Navigating compliance is a challenge in any industry, especially for companies doing business in multiple states and around the globe. It’s been said that the U.S. itself operates like a bloc of 50 countries, each with its own laws, and that rings true for promo pros who have to keep up with a patchwork of state regulations.

In the past couple of years, five states have passed extended producer responsibility laws aimed at reducing packaging waste – single-use-plastics in particular – as well as boosting recycling efforts. These laws place the responsibility for the end-of-life processing of their products on the companies that produce, import or sell those products, rather than relying on consumers and local jurisdictions to do the recycling.

The movement to enact EPR laws is nothing new. End-of-life processing for over 100 types of products, like mattresses and batteries, has been regulated for almost two decades in the U.S., but the recent shift toward packaging marks a significant expansion of these efforts.

LEARN MORE: Extended Producer Responsibility Policy Trends: Product Responsibility Summit 2023 (PPAI Online Education)

Get Familiar With EPR

Rick Brenner, MAS+, president of business services member Product Safety Advisors, urged attendees at PPAI’s 2024 Product Responsibility Summit to familiarize themselves with emerging EPR laws.

“This is a very important topic for you to be aware of, to build into your business plans, because there could be significant financial liability,” he said. “The first thing you can do is check out all your packaging and see what you can do to minimize it and make it more sustainable. It’ll also save you money.”

ICYMI: Be Prepared, Summit Speakers Say

Start by assessing how much and what types of packaging your company uses. This data will be the foundation for EPR compliance. Look for ways to reduce packaging or switch to non-plastic materials where possible.

Also, be sure to reach out to Circular Action Alliance, currently the only active producer responsibility organization in the U.S. for packaging. This organization tracks EPR laws and assists producers with the collection and recycling or disposal of discarded products and waste. Register with CAA and join their producer working group to stay abreast of development in these programs.

RELATED: Guide To Reducing Waste In Packaging For Promotional Products

Extended producer responsibility conversations can quickly turn into alphabet soup. Here are four key terms defined to help understand the EPR landscape:

  • EPR: Extended producer responsibility expands a producer’s responsibility for a product to the post-consumer stage of its life cycle.
  • PRO: A producer responsibility organization (aka stewardship organization or SO) assists producers with the collection and recycling or disposal of discarded products and waste.
  • PCR: Post-consumer recycled materials are captured after they have been purchased and used. (Contrast with reusing scraps and other materials before they become manufacturing waste.)
  • Eco-modulation: This term refers to bonuses and penalties based on a producer’s supply data. Bonuses are applied when a producer brings materials considered desirable or easy to manage in the framework, whereas penalties are financial consequences applied to material types considered difficult to recycle or otherwise safely process.

Packaging EPR Laws In The USA

So far, five U.S. states have enacted EPR laws for packaging materials: California, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota and Oregon. Legislation has been introduced in more than a dozen others, and while EPR has been discussed at the federal level, no bills have been put forward yet.

But producers will have plenty to keep up with just across the five states, because each law is different, with variables including but not limited to:

  • Definition of “producer”
  • Categories of covered materials
  • Exemptions
  • Timelines

It’s also important to note that these laws apply to anyone doing business in these states, even if it’s just fulfilling an e-commerce order. Here are some key details and due dates for the five active packaging EPR laws, listed state by state in the order the bills were signed:

Maine                

  • Maine was the first U.S. state to pass EPR packaging legislation in 2021, but it doesn’t take full effect until 2026 (when reporting of 2025 packaging data is due).
  • The law defines a producer of packaging material as “the brand owner of the packaged product or, if the brand owner has no U.S. presence, the producer can be a sole importer of the product into Maine.”
  • The program will be operated by a single stewardship organization (selected and under state contract by April 2026) and supervised by the state Department of Environmental Protection.
  • Producers are required to register and report an estimated total tons of packaging data for 2025 by May 1, 2026, and the SO will begin invoicing producers for the startup registration fee by July 1, 2026.
  • A “low-volume” producer (less than 15 tons of packaging material annually) has the option of simplified reporting and paying a flat fee of $500 per ton.
  • Visit Maine’s Stewardship Program for Packaging page for more information.

Oregon

  • The Oregon legislature passed the Recycling Modernization Act in 2021. The law covers packaging, printed paper and food service ware (napkins excepted).
  • Oregon’s law defines a producer according to the type of material. See guidance from Oregon’s state Department of Environmental Quality for details.
  • Oregon’s law exempts entities that earned gross global revenue of less than $5 million in their most recent fiscal year or sold in or into Oregon less than 1 metric ton of covered products in the most recent calendar year.
  • Producers report their 2024 packaging data to the PRO (not yet named but likely CAA) by March 31, 2025, making Oregon the first state where these reports are due.
  • Visit Oregon’s Plastic Pollution and Recycling Modernization Act page for more information.

Colorado

  • Colorado’s packaging EPR bill was signed into law in 2022, and CAA was selected as the PRO in 2023.
  • The deadline for mandatory producer registration with the PRO has already passed (October 1, 2024). Fines and other consequences may be incurred for failure to register, including producers who aren’t participating in the program by July 1, 2025, no longer being allowed to sell products within the state of Colorado.
  • Although the program does not officially launch until January 1, 2026 – when producers will be responsible for paying quarterly fees – reporting requirements begin in 2025, and producers must submit reports to the PRO for the first six months of 2025 by August 1.
  • Visit Colorado’s Producer Responsibility Program page for more information.

RELATED: Colorado’s Landmark Needs Assessment Signals EPR Progress

California

  • California’s Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act was signed into law in 2022, and CAA was named the PRO in January 2024.
  • The law requires producers of residential and commercial single-use packaging and plastic single-use food service ware to join a PRO through which to fund end-of-life processing and recycling of those materials, as well as contribute to the California Plastic Pollution Mitigation Fund.
  • Producers must register with the PRO (CAA) by April 1, 2025, and report data for the first six months of 2025 by August 1.
  • The official program launch date is January 1, 2027, when producers will begin paying quarterly fees.
  • By January 1, 2032, 100% of packaging in California must be recyclable or compostable, and 65% of all single-use plastic packaging must be recycled.

RELATED: California Passes New Sustainability Laws Concerning Textiles, Plastics

Minnesota

  • Signed in 2024, Minnesota’s Packaging Waste and Cost Reduction Act covers packaging, food packaging and paper products. The law is designed to boost recycling with a goal of eliminating packaging and paper products that are not refillable, reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2032.
  • Producers (generally the brand owner, manufacturer or importer) must join the PRO (not yet named) by July 1, 2025. Full implementation is not expected until January 2029.
  • Visit the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s EPR page for more information.

What’s Next For Packaging EPR In The USA

Since EPR isn’t likely to be a priority at the federal level under a second Trump administration, look to the states for further developments. Illinois and Maryland already have packaging EPR efforts underway, both enacted in 2023:

  • Illinois: established advisory council, conduct needs assessment by December 2025
  • Maryland: established advisory council and PRO (CAA, selected October 2023), conduct needs assessment by December 2024

Other statehouses have introduced bills that haven’t yet moved forward. Keep an eye on Michigan, New Jersey, New York and Washington state in particular. New York’s proposed packaging EPR bill passed the state Senate in June 2024 but didn’t receive a vote by the state Assembly before the legislative session ended. Another New York state senator introduced a textile EPR bill as well, but that didn’t make it out of committee. Both legislators are expected to bring up their bills again, potentially with more success.