Oregon is on the verge of implementing the first extended producer responsibility (EPR) law in the United States broadly targeting recyclable materials with the goal of increasing recycling rates and reducing waste. Several other states, such as California and Colorado, are set to implement similar laws, but Oregon will be the first when its EPR laws go into effect in July 2025. If successful, these states could set a precedent for how other states handle their recycling programs and meet recycling goals.
Initially implemented in Germany in the early 1990s, EPR laws are common in other countries around the world. The heart of EPR laws is that product producers are required to finance the costs of collecting, recycling, and/or safely disposing of products that would otherwise be borne by local governments and (ultimately) taxpayers. EPRs also encourage producers to improve their products to increase recycling and reduce waste. Several U.S. states have experimented with EPR-like laws for years, including programs requiring producers bear costs associated with a variety of products: electronics, batteries, products containing mercury, etc. However, it was not until the 2020s that states targeted single-use plastic packaging and the growing plastic-pollution issues. Oregon was one of the first such states, passing the Plastic Pollution and Recycling Modernization Act (RMA) in August 2021.
Broadly speaking, the RMA both increases the efficiency of Oregon’s recycling system and requires packaging producers of all sorts to finance effective management of their products after consumer use (known as “covered products”). Among other things, the RMA addresses inefficiencies in Oregon’s current recycling system by creating a unified statewide list of recyclables, expanding recycling services, providing recycling education materials to Oregon residents and businesses, upgrading recyclables sorting facilities, and ensuring that the recycling, recovery, or disposal of covered products benefit the environment and minimize public health risks. Producers will fund these sorts of improvements indirectly through a Producer Responsibility Organization (PRO).
PROs are non-profit organizations created by producers to distribute producer funds and improve covered product management—from collection to recycling or disposal. PROs must distribute funds collected from producers to local governments to cover certain costs associated with managing post-use covered products and provide improvements. For example, under the RMA, PROs must provide funds to cover the cost of transporting covered products, expanding on-route collection services, operating recycling depots, and even building new recycling reload facilities (if necessary). Further, PROs must actively ensure effective management of covered products by producing recycling educational materials, and by providing collection and recycling services for covered products that are difficult to recycle under the current system.
Circular Action Alliance (CAA) will operate as the first and only PRO in Oregon when the RMA goes live in July 2025, and it will also operate as a PRO in California and Colorado when those laws go into effect. Miller Nash has provided substantial guidance regarding the interpretation of and compliance with the RMA.
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