Producers and municipalities look for guidance as EPR programs pass from state to state. | Studiocho / Shutterstock
Extended producer responsibility legislation has rapidly expanded across the United States over the past two years, with seven states enacting packaging-focused laws that now cover approximately 20% of the nation’s population.
The Product Stewardship Institute reports that 146 EPR laws have passed across 35 states, covering 21 different product categories including packaging. About 60-70 of them are for hazardous household waste for medicines and needles to batteries, paint, mercury, thermostats, paint and other items.
“We passed seven packaging bills in a matter of two years. This is rapid fire on the biggest thing we’ll ever do in our industry, and we’ve got a lot of work ahead for all of us,” said Heidi Sanborn, founder, National Stewardship Action Council, to attendees at the RCon 2025 waste industry conference.
This policy proliferation has created compliance challenges for producers navigating differing state requirements, material definitions and regulatory timelines. “Because these are so big, it’s going to take all of us through radical collaboration to make sure this works,” Sanborn said.
With bills in various stages of implementation and regulatory development, a vision to ensure consistent programs for manufacturers is becoming critical.
“One of the challenges we have right now is that we’re taking off in the plane and still kind of nailing on the wings, and we don’t have those clear feedback signals to be able to have confidence in making those design changes yet,” said Charlie Schwarze, senior director of packaging stewardship for Keurig Dr Pepper.
Harmonization for industry compliance
Schwarze warned that without harmonization of laws from state to state, “death by 1,000 disharmonizations” could cause costs to add up, requiring more headcount and ultimately increasing costs for consumers.
“The last thing we want to do is send a message for EPR that this is going to be an increasing cost of goods for the consumer, because that’s not a very good message, especially right now,” he said. “We want to make sure that we’re transferring. EPR is a transfer of cost back to the producers, but we need to do that in an efficient way.”
Circular Action Alliance (CAA), a producer responsibility organization, is tasked to ensure “consistent implementation across all EPR states” through harmonization in service delivery while meeting compliance requirements, said Shane Buckingham, CAA chief of staff.
“We define the reimbursement mechanism, and we will affect that through contracts for service providers. There is some room for state innovation and how to implement,” he said.
“What we’re talking about are some of the overarching policies and responsible end markets. They go across state boundaries. There has to be a consistent way to identify, verify and audit responsible end markets, even if the material is ultimately going out of the country. You need to have some type of North American standard to be able to verify that material can’t just be done at a state level,” Buckingham said.
With each state taking a different approach on eco-modulation – or incentivized product design for recyclability and reuse – further obstacles to scaling consistent EPR programs have ensued.
“We’ve got each state taking an approach that’s different from the other on eco-modulation, yet the goal of EPR is to get more recyclable packaging,” said Buckingham. “Well, then get the requirements consistent, get it to scale and help companies that are making national packaging decisions understand the incentives of eco-modulation.”
Beyond eco-modulation, even basic definitions of what materials fall under EPR vary between states, compounding compliance challenges for national brands.
“Another area that really is impacting us, just having reported on three states so far, are things like sunscreen, are they in or out? It varies by state. Business-to-business materials, are they in or out? E-commerce and direct consumer materials, are they in or out? Hazardous materials like insecticides, are they in or out? Those are just within my own business and expand across consumer packaging,” said Jeff Bezzo, executive director of plastics and packaging sustainability at SC Johnson. “Those are the kinds of things that we’re looking to harmonize. We’re not looking for really difficult things, just what is actually covered.”
Policy frameworks
Buckingham further noted that leaving too many details to be sorted out in regulations leads to “ongoing battles for so much time” while statutory timelines remain unchanged, creating pressure for producers seeking a clear path.
He also pointed to California, which is in the process of deploying SB 54, the state’s long-delayed EPR law for packaging.
“We’ve done a lot of work as an organization to respond to state EPR laws, but we’re two and a half years in now in California and if you leave too much of the details to be sorted out in those regulations, you can just have ongoing battles for so much time, and the timelines in statute remain the same,” Buckingham said. “We’re starting to see a lot of pressure building with producers who are looking for clarity.”
He stressed the importance of getting “the basic building blocks of EPR right” from the beginning, starting with clear definitions of producers and all stakeholders along with their responsibilities.
“We’re even seeing in Oregon as an example, with the responsible end market requirement because of the gray area on who does the disposition reporting for curbside material. There’s a shared responsibility in there, and it takes a long time to clarify that through rulemaking and implementation,” he said.
“Everyone wants to be compliant, but if you don’t have the compliance mechanism right, you will see what you see.”
Erin Rowland, material management bureau manager at the Energy and Environmental Services Department for the City of Long Beach, echoed concerns from a municipal-level perspective.
“Our biggest concerns are that the rule-making process just keeps taking so long and that we don’t really have a clear set of some of the details and the program requirements and really what the funding impacts are going to be,” she said.
“I think for us, we want to understand, how will we get reimbursed? What are the procedures needed for that? What does that process look like? And then there’s also a lot of talk around what the recordkeeping requirements will be.”
Rowland added that with the rapid expansion of regulatory procedures and legislation passing in California, recordkeeping requirements have become “very onerous, if not impossible,” adding that “we’re very concerned of what that future recordkeeping will be and how we’re going to manage that when we don’t know what the expectations are.”
Recycled content legislation
Post-consumer recycled content mandates will be necessary to drive widespread adoption, say stakeholders, even as questions remain about implementation details and compliance requirements.
Bezzo said that while SC Johnson has PCR commitments, “we don’t see that happening without legislation” across the industry, and believes “something on PCR is going to be needed that requires a percentage” including recycled content minimums in the US.
“From a brand perspective, we have 25% PCR in our products globally and we’re targeting 55% by 2030. That, though, is just one company. We need all of the industry moving together. I hate to say more legislation is needed, but I think something on PCR is going to be needed that requires a percentage, and it requires, you know, PCR content from the US,” Bezzo said.
Schwarze noted that with diminishing demand for domestic PCR content, “something will break at some point” and stressed the need for smart, collaborative legislation.
“It’s a question of will they be able to keep up with the changes in pricing and all of the things that influence a brand for using PCR, like food contact requirements, a fit-for-use requirement and all of those technical aspects, but ultimately it comes down to getting the incentive signals right, so that a brand will use that instead of paying a fine,” Schwarze said. “Everyone wants to be compliant, but if you don’t have the compliance mechanism right, you will see what you see.”
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