Extended producer responsibility for packaging requirements now apply in seven states, and if your company’s brand appears on packaging sold into any of them, you are responsible for registering with a producer responsibility organization, reporting the weight and material type of the packaging you distribute, and paying fees that scale with how recyclable that packaging is. The first major reporting deadlines fall in 2026, and the penalties for missing them accumulate by the day.
Does the Law Apply to Your Company
Three questions decide this: whose brand is on the package, how much you sell, and what kind of product it is.
The obligation follows a hierarchy. The brand owner, meaning the company whose name or trademark appears on the packaging, is the primary producer. If you hire a contract manufacturer but your brand goes on the box, you are the responsible party. When the brand owner has no legal presence in the state, responsibility shifts to the first importer or distributor bringing the product into that market. Retailers become the producer for their private-label and store-brand goods, because their name is on the package.
Small Business Thresholds
Every enacted program has a de minimis exemption. Thresholds combine a revenue test with a tonnage test, and falling below either one generally gets you out. Revenue cutoffs run from $1 million to $5 million in gross annual revenue depending on the state. Tonnage cutoffs commonly sit at one metric ton of packaging distributed into the state per year. Some states offer transitional relief for mid-sized businesses in the early years, and at least one state provides a simplified reporting path and a flat fee for producers distributing fewer than 15 tons of packaging annually.
These numbers shift. At least one state must adjust its dollar threshold annually based on consumer price index data, so if you sit close to the line, recheck the current figures each year rather than relying on the numbers in the original statute.
What Packaging Is In Scope
Coverage generally reaches primary packaging (the container touching the product), secondary packaging (retail groupings like a cardboard sleeve), and tertiary packaging (bulk shipping materials such as stretch wrap and pallets). Some states cover all three; others focus on the consumer-facing layers that enter residential waste streams. Materials in scope are broad: single-use plastics, corrugated cardboard, glass, aluminum, paper, mixed-material laminates, and, in several programs, plastic food serviceware.
Health and safety exemptions carve out packaging for prescription drugs, medical devices, infant formula, animal biologics, medical foods, certain fortified nutritional supplements, and products regulated under federal pesticide and insecticide statutes. If your product sits in one of these categories, you may still need to register and confirm your exemption status rather than assume silence is compliance.
Registering With a Producer Responsibility Organization
Compliance runs through a producer responsibility organization, or PRO. A PRO is a nonprofit that collects fees from producers, aggregates packaging data, coordinates with waste haulers and recyclers, and files unified reports to state regulators. In practice, you will deal with your PRO far more than with any state agency.
Joining is not optional in most states. Failing to register with an approved PRO is itself a violation and can trigger penalties on its own. One PRO currently serves as the designated organization in six of the seven states with active programs, and its portal handles registration across all six at once, which meaningfully reduces the administrative load if you sell into multiple jurisdictions.
What You Have to Report
Registration is the easy part. Data collection is the real work. You must report the total weight of packaging distributed into each covered state, broken down by material type, and the level of detail is not forgiving. Reports require SKU-level or component-level information: the weight of each packaging element in grams, the specific material (not “plastic” but the resin code), and the recycled content percentage of each component.
Two calculation methods are permitted. The preferred approach uses actual measured data pulled from your packaging specifications. The alternative uses estimates based on averages or industry benchmarks. Actual data is worth the setup cost because estimates tend to overshoot, which raises your fee assessment and forfeits eco-modulation discounts you might have earned on well-designed packaging.
If you sell the same product into multiple states, you also need an allocation method to divide packaging volume by jurisdiction, and state-level sales data is the usual input. The reporting portals use state-specific material categories, so the same SKU may need slightly different formatting depending on where it was sold. If your supply chain systems cannot produce this level of granularity today, building that capability is the most important compliance investment on your list.
What You Have to Pay
Fees are paid to your PRO based on the weight and type of packaging you distribute, and they fund collection, sorting, processing, consumer education, and infrastructure. The mechanism that matters most is eco-modulation, which adjusts fees up or down based on how recyclable the packaging actually is.
Packaging that sorts easily, has established end-markets, and contains post-consumer recycled content pays less. Clear PET bottles and aluminum cans sit at the low end because the infrastructure exists and the recycled material has value. Packaging that contaminates the recycling stream or cannot be processed with existing equipment pays more. Multi-layer flexible pouches, black plastic trays that optical sorters cannot detect, and formats with non-removable labels or incompatible adhesives all carry surcharges.
Published fee schedules in at least one state range from effectively zero per pound for certain non-consumer corrugated materials to over $1.30 per pound for hard-to-recycle plastic containers and foamed packaging, with most materials in between. States collecting data in 2026 will use it to calculate assessments starting in 2027 or later. Fees are restricted to program uses, so the money goes back into recycling, not general state revenue.
This is where packaging design becomes a line item. Switching from a multi-material pouch to a mono-material recyclable format is not only an environmental decision; it lowers a recurring compliance cost.
Recycled Content and Source Reduction Obligations
Several states layer additional mandates on top of the fee-based framework. Plastic beverage containers face the most aggressive recycled content targets, reaching 25% post-consumer recycled content in some states in 2025–2026 and ramping to 50% by 2030. Rigid plastic containers, trash bags, and household product packaging have their own escalating schedules, typically starting at lower percentages.
Source reduction obligations add another layer. At least one major program requires a 25% reduction in single-use plastic packaging by 2032, met through direct elimination, shifts to reusable or refillable systems, or a combination. The same program requires all covered single-use packaging to be recyclable or compostable by 2032.
The practical constraint is supply. Post-consumer recycled resin, particularly food-grade recycled PET, is already tight relative to demand. Producers that wait for the mandate deadlines will bid against every other producer facing the same requirements. Locking in supply contracts early is a defensible planning move.
2026 Deadlines to Watch
Six states require EPR-related reporting submissions by May 31, 2026. For most, this is an annual supply report covering 2025 data: the weight and type of packaging you distributed into the state during the prior calendar year. At least one state also requires a baseline producer report covering historical data and a source reduction report alongside the supply data. A separate registration deadline of June 1, 2026, applies in at least one program for producers that have not yet enrolled with the designated PRO.
The seventh state is on a different track. Producers there must register and submit an initial estimate of total packaging tonnage by mid-2026, with a startup registration fee due in September 2026. Full operational compliance follows in 2027.
Fee assessments based on 2026 reports begin in 2027 for the more advanced programs and 2028 or later for states still building their systems. If you have not started gathering packaging data, you are already behind. Retroactive reporting may be required, and daily penalties accumulate from the missed date forward.
What Happens If You Miss a Deadline
The enforcement provisions are built to make ignoring the program more expensive than complying. Failing to register with a PRO, missing a reporting deadline, or submitting inaccurate data can each trigger penalties. Fines commonly reach $10,000 to $25,000 per day of continued non-compliance, and some programs authorize up to $100,000 per day for serious violations.
Penalty structures often escalate with repeat offenses. One framework imposes $10,000 for a second violation plus $3,000 daily, rising to $20,000 plus $6,000 daily for a third.
Some states also authorize prohibitions on selling products containing covered materials if the producer is not in compliance. That is a sales ban, and for most companies it outweighs any monetary penalty.
Post-submission audits are part of the system. Regulators or PROs inspect internal records to verify that reported weights match actual sales figures. Companies that used estimates rather than measured data draw particular scrutiny, because overestimates create fee discrepancies and underestimates trigger enforcement. Clean documentation of your calculation methodology is not optional; it is the record you rely on when the audit letter arrives.
There is no federal packaging EPR law in force, though a bill has been introduced in Congress.1Congress.gov. H.R. 6832 – PACK Act 119th Congress (2025-2026) For now, every obligation you have runs through state law, and the state calendars are the ones that matter.