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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:

18616: GovDelivery - EPR for packaging, food packaging, and paper MNPCA_580
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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
  • generally include product brand owners, manufacturers, or importers
  • become members of the producer responsibility organization
  • pay producer fees that vary to incentivize more sustainable design 
Service providers
  • includes any organization — including local government — that provides directly related services for the refill, reuse, recycling, or composting of covered materials
  • register with the MPCA
  • provide or contract for collection, transfer, transportation, sorting, processing, recovering, preparation, or any other activity directly related to refill, reuse, recycling, or composting 
Producer responsibility organization
  • coordinates and implements extended producer responsibility program on behalf of producers
  • develops stewardship plans
  • develops annual reports
  • collects producer fees
  • reimburses service providers for collection, transfer, processing, admin costs, refill/reuse
  • provides technical assistance to advance progress on statewide requirements 
Advisory board
  • represents a wide range of interested parties
  • provides program guidance and recommendations to the MPCA and producer responsibility organization
  • reviews and provides comments on stewardship plans and annual reports 
MPCA
  • oversees extended producer responsibility program
  • appoints advisory board
  • conducts needs assessments
  • establishes statewide requirements
  • develops recyclable and compostable collection lists
  • reviews and approves stewardship plans and annual reporting that tracks program progress and outcomes
  • approves the selection of independent auditors to perform annual financial audits of the producer responsibility organization
  • reviews exemption requests, approving if a specific federal or state health and safety requirement prevents the material from being reduced or made reusable, recyclable, or compostable
  • ensures program compliance and enforcement 
Covered entities
  • people or locations receiving relevant services, including single and multifamily residences, K-12 schools, colleges and universities, childcare centers, nonprofits with an annual revenue of less than $35 million, government buildings, and public spaces

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

DatesTask(s)
2025-2026

Phase 1: Building the foundation

  • Producers form a producer responsibility organization.
  • The MPCA appoints an advisory board and begins meeting.
  • Service providers register with the MPCA to qualify for reimbursement of costs.
  • The MPCA completes needs assessments to gather critical data to inform program and plan development, receiving input from the advisory board and the public.
2027-2028

Phase 2: Establishing the structure

  • The MPCA creates collection lists that apply statewide, receiving input from the advisory board and the public.
  • The MPCA creates statewide program requirements for the producer responsibility organization, receiving input from the advisory board and the public.
  • The producer responsibility organization submits first stewardship plan due to the MPCA; the MPCA receives input from the advisory board and the public.
2029-2032

Phase 3: Implementing change and tracking progress

  • The producer responsibility organization implements stewardship plan as approved by the MPCA.
  • The producer responsibility organization begins covering service and program costs, phased in to cover at least 90% by 2031.
  • The producer responsibility organization submits annual reports to the MPCA.
  • Packaging and paper products must be refillable, reusable, recyclable, or compostable by 2032.