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Minnesota Becomes 5th State to Approve EPR Packaging Law

Under the new law, all packaging in Minnesota must be reusable, recyclable, compostable, or collected by an approved alternative collection system by 2032.

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Minnesota became the fifth state in the U.S. to establish an extended producer responsibility (EPR) program when Gov. Tim Walz signed the Environment and Natural Resources Budget and Policy Bill, which included the Packaging Waste and Cost Reduction Act. EPR puts varying degrees of responsibility and cost on packaging manufacturers, distributors, and brand owners rather than consumers for recycling. Under the new law, all packaging will need to be reusable, recyclable, compostable, or collected by an approved alternative collection system by 2032.

By passing the law, Minnesota joins Oregon, Colorado, California, and Maine as states with EPR programs but is the first to include boat wrap according to the Product Stewardship Institute (PSI). PSI assisted Minnesota's Partnership on Waste and Energy (PWE) in developing the initial Minnesota packaging bill. PSI used its updated packaging EPR policy model as the basis for facilitated stakeholder agreements that became the basis for subsequent conversations that led to the final bill.

AMERIPEN, the American Institute for Packaging and the Environment, supports the packaging extended producer responsibility (EPR) framework passed by the Minnesota legislature and Governor Walz. AMERIPEN spent nearly two and half years working alongside a broad array of stakeholders in Minnesota (state and local administrators and policymakers and their staff, companies up and down the entire packaging industry value chain, trade associations, etc.) to craft, draft and finalize the packaging extended producer responsibility (EPR) legislation.

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