In early 2024, Minnesota’s extended producer responsibility bill for packaging, food packaging, and paper products was signed into law.
The Packaging Waste and Cost Reduction Act requires producers — generally the brand owner, manufacturer, or importer — to appoint and join a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization called a producer responsibility organization, to coordinate and fund the statewide program. The program’s purpose is to reduce the environmental and human health impacts of these materials and benefit all Minnesotans with:
- less packaging overall and toxicity reduction
- more packaging that is refillable, reusable, recyclable, and compostable
- more curbside collection and places to recycle and compost
- reduced costs with producers reimbursing at least 90% of the costs related to refill, reuse, recycling, and composting
- expanded infrastructure and jobs
- investment in public education and clear standards
After Jan. 1, 2032, all packaging, food packaging, and paper products must be one of the following:
- refillable and supported by a refill system
- reusable and managed through a reuse system
- recyclable and collected through a curbside or alternative system
- compostable and collected through a curbside or alternative system
Program fact sheets:
Covered and exempt materials
Program requirements apply to packaging and packaging components, food packaging, and paper products sold, offered for sale, distributed, or used to ship a product within or into Minnesota. This includes online purchases and shipments.
The law makes a business-to-business exemption for packaging or paper products used to contain a product that is distributed to a commercial or business entity for the production of another product, without being sent to another entity or consumer.
Packaging
Materials used to transport, market, protect, or handle a product are considered packaging. The law makes exceptions for packaging for certain products:
- products regulated as a drug or medical device by U.S. FDA, including components and consumable medical equipment
- medical equipment or a product used in medical settings that is regulated by the U.S. FDA, including components and consumable medical equipment
- drugs, biological products, parasiticides, medical devices, or in vitro diagnostics that are used to treat, or that are administered to, animals and are regulated by the U.S. FDA or USDA
- products regulated by the U.S. EPA under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act
- liquefied petroleum gas when the package was designed to be refilled
- hazardous or flammable products regulated by OSHA Hazard Communication Standard
- paint that is being collected and properly managed through an approved paint stewardship plan or program
Food packaging
Materials to market, protect, handle, deliver, serve, contain, or store food and beverages are considered food packaging. The law makes exceptions for food packaging for certain products:
- infant formula
- medical food
- fortified oral nutritional supplement used by a person who requires supplemental or sole source nutrition due to special dietary needs related to cancer, chronic kidney disease, diabetes, malnutrition, or failure to thrive
Paper products
Products made from wood or cellulosic fibers are considered paper products. The law makes exceptions for certain paper products:
- bound books
- products that are deemed unsafe or unsanitary to handle by recycling and composting facilities
- newspaper print publications, including supplements or enclosures, that include content derived from primary sources related to news and current events
- magazine print publication that has a circulation of less than 95,000 and that primarily includes content derived from primary sources related to news and current events
Program oversight and participants
Producers |
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Service providers |
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Producer responsibility organization |
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Advisory board |
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MPCA |
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Covered entities |
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How the program works
Needs assessment
Every five years, the MPCA will conduct a needs assessment to gather important information, including:
- covered materials in Minnesota and their current management
- processing capacity at drop-off collection sites, transfer stations, and recycling facilities
- proposals for a range of outcomes for covered materials (i.e., waste reduction, reuse and return rates, recycling rates, composting rates, postconsumer recycled content)
- recommended collection methods
- proposed measures for tracking progress
- options for third-party certifications to be incorporated into the program
- investments needed across Minnesota to increase waste reduction, reuse, recycling, and composting
Statewide requirements
The MPCA must establish statewide requirements for materials covered under the program and the dates they must be met for:
- recycling rate
- compost rate
- reuse rate
- return rate
- the percentage of packaging and paper products that must be reduced
- the percentage of postconsumer recycled content that packaging and paper products must contain, including an overall percentage of all materials covered under the program as applicable
Collection lists
The MPCA must establish two collection lists that will summarize statewide collection requirements for packaging and paper products that the producer responsibility organization must meet. The first is a curbside recyclables and compostables list and the second is an alternative collection list (e.g., drop-offs, retail returns, etc.).
Eco-modulated fees
The producer responsibility organization is tasked with setting the annual producer fees to cover program costs. Producer fees must incentivize using materials and design attributes that reduce the environmental and human health impacts of materials by:
- eliminating intentionally added toxic substances
- reducing the amount of paper used to manufacture individual paper products and packaging that is necessary to efficiently deliver a product without damage or spoilage and without reducing its ability to be recycled
- increasing the amount of materials managed in a reuse system
- increasing the proportion of postconsumer material used in production
- enhancing the recyclability or compostability
- increasing the amount of inputs derived from renewable and sustainable sources
Stewardship plan
The program is guided by a stewardship plan, revised every five years, that draws heavily on the needs assessment, outlining how the producer responsibility organization and producers will adhere to the criteria and processes established in law and meet the statewide requirements, including more granular performance targets for specific material types.
Timeline
Dates | Task(s) |
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2025-2026 | Phase 1: Building the foundation
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2027-2028 | Phase 2: Establishing the structure
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2029-2032 | Phase 3: Implementing change and tracking progress
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