Seven-state EPR: three live, four phased

Alexander BenderskiProducer Ledger · retrieved dates in Sources below

A webinar says seven states. A colleague says three. Both are half-right.

Both perspectives are rooted in truth, but they describe different stages of the regulatory process.

Seven U.S. states have enacted packaging EPR statutes into law: Maine, Oregon, Colorado, California, Minnesota, Maryland, and Washington. However, having a signed statute on the books is very different from having an active fee schedule with mandatory state invoices.

In practice, the seven states currently fall into two distinct operational tiers:

  • Tier 1 (Active Fee & Enforcement Programs): Oregon, Colorado, and California. These states have active reporting requirements, published fee schedules (or imminent deadlines), and immediate compliance obligations.
  • Tier 2 (Phased Implementation & Planning Programs): Maine, Minnesota, Maryland, and Washington. These laws are legally enacted, but their full fee mechanisms and program plans do not take effect until between 2028 and 2029+.

Here is a visual timeline of how the seven states have developed and where each program stands today.

The Visual Timeline: 2021 to 2029+

Year State Milestones & Legislation Regulatory Status
2021 Maine enacts LD 1541 (first packaging EPR law in the U.S.).
Oregon enacts SB 582 (Recycling Modernization Act). 		Statutes Enacted
2022 Colorado enacts HB 22-1355.
California enacts SB 54 (Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act). 		Statutes Enacted
2024 Minnesota enacts HF 3911 (Packaging Waste and Cost Reduction Act). Statute Enacted
2025 Maryland enacts SB 901.
Washington enacts E2SSB 5284.
Oregon launches full program on July 1; producers begin paying into Circular Action Alliance (CAA).
Colorado participation restrictions take effect in July. 		Oregon Live
2026 (Current) Colorado: Annual dues actively collected since January 2026 under approved dues schedule.
California: Standalone 2026 early fee invoiced; final 2027 program plan due Oct 13, 2026.
Oregon: Federal district court upholds statute in full (NAW v. Feldon); 2027 fee schedule expected Oct 2026.
CAA Multi-State Portal: High-level baseline reporting conducted across 6 states (OR, CO, CA, MN, MD, WA).
Maine: DEP procurement paused after receiving zero proposals for Stewardship Organization in August. 		OR & CO Live
CA Imminent
2027 California: SB 54 sales restrictions take effect on plan approval or Jan 1, 2027 under PRC §42051(b); full 2027 schedule expected in force after plan approval. Treat as provisional until CAA publishes final status.
Oregon & Colorado: Second annual invoice cycles for full program operations. 		Big 3 Fully Live
2028 Maryland: Formal producer responsibility program plan due July 1, 2028; cost reimbursement phases in after.
Washington: Comprehensive program plan due Oct 1, 2028; fee schedules follow plan approval. 		Plans Due
2029+ Minnesota: Full producer cost coverage begins (50% in 2029, scaling to 90% in 2031 under Minn. Stat. §115A.1454).
Maine: Revised procurement to establish operating timeline and initial fee assessments. 		Phased Cost Coverage

Tier 1: The Three Live States (Where you have real fee obligations today)

If your brand sells packaged goods into California, Oregon, or Colorado, extended producer responsibility is not a future planning exercise — it is an active operational requirement.

1. Oregon (Recycling Modernization Act — SB 582)

  • Current status: Fully operational. Oregon was the first state to begin collecting ongoing operational EPR fees, with program requirements active since July 1, 2025.
  • How fees work: Circular Action Alliance (CAA) published the 2026 fee schedule across approximately 60 material categories. Producers report previous-year supply data and pay fees accordingly. The 2027 fee schedule is expected in October 2026.
  • Legal milestone: On August 27, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon issued findings of fact and conclusions of law in National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors v. Feldon (No. 3:25-cv-01334-SI), upholding Oregon’s statute against federal constitutional challenges and dissolving an earlier preliminary injunction.

2. Colorado (Producer Responsibility Program — HB 22-1355)

  • Current status: Fully operational. Producers were required to participate by July 2025, and annual dues have been actively invoiced and paid since January 2026.
  • How fees work: The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) approved CAA’s initial program plan and dues schedule. Colorado’s fee schedule already incorporates “passive” eco-modulation factors directly into category rates, with additional active incentives under ongoing development.
  • Threshold note: Colorado uses an exemption threshold of 1 dry short ton (2,000 lb) supplied into the state, or global gross revenue below an annually CPI-adjusted baseline.

3. California (Packaging Producer Responsibility Act — SB 54)

  • Current status: Active early fee; full program imminent.
  • How fees work: California invoiced a standalone 2026 early fee under its own narrow rate schedule. The comprehensive, category-level 2027 fee schedule was released in draft/illustrative form while CAA’s state program plan completed public comment in August 2026. The finalized plan is scheduled for submission to CalRecycle by October 13, 2026.
  • The statutory deadline: Under California Public Resources Code §42051(b), upon plan approval or January 1, 2027 (whichever occurs first), covered producers generally may not sell covered packaging into California unless participating in an approved PRO plan or qualifying for an individual compliance pathway.

Tier 2: The Four Phased States (Why there are no fee calculations yet)

The remaining four states have enacted EPR laws, but their regulatory machinery is still in the planning and procurement stages. Crucially: no state agency in these four states has approved an operational packaging fee schedule yet.

4. Maine (LD 1541 / LD 1423)

Maine was the first state in the nation to pass a packaging EPR law in 2021. However, the program has faced administrative delays:

  • In August 2026, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) received zero responsive bids for its Stewardship Organization RFP.
  • Maine DEP is currently revising the procurement process to select an organization to administer the program.
  • Until a stewardship organization is contracted and approved by the state, producer registration deadlines, reporting calendars, and fee assessment dates remain provisional.

5. Minnesota (Packaging Waste and Cost Reduction Act — HF 3911 / 2024)

Minnesota passed its comprehensive packaging law in 2024:

  • Circular Action Alliance was appointed as the state’s PRO, and producers registered and submitted initial baseline data in 2026.
  • However, full producer cost coverage under the statute does not take effect until 2029 (starting at 50% shared costs in 2029, escalating to 75% in 2030, and 90% by 2031).
  • Because the formal program plan and fee modulation rules are still being developed, there are no live material fee schedules to calculate against today.

6. Maryland (SB 901 / COMAR 26.04.14)

Maryland enacted its producer responsibility framework in 2025, with administrative regulations taking effect in May 2026:

  • Covered producers are required to register and submit simplified packaging data through CAA.
  • However, the formal producer responsibility plan is not due to the Maryland Department of the Environment until July 1, 2028.
  • Producer financial reimbursements to local governments begin only after the plan is formally approved in 2028.

7. Washington (Recycling Reform Act — E2SSB 5284 / RCW 70A.208)

Washington passed its packaging EPR statute in 2025:

  • Producers were required to select or join a registered PRO by early 2026.
  • The PRO’s comprehensive program plan is not due to the Washington Department of Ecology until October 1, 2028.
  • While initial administrative fees fund early state implementation, full category-based producer fee schedules will not be finalized until after the 2028 plan approval.

A Warning: Beware of Speculative Fee Projections

If an environmental software platform or advisory firm offers to calculate your “2026 Washington EPR fees” or provide an “accurate Minnesota invoice projection,” be cautious.

Those state agencies have not yet published, let alone approved, operational material fee tables. Any calculation produced for Minnesota, Maryland, Washington, or Maine today is based on purely hypothetical assumptions or proxies borrowed from other states.

While Circular Action Alliance required reporting across six states (OR, CO, CA, MN, MD, and WA) during the 2026 reporting cycle, the submissions for Minnesota, Maryland, and Washington were simplified volume reports intended to help the PRO gather baseline market data. Only Oregon and Colorado issued true operational fee invoices.

How Brands Should Prepare: The Single-BOM Approach

The fact that state programs are phasing in over multiple years does not mean brands should wait.

The most efficient way to manage packaging compliance across all seven states is to treat it as an unstructured data engineering problem rather than seven separate state projects:

  1. Build a single, normalized Packaging Bill of Materials (BOM): Isolate every container, cap, label, inner tray, and shipping carton in your catalog. Document its measured tare weight in grams with tolerance, material family, resin code, and barrier layers.
  2. Anchor component weights in verified evidence: Collect manufacturer spec sheets, engineering drawings, or calibrated scale measurements. A gram weight with a named source document travels across every portal. Acceptance still depends on program rules and review.
  3. Map components dynamically to state rules: State taxonomies differ. California has its own list. Oregon and Colorado share similar ~60-category structures. Your BOM must map to each with citations attached.

When your packaging data is normalized at the component level, you can calculate live fees for California, Oregon, and Colorado today, and reuse the same BOM for Minnesota, Maryland, Washington, and Maine once their official fee schedules publish.

Sources (primary statutory & agency records)

Data and compliance support only — not legal advice. Regulatory timelines and fee schedules evolve; confirm current rules with agencies and counsel before relying. Recheck CAA pages after the Oct 13, 2026 plan submission. To check data readiness, request a 20-minute fit check at alex@producerledger.com.

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