For years, conversations about large-scale packaging sustainability laws were relegated to the edge of the CPG agenda. But now, Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) laws are turning packaging into a regulated cost center. For food, supplement, and cosmetic companies, the impact will be felt SKU by SKU, and EPR compliance is not a one-time exercise.
If you are a brand owner and your name is on the packages you sell, you could be required to comply as a "producer." May 31, 2026 is the first common reporting deadline that the Circular Action Alliance (CAA) is using for collecting 2025 packaging data, which it will use to set fees for each state program. As mentioned in our previous EPR blog, we recommend you determine your compliance status for each EPR state and register with any state Producer Responsibility Organization (PRO) you are required to join.
EPR 101: What it is and why it's here
EPR shifts the cost for managing post-consumer packaging waste from municipalities to a "producer": the company responsible for putting the product on the market. Instead of cities paying to collect and recycle a bottle, pouch, jar, or carton, the producer pays. Typically, this is done through a PRO that pools producer funds to pay the state the required fees for collection, sorting, and recycling systems and to help producers collectively meet state-mandated performance targets (e.g., ensuring that a certain percentage of packaging is recycled).
In the U.S., seven states have now enacted packaging EPR laws: California, Colorado, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Oregon, and Washington. Each covers consumer packaging, but the fees, covered materials, and other compliance requirements vary significantly.
For food, dietary supplement, and cosmetic brands, it's important to remember: these laws are triggered by packaging, not product contents. Your bottles, pumps, sachets, jars, cartons, shrink sleeves, and shipping boxes are all in play.
Who is on the hook?
"Producers" are the primary parties responsible for compliance. In each state, the definition of "producer" generally follows this hierarchy:
- Brand owner – The entity that owns or licenses the brand under which the product is sold in the state
- Manufacturer – Where no brand owner is clearly identified, or in "no brand" contexts
- Importer / first seller into the state or U.S. – If the brand owner is not resident or otherwise not subject to jurisdiction
- Retailer or marketplace seller – Especially relevant for private label and e-commerce scenarios where the platform or retailer is effectively the recognizable brand
The takeaway: determining "who the Producer is" is not a one-time answer, and it can vary by SKU, brand, sales channel, and state.
Who might be exempt, and why that's not necessarily a free pass
Every existing EPR law includes exemptions that differ significantly from state to state, but they are narrow and conditional. Common themes include:
- Small producer thresholds: Revenue thresholds (for example, 1–5M in state or global revenue, depending on the state) and/or tonnage thresholds (often around 1 ton of covered packaging per year per state)
- Product- or sector-based carveouts: Frequent exclusions for certain drug, device, and pesticide packaging; occasionally dietary supplements are excluded
These are not a free pass in all cases because 1) exemptions may require affirmative registration or attestation; you may still have to identify yourself to the system, and 2) as soon as your business grows past a threshold in a given state, you'll be covered, and if you weren't tracking tonnage or revenue against those thresholds, you may discover obligations late in the game.
Fees, eco-modulation, and the PRO obligation
EPR fees are essentially a function of:
- The PRO's total costs in each state. The PRO's budget to meet statutory requirements for collection and processing of waste, education, administration, and agency reimbursement
- Material-specific cost indices. Rigid PET costs one thing to manage per ton; flexible multi-material pouches cost something very different. These cost indices drive how program costs are allocated across materials
- Your reported supply. How many pounds/kilograms of each material category you place on the market in that state in a given year
But eco-modulation affects the fees owed by producers through design-driven cost change. Most of the leading EPR laws either already incorporate or are moving toward eco-modulated fees. For example, programs use factors such as post-consumer recycled (PCR) content, ease of recyclability, source reduction, and presence of hazardous substances to adjust fees up or down. In practice, EPR programs turn packaging design into a cost lever, which means that eco-modulated fees potentially convert design choices into recurring costs or savings.
The PRO uses each of these inputs to set fee rates per pound (or similar unit) per material category. Your invoice is essentially:
Fee = (weight of each material per SKU × state-specific rate for that material) ± eco-modulation adjustments
This is why SKU-level packaging visibility becomes so critical: if your systems cannot identify exactly how much PET, HDPE, glass, multilayer film, etc. is in your packaging in each state, predicting cost and assessing compliance status can become challenging.
The axis of compliance: Join a PRO
In each EPR state, the core obligation is to ensure your covered products are included in an approved compliance program that funds and meets each state's requirements. In practice, that almost always means joining a PRO, because while some laws leave open the option for a producer to operate its own individual program or qualify as an "individual PRO," those paths are complex, resource‑intensive, and realistically viable for only a small number of companies. That means:
- You should register as a producer with an approved PRO by each state's deadline (or as soon as possible if the deadline has passed)
- You must report data and pay fees in line with PRO requirements and state law
Failing to participate in a PRO by the required date is not just a technical violation; in many states, it ultimately means you may not legally sell or distribute covered packaged products in that state at all.
Upcoming timeline
EPR implementation will ramp up dramatically in the coming years, beginning in 2026. While the specific dates are law- and rule-dependent, the pattern is clear:
- 2024–2026: Registration deadlines and initial PRO selections for early-adopter states (California, Colorado, Oregon, Minnesota)
- 2026–2027: First full producer reports for 2025 data, most due May 31, 2026 to CAA, with annual reporting thereafter
- 2027–2029: Escalating obligations, including full system funding in some states and sales prohibitions for non-participating producers
- 2030–2032: Performance milestones for recycling rates and recyclability requirements begin
By building a standardized internal data set that can be translated into each state's format, you'll end up recreating work and increasing the risk of inconsistent or inaccurate reporting. Each state has its own reporting categories and definitions, thresholds and exemptions, and calendar of registration, reporting, and fee cycles.
What leading CPG companies should do now
For food, supplement, and cosmetic companies, the question is no longer if EPR will impact you, but how and how well you will manage it. Several themes stand out:
- SKU-level material visibility
You need a complete and accurate view of every component of every packaged SKU, including all of your packaging materials, weights, and formats. That data must be accessible to all your business, finance, compliance, and sustainability teams - Supply Chain Audit
Review existing supply chain partners and contracts to clarify who holds which EPR obligations, and to ensure they can reliably provide the packaging specifications and data you need for state reporting - Multi-state reporting as a core capability
Build an internal system for tracking your packaging data and then map that to each SKU and each state's reporting categories. Keep a compliance calendar with regular reminders for every registration, reporting, and fee deadline - Eco-modulated fees and design-driven cost exposure
Consider packaging design and procurement as part of your EPR strategy. Evaluate not just technical recyclability, but the fee profile across all EPR states. Design governance should explicitly consider EPR cost when approving new packaging or reformulations - Infrastructure for compliance
Create specific roles and responsibilities, standard operating procedures, training, tools, and feedback loops. EPR fees, exemptions, and enforcement will all evolve. Your team should evolve with them - Leverage experts, trade associations, and sector coalitions
Legal and technical experts and trade groups have been following the development of these laws for some time and have key insights you can leverage to understand your company's short-term and long-term strategy
The companies that invest now in SKU-level material visibility, robust multi-state reporting, eco-modulated fee awareness, and design-driven cost management could turn EPR compliance into an operational advantage.
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If you're unsure where your organization stands, whether on producer status for particular brands, exposure to state-specific deadlines, or what it would take to stand up SKU-level reporting, we encourage you to reach out. Anyone with questions should contact us and begin preparing for compliance as soon as possible.