Where the facts come from

Every figure on this site is read from the instrument that creates it: the statute, the adopted rule, the agency's published list, or the producer responsibility organization's filed program plan.

Trade press and law-firm alerts are used to find a primary source. They are never used to stand in for one. A search result, an AI answer, a conference slide and a link that merely resolves are all treated the same way here: as a pointer, not as evidence.

Where a provision governs a date, the transitional and entry-into-force articles are read alongside it, because either can move the date the main article states.

A citation on this site points at the provision that actually says the thing, not at a neighbouring one.

What the confidence labels mean

Every figure carries one of three labels, so a number read from an adopted rule is distinguishable from a projection without reading a footnote.

Confirmed. Rely on it. Read from an adopted rule, a statute, or a published fee schedule, and quotable from the provision cited. A figure earns this label only if there is a verbatim string in the cited provision that supports it.

Signaled. Plan around it, do not file on it. An official draft, a filed program plan, or an agency statement exists, but nothing is adopted. Directionally reliable, and still subject to change before it is final.

Speculative. Discount it. Nothing has been published. The figure is this site's own projection, usually another state's published rate carried across. Useful for sizing a range, not for setting a number.

What the momentum signal means

Pending states carry a signal: High, Medium, Watch, or Dead.

This is an editorial read of legislative momentum. It is not a prediction of passage, and it is not sourced from anything you could cite. It exists because "which state is next" is a real planning question and a bill number alone does not answer it. Treat it as one informed person's read and check the last action and the next milestone underneath it, both of which are sourced.

Dead means the bill is finished for its current session, by defeat, indefinite postponement, or adjournment. It does not mean the state has stopped considering EPR.

Cadence

A full verification pass runs weekly. Each page carries the date its facts were last checked against primary sources, and that stamp moves when a pass runs, not when the site rebuilds.

The distinction matters, and the site keeps it deliberately: not yet published is a fact about the regulation, not yet checked would be a fact about this site. You need both to judge a page.

Fee figures are re-derived from the published schedules by script rather than transcribed by hand, and every repeated figure is checked against a single source table at build time. If a rate in prose ever disagreed with the rate in the calculator, the build would fail rather than publish.

The source documents themselves are watched for silent replacement. That is not theoretical: one schedule this site relied on was withdrawn and re-issued by its publisher three days after it was loaded.

What is not covered

This site tracks packaging and paper producer responsibility in the United States.

It does not track beverage-container deposit programs, which are a different instrument with a different scope, even where a state calls its law producer responsibility. Two 2026 laws are widely reported as packaging EPR and are excluded for exactly this reason: Vermont H.915 and Connecticut Public Act 26-148 are both beverage-container measures.

Recyclability labeling and environmental marketing claims laws are also excluded, since they govern what a package may say rather than who pays for it.

Corrections

Rules move weekly and no process makes a site like this error-free.

Every report is read by a person and checked back against the primary source. Where the site is wrong, it is corrected, and the correction is dated in the weekly update log rather than quietly edited out. Past corrections are still visible there.

The reports worth sending are: a figure that does not match the document in front of you, a rule or date that has moved since it was last checked, or two pages on this site that disagree with each other.

Send them to info@hartteradvisory.com.

What this site is not

It is not legal advice, and it is not a compliance filing. It reads the same public sources you could read, faster and in one place, and it tells you where a rule is still open instead of filling the gap with a plausible number.

Frequently asked questions

How often is EPR Atlas updated?
A full verification pass runs weekly. Every page carries the date its facts were last checked against primary sources, and that stamp moves when a verification pass runs, not when the site rebuilds.
Where do the fee figures come from?
From the published fee schedules issued by each state or its producer responsibility organization. They are re-derived by script from a single source table rather than transcribed by hand, and the build fails if a figure in prose disagrees with the figure in the calculators.
What do the Confirmed, Signaled and Speculative labels mean?
Confirmed means the figure was read from an adopted rule, statute or published schedule and is quotable from the provision cited. Signaled means an official draft or filed program plan exists but nothing is adopted, so plan around it rather than filing on it. Speculative means nothing has been published and the figure is this site's own projection.
Is the momentum signal on pending states a prediction?
No. It is an editorial read of legislative momentum, not a prediction of passage. The last action and next milestone shown underneath it are sourced; the signal itself is judgement.
Why are some states with new producer responsibility laws not listed?
Because this site tracks packaging and paper producer responsibility only. Beverage-container deposit programs are a different instrument, so Vermont H.915 and Connecticut Public Act 26-148, both 2026 beverage-container laws, are excluded.
What happens if I report an error?
It is read by a person and checked against the primary source. Where the site is wrong it is corrected, and the correction is dated in the weekly update log rather than edited out silently.