Extended Producer Responsibility Legislation, also known as EPR laws, is a policy-based approach that holds producers accountable for the entire lifecycle of their products, particularly for take-back, recycling, and final disposal. Although various other countries have implemented EPR legislation as early as the 1990s, its adoption in the U.S. has been considerably slow, fragmented, and entirely state driven.
In July 2021, Maine pathed the way for packaging EPR legislation in the U.S. when it passed the bill known as LD 1541, which established a stewardship program for packaging materials. Under this regulation, the state entered into a contract with a stewardship organization, making them responsible for implementing the program. The bill authorizes the state to determine the rules for fees paid by producers, which in turn would go towards reimbursing municipalities for operational costs of managing covered packaging materials.
On June 20, 2025, Maine Governor Janet Mills signed LD 1423, updating Maine’s 2021 EPR law by amending the stewardship program to exclude certain commercial, cosmetic, medical, environmental, dangerous, hazardous, or flammable product packaging and packaging of products related to public health and water quality testing from the requirements of the program. The bill included a clarification of definitions for producers and producer exemptions as well as loosening requirements for packaging, ultimately shifting the law to more closely resemble subsequent EPR legislation passed by states such as Oregon, California, Maryland, Minnesota, and Washington. These recent EPR laws implemented a “shared responsibility” model that was supported by packaging and brand stakeholders. In opposition to the amendments, some waste service providers, municipalities, and environmental advocates argued that these changes represent corporate overreach by packaging producers and stakeholders that would consequently weaken the legislation and further delay implementation of the EPR program. As it currently stands, Maine’s schedule for implementation has producers registering and reporting 2025 package production in May of 2026, with the first annual payment by producers scheduled for September 2027.
