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Shaping Extended Producer Responsibility Legislation for the Future of Packaging

Packaging stakeholders should take part in extended producer responsibility legislation development to ensure long-term efficiency.

Packaging EPR laws have been passed in four states, with more likely to come.
Packaging EPR laws have been passed in four states, with more likely to come.
PMMI Business Intelligence/AMERIPEN: 2023 Packaging Compass

Extended producer responsibility legislation is on the horizon, and it’s up to packaging stakeholders to ensure this legislation supports the future of sustainable packaging.

That’s according to PMMI Business Intelligence and AMERIPEN’s collaborative report, “2023 Packaging Compass.” The report explains that legislation can sometimes overlook the systemic nature of changes. It offers insights into how the packaging industry can better direct or inform legislation to minimize unintended consequences.

Extended producer responsibility (EPR) is a policy mechanism designed to shift the financial and sometimes operational responsibility of the end-of-life management of products from consumers and the government to the producers of those products. 

Ideally, when companies seek recycled inputs and can control the process to obtain these inputs from design to end-of-life, the product design will be improved, and necessary investments for recycling success will follow.

As of January 2023, packaging EPR laws have been passed in four states: California, Colorado, Maine, and Oregon. Many more states are anticipated to consider and potentially adopt similar legislation. EPR has also been executed in five provinces in Canada and across Europe, with varying program designs and variable impacts on packaging design.

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