Policy Round Up
Has the momentum behind Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislation slowed down? In this latest Policy Round Up, Christine Yeager returns to Change Cycle to break down the biggest developments from the recent legislative session and what they mean for producers navigating the evolving circular economy landscape.
While six states introduced EPR legislation, none of the bills crossed the finish line—a surprising shift after years of rapid policy expansion. But that doesn't mean EPR activity has stalled. From California's finalized SB 54 regulations and Oregon's ongoing legal challenges to Maine's delayed program rollout, significant compliance requirements are already taking shape across seven active EPR states.
Christine unpacks key EPR terminology, explains which states are moving into needs assessment phases, and shares why companies can't afford to wait for new legislation before preparing. She also highlights encouraging trends in recycling markets, including recycled polymers reaching price parity—and even discounts—compared to virgin materials, signaling important progress for the circular economy.
Whether you're tracking EPR legislation, managing producer compliance, or planning your sustainability strategy, this update delivers the insights you need to stay ahead of the rapidly changing policy landscape.
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Policy Round Up
Welcome back to the show. Summer is in full force of chaos around here. I don't know if that's happening in your household. Change is among us always and summer is another one of those times. I don't know about you, but I must admit that some are used to be a super fun time of year. It's one of my least favorites now that I have children in school. Anyway, legislative sessions have, for the most part, closed. I thought we could talk a little bit about where things landed.
Understanding Key Regulatory Vocabulary And Needs Assessments
As usual, I thought it'd be good to start with a little bit of vocabulary check. One vocabulary term to talk about as we think about 2026 and a lot of things that are wrapping up now, its annual supply report. This is a producer level report on the packaging and paper materials producer has sold into a given state during the reporting year. It's also the foundation for fee calculations. It's basically the volume of packaging that a producer estimates that they sell into a particular EPR state.
I'm bringing this up because this is at the end of May 2026, as I'm doing this. This is the first time all six states have shared a reporting calendar. As I was talking about it as a potential earlier in the season, it's happening now. We're getting across the finish line for those annual supply reports. Also, I want to bring up a preliminary injunction. This is a court order that the enforcement of a law while a lawsuit is pending before a full trial. It's not a final court ruling. It doesn't say the law is unconstitutional. It says they're serious enough questions that the court is going to hold off enforcement until the trial happens.
In this case, where this matters is related to Oregon. It's only for a specific group of membership, which is the national association of wholesale or distributors. Needs assessment is a formal legislatively required study in some cases. You can do a needs assessment without legislation, but it is something that is formally defined in many EPR or pre-EPR bills. it looks to define what costs, gaps, infrastructure, and material flows. It's typically done before an EPR legislation is finalized or as a part of the EPR legislation requirements.
State Legislative Updates And EPR Momentum
This has become a bit of a political compromise for many states that aren't ready to pass EPRs, but don't want to do nothing like Illinois, Rhode Island, Hawaii, and Massachusetts. In those cases, EPR is potential but it will require those needs assessments to move through the process first. The headline for this legislative session is that there are zero new EPR bills, which is a change from previous years. Even in 2025, we saw two new bills. We were seeing on average two new bills per year.
There's a lot of factors at play that might be stalling new EPR legislation. One of them is that a lot of states are having to plug holes that they didn't have to plug before there were some federal budget cuts to states. There's a different fiscal scenario for many states. There's also a lot of financial challenges on businesses like inflation and tariffs that are redirecting the focus of the economy away from circularity and onto other margin squeezing issues.
There are a lot of factors at play that may be stalling new EPR legislation. One is that many states are having to plug budget gaps they didn’t face before, due in part to federal budget cuts.
However, there's still seven states. I did want to share a couple of things that have been happening in the recent months. PRRIA or the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act, which is in New York was rewritten with roughly 150 amendments. It's still pending technically as of late May 2026. We're seeing similar patterns as of 2024, senate friendly assembly resistance. Sponsors are calling for a workable middle ground. Industry is calling it the most restrictive proposal in the country. We'll see how that plays out.
New York's legislative session doesn't adjourn until June of 2026. The final scheduled session days are June 1st to 5th, 2026. Basically, this act has roughly eight working session days left to clear the assembly. If it doesn't pass by then, it will likely die in the third year in a row and potentially get reintroduced again in 2027. Tennessee, my red state that I'm rooting for, the Waste to Jobs Act, picked up a new republican sponsor in March 2026 and then got passed over for further action on March 11th. The committee chairs of the conversation would continue over the summer but it's likely not going to happen in 2026.
In Massachusetts, the state’s EPR commission released its final report and explicitly deferred any recommendations on packaging each EPR and suggested a needs assessment instead .The legislature then declined to fund the needs assessment. The senate did pass a separate bill banning single-use plastic bags. I mentioned to expand polystyrene, but packaging EPR was not in there. We'll see what happens next in Massachusetts.
Maybe the needs assessment will get funded in 2027. New Jersey refiled the EPR bills from the previous session, but the session calendar pushed everything into the 2026-2027 cycle. It's still pending. There's been no movement. Illinois, Hawaii, and Rhode Island are all in needs assessment mode. Illinois has a feasibility report due December 1st of 2026. Rhode Island also has something to do in December 2026. Hawaii's report is due in 2028.
Operational Status Of EPR Programs And Reporting
Likely, we'll see EPR follow those reports, but nothing before that. There was the STEWARD Act, the CIRCLE Act and the PACT Act that were Federal. They've all been introduced, but none have moved. There's not a lot of push from a federal or industry level around a federal harmonization on labeling for EPR. We shouldn't expect it in 2026. What's been happening in the states where there is EPR? A lot. I'll tell you that Verrado has a battery EPR that's likely going to be signed soon.
The EPR that is related to packaging is fully operational and has begun reimbursements. They've started asking for a composter even to request for reimbursements. It's moving forward. In California, the SB 54 regulations were finally finalized on May 1st of 2026, which then gives CAA the regulatory power to ask for reporting to be due within 30 days for setting that 2023 baseline. That is now in effect and producers are completing their reporting. All should be put in to the system for all seven states by end of day June 1st. Technically, by May 31st, but that falls on the Sunday, so June 1st.
Litigation risk does remain in California. Californians that are against waste and the natural resource defense council have announced plans to sue to invalidate certain provisions of the regulations related to advanced recycling or chemical recycling and some of the exemptions. There's legal challenges coming from both directions. Again, it is operating under this injunction cloud, as I mentioned earlier. The program is live. They are continuing to invest and expand these pro depots and investing in new access infrastructure.
There is this injunction which has a perception that some things are on hold. However, if you're not covered by the injunction, you are required to report. Washington has a pre-implementation milestone. It's hitting in 2026. It's going to report and is being requested at a higher level. There will be fees collected for the state of Washington in 2026 to cover “startup costs.” In Maryland and Minnesota, the producers are being asked to report data for those two states. However, there's no program plan or fee schedule or fees expected in 2026 related to Maryland and Minnesota's data.
A quick note on Main. We still don't have a stewardship organization for Maine. My understanding was that Maine was expecting to have startup fees in 2026. However, without a stewardship organization, without reporting, there's no way to have a bill sent or invoice sent to producers to pay for those startup fees. Maine’s DEP has to issue an RFP for what they are calling a stewardship organization, which is effectively a pro. It can technically be a for-profit entity, and then they will negotiate a contract and sign with that organization.
I was anticipating that that would happen in May of 2026 because Maine said that an RFP would go out this spring, but spring is almost over. Technically, the summer solstice hasn't happened. I don't know when the summer solstice is or maybe it has happened. Anyway, it's summer in this household. I don't think we're going to see it this spring. However, in late May 2026, somebody from Maine's DEP office did say that they plan to release the RFP soon.
Even though Maine was first to the EPR table, they built a municipal reimbursement model before anyone else had done it. Now, it's just taking some time for them to move forward with the stewardship organization. It's a small agency. They have a lot of power to adjust timelines as needed. The reality is, even though they're the first to pass, they’re obviously not going to be the first to operate. We are keeping our eyes and ears on Maine.
Adapting EPR Strategies And Future Outlook
Once CAA is selected, if that happens, they are the only ones that have publicly committed to be bitter. We'll see if anybody goes against them. If nobody owes them, then we can assume they will be selected and then we shall see requests for data. Hopefully, after doing six states, pulling Maine data won't be too difficult for producers. That's what's been going on in the states where there is EPR.
I talked about this in episode one, how on point was I, what did I miss and what that means for you. One of the arguments I was making back in episode one is we shouldn't be weeding for legislation to make choices about circularity. We do have seven states in the pipeline. Some of those states, especially California are a large percentage of the population and in many cases, a large percentage of company sales.
Being ready to report and spend your energy on thinking about how EPR is impacting those seven active states is still true and still a key component of getting ahead of what EPR legislation will mean for your business. I don't think that I necessarily was alluding to in the previous episode that we were going to see any PR legislation pass in 2026. It’s just there continue to be momentum and that is also still true. I don't know that will see anything past in 2026. However, I did miss how long the California regulatory pause was going to be and how much it would impact a company’s ability to be prepared.
Back in February 2026, we'd seen a third round of revisions for the regulation and I did not anticipate that we wouldn't see an approval until May 1st 2026. It’s a long time and very late in the timeline of EPR for a regulation approval. Also, since the beginning of 2026, we've seen a lot of litigation the Oregon. This is something I have talked quite a bit about since our first episode. I want to call out here that there is a bit of a bigger pattern.
If you see no new nut legislation plus active litigation, this pattern is creating a lot more confusion. We're not seeing the systems get cleaner, basically. This change is still definitely in the forming stage, I would say. You're seeing some companies come in that have not reported in 2025 or you're seeing some companies just hearing about their reporting obligations now. You're seeing some companies say that they're going to hold off and see how things shake out in Oregon.
If you see no new legislation plus active litigation, this creates a lot more confusion.
Market Innovation And The Path Toward Circularity
The reality is, if you don't report and you are obligated, not just CAA will require you to report the years that you missed. You will also have to immediately pay those fees that you missed. A lot of companies are not cash heavy or cash rich, unless your Apple. Having to scrounge up the EPR fees of multiple years would be a stretch for many companies. Some good news that I think is worth closing with is recycled polymers traded at a discount to Virgin for the first time globally. Now, part of this is because the price of Virgin has spiked because of the Iran conflict, but the threshold has been crossed.
Maybe that will have a psychological benefit for the price of recycled material moving forward because this has been a big economic argument against recycled content. Oregon DEQ has approved CAA's responsible end market program plan amendment as of May 20th, 2026. That gives us a better answer to the question of how we verify responsibility on the market front. CAA has also released a responsible end markets standard for public comment that you can review and share feedback on.
Niagara Bottling bought Rplanet Earth. That'll reopen that PET recycling facility that was closed down. This producer of plastic bottles is now vertically integrating into recycling infrastructure. They're doing it voluntarily and not because of mandates. Niagara is a big company. I've never toured their facilities, but other people have told me that they have incredible innovation in their facilities. University systems have ways to detect recycled plastic content. There's a verification option that universities have been sharing. Verifying like recycled PCR or cycled plastic content is generally very hard. Oftentimes, it's chemically not different.
There's no way to verify the percentage of recycled material, but now this University system has created an option. If that can scale then that can be helpful, especially in eco modulation and verification. Where does this lead us as we're moving into the second half of 2026? In June, we expect to see a program plan from Circular Action Alliance for California. That will help us see how they're interpreting a lot of the needs assessment information. That's what California has put out. In July, we'll see the long-awaited trial about the Oregon lawsuit against EPR. A lot of people are eager to see how that plays out.
In October, we’ll see new fee schedules. Before that, you might see your California and Washington invoices. A few tips to embrace this continuously changing circular economy. One, don't confuse legal uncertainty with operational permission. A pending lawsuit is not a pause button. Your obligations exist until the court says they don't. Even then, only this specific parties involved will find relief from this legal battle.
Don’t confuse legal uncertainty with operational permission. A pending lawsuit is not a pause button. Your obligations remain in effect until the court says otherwise.
If you are missing the May 31st deadline and don't let that be the only barrier to becoming compliant. Only because you've been with the deadline, doesn't mean you should wait till next year's deadline. CAA has always said that they will work with producers even if they find out late to the party. It's the ones that are intentionally choosing not to comply. They're more likely to flag publicly as non-compliant. If you are communicating with them and you are working your way towards compliance, they're more likely to help you get that across the finish line and stay in compliance.
Six states reporting is a lot but don't let that May 31st deadline keep you from moving your company into compliance. When you don't see what you've expected, use that as a proof point to pressure test and update your model. Back at the beginning of 2026, I didn't see that there would be a lawsuit against the Oregon EPR. When it did come, I made sure that I shared that with you quickly and out loud. Once something in your EPR strategy stops matching reality or when your data is not showing you what you expect.
Change the strategy and the approach so that you feel confident in what you're delivering and how you’re addressing the changes that come with EPR. Why embrace change? It’s because the producers who treat new information as a reason to refine, not retreat, are the ones who get to lead the next phase of this circular economy. I think that when we get through this muddy portion, the next phase is going to be pretty exciting. We're going to see a lot of cool innovative solutions to the circular economy.
Important Links
EPR Is Operationalizing: What Does It Mean – Previous Episode