Small e-commerce sellers face a patchwork of 7 different state EPR packaging laws with incompatible reporting requirements

As of early 2026, seven US states — California, Colorado, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Oregon, and Washington — have enacted Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) laws for packaging, each with different registration deadlines, fee structures, reporting formats, material categories, and definitions of who counts as a 'producer.' A small DTC brand selling candles on Shopify that ships to all 50 states must now determine whether they meet the producer threshold in each of these seven states, register with different Producer Responsibility Organizations (PROs), report packaging material weights and types in different formats on different schedules, and pay eco-modulated fees that vary by material and state. The operational burden is crushing for small businesses. Maine requires 2025 data reported by May 31, 2026. Oregon requires registration with the Circular Action Alliance and fee payments starting July 2025, with 2024 data due by March 31, 2025. Washington requires producers to join a PRO or register individually by July 1, 2026. Each state has different de minimis thresholds below which small producers are exempt, but the thresholds are defined differently — some by revenue, some by weight of packaging material, some by number of units sold. A business with $2 million in revenue might be exempt in one state and fully obligated in another. The cost of compliance consulting alone can exceed $10,000-$25,000 per year for a small brand — money that buys no packaging improvement and produces no environmental benefit, only regulatory paperwork. This problem persists because packaging EPR is being legislated state by state with no federal framework. The National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors has already filed a lawsuit challenging Oregon's law on Dormant Commerce Clause grounds, arguing it unfairly burdens interstate commerce. But until either Congress acts or courts intervene, small e-commerce sellers face a compliance landscape that is fragmented, expensive, and growing more complex every year as additional states pass their own unique versions of EPR legislation.