One product. Three states. Every gram traced.
This is an illustrative demonstration with a fictional beverage brand. Component weights come from published public sources (cited below, with inferred splits labeled as such); state volumes are synthetic inputs you control. No client data, no filing, no legal conclusion. Change the four inputs below and watch how component weights, published schedule rates, and evidence confidence flow into a labeled estimate.
Company and unit volumes on this page are fictional. Weights are public-source research (see weight provenance below), not your supplier's spec. Fee outputs areillustrative estimates from the named 2026 schedules — not invoices from the state or the PRO, not legal advice. Sleeve and shipper rows stay out of the math on purpose: no sourced weight exists, so the gap register lists them instead of guessing.
Weight provenance (every gram on this page)
| Component | Weight used | Public source |
|---|---|---|
| Can body (alloy 3004) | 9.74 g INFERRED — 75% of the 12.99 g fleet average | Aluminum Association / Sphera LCA of North American Aluminum Cans (May 2021, 13.6-oz size-weighted average, not 12-oz-only) × Container Recycling Institute 75/25 body/end split (Jan 30 2025, Table D) |
| Can end / lid (alloy 5182) | 3.25 g INFERRED — 25% of the 12.99 g fleet average | Same two sources. Published 202 end specs span 2.49–4.54 g (ALNA vs Saxco) — the demo uses the inferred split and flags the range here rather than averaging. |
| 6-pack carrier share (HDPE, recycled) | 3.60 g INFERRED — 21.58 g carrier ÷ 6, adjustable below | Retail case shipping weight 24.26 lb ÷ 510 carriers (upper-bound proxy — may include case packaging). Material/fit: PakTech 202 Standard Can Carrier, 100% recycled #2 HDPE. |
| Shrink sleeve · shipper share | Excluded — unknown | No per-sleeve gram figure published (film gauge only); tray/overwrap figures lack a confirmed can-count denominator. See gap register — this honesty is the product. |
Schedule provenance (every rate on this page)
| State | Schedule used | Program year | Status | Retrieved |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oregon | 2026 Oregon Producer Fee Schedule | 2026 | In-force | 2026-09-22 |
| Colorado | 2026 Colorado Producer Dues Schedule | 2026 | In-force | 2026-09-22 |
| California | 2026 California Early Fee Schedule | 2026 | In-force | 2026-09-22 |
Step 1 — the illustrative product
Fictional config CFG-DEMO-12OZ-01: a 12 oz beverage can plus its share of a 6-pack carrier. Resolved per-unit mass is 16.59 g(9.74 + 3.25 + 3.60 — researched weights, inferred splits labeled above). The sleeve and shipper rows are excluded from all math — that is how red items are handled in real workpapers.
| Component | Material / form | Tare (g) | Evidence | OR category → rate | CO category → rate | CA early fee → rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Can body | Aluminum alloy 3004, rigid | 9.74 g (inferred) | Amber · Tier 5 avg inference | Aluminum Containers → 6.0¢/lb | Aluminum Containers → 2.0¢/lb | Metal → 0.8¢/lb |
| Can end (202 lid) | Aluminum alloy 5182, rigid | 3.25 g (inferred) | Amber · Tier 5 avg inference | Aluminum Containers → 6.0¢/lb | Aluminum Containers → 2.0¢/lb | Metal → 0.8¢/lb |
| Carrier clip share (1/6) | HDPE, 100% recycled (21.58 g ÷ 6) | 3.60 g (inferred proxy) | Amber · Tier 5 commercial proxy | CANDIDATE: HDPE Package Handles, Lids → 29.0¢/lb | CANDIDATE: HDPE Other Rigid → 31.0¢/lb | CANDIDATE: Plastic – Rigid → 1.3¢/lb |
| Shrink sleeve | Plastic film, resin unknown | Unknown — excluded | Red · Tier 7 missing | Unresolved — flexible-film vs laminate rows differ by an order of magnitude; needs resin/layer evidence | ||
| Shipper share | Corrugated + LDPE film | Unknown — excluded | Red · Tier 7 missing | Unresolved — tray/overwrap figures exist but the can-count denominator is unconfirmed; tertiary vs consumer changes the OR row | ||
Step 2 — change four illustrative inputs
Step 3 — what the math does
Per component, per state: reported lb = units × grams ÷ 453.59237, thenfee = lb × ¢/lb ÷ 100. Unrounded values are retained; display rounds to cents. Sleeve and shipper stay out of every total — the gap register below says what each unknown blocks and who owns it.
Oregon — illustrative estimate · 2026 schedule, in force
| Component | Reported lb | Rate | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Can body (9.74 g) | 5,368.26 lb | 6.0¢ | $322.10 |
| Can end (3.25 g) | 1,791.26 lb | 6.0¢ | $107.48 |
| Carrier clip share (1/6, candidate mapping) | 1,982.32 lb | 29.0¢ | $574.87 |
$1,004.44 ·$0.00402 per unit ·9,141.84 lb total.
Colorado — illustrative estimate · 2026 schedule, in force
| Component | Reported lb | Rate | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Can body (9.74 g) | 5,368.26 lb | 2.0¢ | $107.37 |
| Can end (3.25 g) | 1,791.26 lb | 2.0¢ | $35.83 |
| Carrier clip share (1/6, candidate mapping) | 1,982.32 lb | 31.0¢ | $614.52 |
$757.71 ·$0.00303 per unit ·9,141.84 lb total.
California — illustrative estimate · 2026 early fee, in force
| Component | Reported lb | Rate | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Can body (9.74 g) | 5,368.26 lb | 0.8¢ | $42.95 |
| Can end (3.25 g) | 1,791.26 lb | 0.8¢ | $14.33 |
| Carrier clip share (1/6, candidate mapping) | 1,982.32 lb | 1.3¢ | $25.77 |
$83.05 ·$0.00033 per unit ·9,141.84 lb total.
What this demo deliberately leaves open (gap register)
| Gap | Owner | Evidence needed | Effect on numbers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red G1 — Sleeve resin + layers + weight | Supplier | Spec sheet or signed declaration with part number, resin/layers, grams + tolerance | Excluded from all totals · flexible-film vs laminate spread dominates the uncertainty |
| Red G2 — Sleeve vs label vs direct print | Brand / supplier | Artwork spec + application method | Determines whether the line exists at all |
| Amber G3 — Carrier part identity + carrier-only weight | Supplier | Exact-carrier SKU spec (case shipping weight is an upper bound, not a spec) | Confirms the candidate mapping; adjust the carrier input above to feel the range |
| Red G4 — Shipper configuration | Brand / 3PL | Pack-out spec + units per shipper + who adds the shipper | Excluded · tertiary/transport rows can be 0.0¢/lb in OR |
| G5 — State volumes by channel + returns | Brand finance/ops | Sales extract by destination state with extraction date | No report without it |
| G6 — Producer/exemption screen | Client counsel | Entity, brand ownership, revenue/tonnage inputs per state rule | No filing position taken in this demo |
In Oregon, the 3.60 g carrier share ($574.87) costs more than the 12.99 g of aluminum ($322.10 +$107.48) because 29.0¢/lb vs 6.0¢/lb. Same package, different state logic — which is why resin codes alone never determine a category, and why a component-level BOM survives schedule changes. And the mapping is still a candidate: resolving it with evidence is exactly what a diagnostic does.
Assumptions, exclusions, reviewer
- Jurisdiction / program year / data year: OR 2026, CO 2026, CA early-fee 2026; illustrative data year 2026.
- Weights: researched public sources above; body/end split and carrier share labeled INFERRED. Sleeve + shipper unknown and excluded — never averaged silent.
- Rates: exact Final Fee/Dues column (OR/CO) and Early Fee column (CA) from the three PDFs above; CO rates already include passive eco-modulation. Clip rows are candidate mappings — portal confirms.
- Excluded: taxes, surcharges beyond the schedule, flat-fee alternatives, credits/bonuses beyond embedded CO factors, returns/samples/marketplace splits.
- Rounding: unrounded grams retained in the script; display rounds to 2 decimals. State-prescribed rounding applied at filing, not here.
- Reviewer: Alexander Benderski · weights researched 2026-09-23, schedules retrieved 2026-09-22 · recheck CAA pages if a schedule version changes.
- Boundary: data/compliance support only — not a law firm, not legal advice, not a PRO invoice. No filing without written client approval.
What a real engagement adds
- Your files, not synthetic ones: we inventory spec PDFs, ERP extracts, and sales reports under NDA — originals hashed, never overwritten.
- Your configurations: One config in this demo shows the pattern. Your collapse depends on shared boxes. That collapse is where the fee work gets tractable.
- Supplier gaps closed: structured spec requests, Tier 4 scale protocol where docs fail, and a red/amber register with owners.
- Filing-ready workpapers: the 9-artifact package, dual reconciliations, draft portal workbook, and sign-off dossier. See the method →
Bring one product to a fit check
Send a redacted spec for one product plus annual CA/OR/CO units. We will tell you whether there is enough data for a useful estimate and quote the diagnostic — or hand you the gap list and supplier request to close it yourself.