyond. That’s why we publish exclusively in English on social media. Not only is it Alan’s native language, but it also allows us to share our love of gardening and our vision of a life well lived in the garden with people all over the world.
Whether you live in Portugal or Finland, Ireland or Greece, we’ve always wanted you to have access to the same carefully selected organic seeds, gardening tools and educational content. Gardening has an extraordinary way of bringing people together, regardless of language or borders.
Unfortunately, from 12 August 2026, that vision becomes much harder to achieve, as we are forced to stop shipping to customers in 19 EU countries.
A Shared Vision
We welcome the ambition behind the European Union’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR): reducing packaging waste, improving recycling, encouraging a more circular economy and ensuring producers take responsibility for the packaging they place on the market.
These are goals we have shared since the day Heirbloom began. As organic gardeners and an organic gardening shop, ecology and the responsible use of resources are at the heart of everything we do.
We carefully choose the most environmentally responsible packaging materials available and deliberately leave our cardboard boxes and paper packaging unprinted wherever possible, making them easier to recycle and helping keep valuable paper fibres in circulation. We believe businesses, including Heirbloom, should take responsibility for the packaging they place on the market.
Why We Can No Longer Ship to Many EU Countries
Our concern is not with the environmental objectives of the PPWR, but with how the current system is being implemented for cross-border online retailers.
From 12 August 2026, businesses selling across the EU must comply with separate packaging registration and administration requirements in every country they ship to. Based on the quotations we have received, maintaining the ability to serve all of the countries we currently ship to would increase our fixed administrative costs by around €6,000 every year—before sending a single parcel.
Every parcel would then incur additional national reporting, compliance and recycling costs on top.
For a small family business, these fixed costs are simply not sustainable.
As a result, we have made the incredibly difficult decision to suspend shipping to many EU countries. Not because we don’t want to serve those gardeners, and not because demand isn’t there, but because the administrative burden has become too great.
Why This Matters
We believe those placing the greatest amount of packaging on the market should make the greatest contribution towards dealing with it. However, the current implementation has an unintended consequence. Large retailers can spread these fixed compliance costs across millions of orders. Micro and small businesses cannot.
The result is fewer independent businesses, less consumer choice and less competition within the European Single Market. Many small growers, craftspeople and family businesses will stop shipping across Europe. Some may even be forced to close altogether.
Europe should not have to choose between protecting the environment and supporting small businesses. We need both.
What This Means for Heirbloom
We will continue shipping to:
- Germany
- Belgium
- Czech Republic
- France
- Ireland
- Lithuania
- Malta
- Netherlands
We will no longer ship to:
- Austria
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Cyprus
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- Greece
- Hungary
- Italy
- Latvia
- Luxembourg
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Sweden
How You Can Help
This isn’t just about Heirbloom. It affects thousands of independent businesses and their customers across Europe. If you believe Europe can protect the environment and support its smallest businesses, please consider taking a few minutes to help:
-
Leave feedback to the European Commission by 10 September 2026
-
Contact your Member of the European Parliament (MEP). Tell them that you support the environmental goals of the PPWR, but believe its implementation should be proportionate for micro and small businesses.
-
Share this story. Please share this post with your family, friends and fellow gardeners. Every signature, every piece of feedback and every conversation helps. Together, we can encourage a system that protects the environment without unintentionally forcing Europe’s smallest businesses out of the European Single Market.
Thank You to everyone who has supported Heirbloom from countries we can no longer serve for now, thank you!
We hope this is only temporary. Our dream has always been to make gardening more accessible, more beautiful and more connected. We hope that, with sensible improvements to the implementation of these rules, we’ll once again be able to serve gardeners across the whole of Europe.
