Extended Producer Responsibility

Overview

Alston & Bird helps consumer products, food and beverage, retail, and waste and recycling companies navigate state extended producer responsibility (EPR) laws. We have been at the forefront of EPR compliance—from early drug takeback ordinances and battery bills to today’s packaging, paper, and food service ware programs.

We advise on EPR compliance, enforcement risk, and defense strategies, serving as national sustainability counsel to manufacturers, major food brands, and retailers. We also help you navigate intersecting issues such as post-consumer recycled content and compostability requirements, labeling, and environmental marketing claims. We monitor and engage in proposed legislation, rulemaking, and public comment opportunities to keep you informed and enable you to respond appropriately.

We analyze statutes, regulations, and agency guidance—including Circular Action Alliance (CAA) requirements—to define producer obligations across states. We support CAA data reporting and negotiate EPR-related agreements, drafting and negotiating complex agreements that span the supply chain from master service agreements to vendor and supplier contracts.

We draw on years of EPR work—across many product types—combined with extensive experience in food packaging and environmental compliance to provide practical counsel and agency advocacy to achieve your business objectives. We advocate and draft comment letters and proposed bill text to support your government affairs efforts. We guide regulatory reviews, self-audits, and voluntary disclosures, and handle enforcement actions and litigation. We ensure compliance with those standards through consistent management of key regulatory requirements and emerging issues to minimize enforcement and litigation. However, when these measures are not enough, we are prepared to effectively defend you before regulatory authorities and in court to obtain necessary approvals or defend your actions.

Experience

• Advising manufacturers, importers, distributors, franchisors, and retailers on extended producer responsibility (EPR) compliance requirements for packaging, paper goods, food service ware, clothing and textiles, pharmaceuticals, and batteries.
• Reviewing agreements with and certifications provided by packaging suppliers and distributors.
• Negotiating agreements with producer responsibility organizations (PROs).
• Preparing and revising agreements addressing EPR responsibilities in distribution supply chains.
• Assisting in addressing EPR enforcement actions, including those brought by CalRecycle and the Oregon DEQ.
• National sustainability counsel to a global confectioner company, advising on compliance with state packaging laws (California’s SB54 and SB343, and New Jersey’s Recycled Content Law), defending against threatened litigation involving environmental monitoring claims, and reviewing corporate sustainability reports.
• Assisting on tracking and understanding state-specific sustainability-related laws, including EPR schemes.
• Advising on compliance of food packaging materials with federal and state regulatory requirements, including advising on approaches for filing food contact notifications for components of packaging material.
• Providing environmental auditing, regulatory compliance, and supply chain transparency for food and other consumer products.
• Advising on state post-consumer recycled content laws and state resin identification code requirements.
• Advising on state and local compostability requirements.
• Reviewing labels for compliance with the FTC’s Green Guides and California-based environmental claim standards.
• Advising food and beverage companies on environmental marketing claims, such as “BPA-free,” recyclability claims, recycled content claims, biodegradable claims, and other green sustainability claims.
• Analyzing proposed legislation and emerging policies affecting the waste and recycling industries.

State EPR Programs

Please see the image below for states that have EPR programs for packaging.