Packaging EPR Update: Week of August 10, 2026

Legislative  |  CO

Colorado SB26-192, the Producer Responsibility Dues Appeals Process, would have created a formal route for a producer to contest its eco-modulated dues: a hearing before the state EPR Advisory Board, written recommendations to CDPHE, a determination within 45 days, and final agency action open to judicial review. It passed the Senate 21-12 on May 12, 2026 and cleared House committee 7-4 the same day, then was laid over to May 14 on House Second Reading. The legislature adjourned May 13. The bill died on the calendar by one day. What this means for you: if you pay Colorado dues and think the amount is wrong, there is still no formal appeal. Your route is CAA directly, and after that the courts. This is not a footnote: NAW's Colorado lawsuit, filed July 30, 2026, pleads precisely this gap, arguing producers have no way to challenge a CAA fee assessment. Colorado nearly closed that hole itself and missed by a day, and the same argument is now in front of a federal judge. Expect the bill back in 2027. Source: Colorado General Assembly, SB26-192.

Update  |  GA

Georgia SR 610 was adopted by the state Senate 48-0 on March 31, 2026, creating the Senate Study Committee on Improving and Increasing Recycling. It meets during the interim and its scope covers recycling and the recycling supply chain statewide. Separately, Georgia HB 1237, a packaging EPR bill introduced February 6, 2026, died in committee when the session ended. What this means for you: nothing to comply with, and Georgia is not an EPR state. It is on this list because a legislative study committee is the normal first step on the path every enacted state took, and a unanimous vote to create one is a stronger signal than a failed bill is a negative one. If you sell into the Southeast, Georgia is the state most worth watching for a 2027 introduction. Source: Georgia General Assembly, SR 610.

Comment Period  |  WA

Washington’s Department of Ecology opened public comment on the preliminary statewide collection lists on August 5, 2026. Comments close at 11:59 p.m. Pacific on August 19, 2026, through an online comment form. The draft lists were posted as a spreadsheet dated August 3 and cover 96 material categories. What this means for you: these lists decide which materials Washington will require to be collected statewide, and that list is the yardstick your packaging gets measured against once the program starts charging. If a material you use is missing, or is described in a way that does not match how your pack is actually built, this two-week window is the cheapest moment to say so. It gets far more expensive to argue after the list is fixed. Until now Ecology had said only that a comment period would happen “in August” without publishing dates or a form, so this is the first time the window has been pinned down. Source: Washington Department of Ecology (August 2026).

Legislative  |  CA

On August 3, 2026 the California Senate Appropriations Committee voted 7-0 to refer AB 2253 to its suspense file. That is not a vote against the bill and it does not mean the bill was suspended. The suspense file is simply where California parks any bill with a fiscal impact. The committee later runs the whole parked list at a single sitting and announces which bills move to the floor and which die, without debate on any of them. That sitting is set for August 13, 2026, and it is the real decision point. What this means for you: AB 2253 would bar credit-based mass balance accounting for recycled content claims in California and require a claim to reflect what is physically in the package. If it clears August 13 and is eventually signed, a PCR percentage stated on a California pack would need documentation at the resin and lot level rather than a certificate bought against a shared pool. If it dies on August 13, nothing changes and today’s documentation rules stand. Either way, no action is required of you before that date. Source: California Senate Appropriations Committee hearing results (August 3, 2026).

Comment Period  |  OR

Circular Action Alliance filed its 2025 Oregon annual report with DEQ on July 1, 2026, and DEQ is taking public comment on it until 5:00 p.m. Pacific on Thursday, September 10, 2026. There is no comment form. Comments go by email to RethinkRecycling@deq.oregon.gov. What this means for you: nothing is required of you and no deadline of yours moves. This is the first full public accounting of where Oregon’s producer fee money actually went in year one, against the $167.9 million collected. If you paid Oregon fees for 2025, it is the cheapest way to see what you bought, and it is the document to cite if you later want to question why a rate sits where it does. Comment is optional. Source: Oregon DEQ, Modernizing Oregon’s Recycling System (August 2026).

Legislative  |  FEDERAL

Sen. Adam Schiff introduced S. 5182, the Tracking Plastic Act of 2026, on July 30, 2026. It was read twice and referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation the same day, with Sens. Merkley, Wyden and Booker cosponsoring. The bill would create a federal interagency working group, with NIST leading on measurement, to recommend how recycled plastic content should be measured, traced and reported. What this means for you: nothing today, and that is worth stating plainly because the bill has been described elsewhere as a recycled content standard. It is not one. It sets no target, creates no mandate and changes no state obligation you already have. The reason to keep an eye on it is a single line in its findings: a federal tracking system could harmonize the state recycled-content rules you currently comply with one at a time. That is the same preemption question raised by the PACK Act and the Recycled Materials Attribution Act, and none of those three is a packaging EPR bill. Source: Packaging Dive (August 3, 2026).

Enforcement  |  OR

Oregon DEQ published its first quarterly producer status list on April 9, 2026, naming roughly 250 companies that had not registered, reported or paid. The second list was due the following quarter and has not appeared. As of August 7, 2026, Circular Action Alliance’s Oregon page still states that the updated list “will be posted here when available” and directs producers to email rethinkrecycling@deq.oregon.gov for a copy of the first one, which is no longer downloadable from any DEQ or CAA page. What this means for you: do not read the gap as enforcement easing off. Not appearing on a list that has not been published is not the same as being in good standing, and Oregon exposure still runs up to $25,000 per day. A separate court stipulation pauses DEQ pre-enforcement notices against producers outside the NAW injunction, but only through August 31, 2026, and it does not stop CAA invoicing you or naming you. If you want to know where you actually stand, that email address is currently the only route. Source: Circular Action Alliance Oregon (page updated August 7, 2026).

Site Update

Two navigation changes landed on the State Deep Dive, both aimed at the same complaint: the state profiles are thorough, and thorough means long. First, a pinned row of six questions now sits at the top of every state profile: Where does the program stand? Am I a producer here? What will it cost? What do I report, and when? How do I lower my fees? How does this state compare? Pick the one you are asking and the page goes straight to the cards that answer it, and the row stays pinned as you scroll, so you are never more than one click from another answer. Second, each state header now carries a small "How this state differs" button. It opens a compact overlay listing the three to five places that state genuinely departs from the other six, from Colorado's pesticide-packaging carve-out to California's application-only small-producer exemption to Maryland's primary-packaging-only exemption list. The overlay adds nothing to scroll past, and every item on it is stated in full, with its source and evidence label, on the card it points to. Source: EPRAtlas.com.