Oregon packaging EPR

Who's covered

Oregon's law covers three kinds of covered products: packaging (including single-use bags and shipping materials), printing and writing paper, and food serviceware.³ The company responsible is the producer, identified by a ranked list:^4,5

• The manufacturer, if the product is sold under its own brand or carries no brand. Oregon's rules say a manufacturer includes whoever directs the manufacturing, including setting the packaging specifications, so a brand that uses a co-packer is normally treated as the manufacturer.
• The licensee, if someone other than the brand owner makes the product under a licence.
• The US importer, if neither of the above is in the United States.
• For online and remote sales, the shipping packaging belongs to “the person that packages and ships the item to the consumer.”
• Other packaging falls to the first distributor into Oregon.

That list applies to packaging. Food serviceware belongs to whoever first sells it in or into Oregon, and publications such as magazines and catalogs belong to the publisher.⁴

For a fuller walk-through, including co-packers, private label and franchises, see Are you the producer?

Small-producer exemption

You are exempt as a small producer if you meet any one of these tests:^3,6

• Gross revenue under $5 million in your most recent fiscal year. Oregon's Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), the state regulator, reads this as global revenue, not just Oregon sales.
• Under 1 metric ton of covered products sold into Oregon in the most recent calendar year.
• A beverage manufacturer that sold under 5 metric tons.
• A nonprofit, a public body, a restaurant or food cart (unless it produces food serviceware), or a single retail location with no online sales that isn't part of a franchise or chain.

When applying these tests, add in the revenue and tonnage of any affiliated companies, such as a parent or sister company.⁵

Excluded products

The statute and rules exclude, among other things: beverage containers covered by Oregon's bottle deposit law (the bottle bill); bound books; prescription and over-the-counter drug packaging; infant formula, medical food and fortified nutritional supplements; certain pesticide containers covered by federal labeling rules; certain sterile medical-device packaging; and packaging meant to protect a durable product for five years or more.^3,7

What you have to do

Since July 1, 2025, every producer that isn't exempt must be a member of a producer responsibility organization (PRO). A PRO is the organization that runs the program on producers' behalf and collects their fees. Circular Action Alliance (CAA) is the only approved PRO in Oregon.¹ In practice, being compliant means four things:

1. Register with CAA and sign its producer agreement.
2. Report each year the weight of covered products you sold into Oregon in the previous calendar year, split across roughly 60 material categories. The 2025 data report was due May 31, 2026, and CAA uses it to set 2027 fees.^1,8
3. Pay the fees CAA invoices. 2026 fees were invoiced in two halves, in January and July 2026, based on 2024 data.⁹
4. Keep records that support your report, and provide them if DEQ or CAA asks.¹

The 25 largest producers by market share have an extra duty. Every two years they must complete life cycle evaluations (studies of a package's environmental impact from raw materials to disposal) for at least 1% of their covered products. For most of them, the first reports are due December 31, 2026.¹⁰

What it costs

Fees are a rate per pound for each material category, set by CAA to cover the program's costs. Your bill is the pounds you reported in each category, multiplied by that category's rate. Selected rates for the two years published so far:^11,12

Selected categories from CAA's 2026 and 2027 Oregon fee schedules. The full schedule has about 60 categories. A negative 2027 rate is a credit. Natural HDPE bottles are a credit because the share of program reserves CAA is returning to producers is larger than their 11¢ base rate. Aluminum containers' base rate is already a credit, −3¢, and the reserve return adds to it (2027 schedule, pages 2 and 3).

Three things in that table are worth knowing:

• Flexible packaging is expensive. PP film and multi-layer pouches cost more than ten times as much per pound as cardboard.
• Category choice matters. PE film is less than half the rate of PP film, and transport corrugated removed before the consumer is 0¢.
• Eco-modulation is just starting. Eco-modulation means adjusting fees up or down based on how a package is designed. So far Oregon only offers bonuses. Bonus A (from the 2026 fee year) is worth 10% of a SKU's base fees, up to $20,000 per SKU and ten SKUs per producer, for disclosing a life cycle evaluation. Two further bonuses begin in 2027 or later.^10,13

Producers can also claim an exemption for material they collect and recycle privately through a responsible end market (a buyer or recycler that handles the material in a way that meets Oregon's environmental and safety standards). Claims for 2027 fees were taken from January to March 2026; the next window is expected to open in early 2027.⁶

For how fees are built and how to lower them, see How EPR fees are calculated.

Enforcement

Oregon has the most active enforcement of any state so far.

• Public listing. State law (ORS 459A.869) requires CAA to publish a registry of its compliant members and the members that aren't compliant, updated at least quarterly. CAA must also tell DEQ when it can't collect a producer's fees. In practice, DEQ then sends the producer a warning letter giving it 30 days to fix the problem. Producers that don't are named on DEQ's producer status list. The first list, dated April 9, 2026, named 304 producers; a second, dated September 4, 2026, named 198.^14,15,16,17 See Oregon's non-compliance list, explained.
• Penalties of up to $25,000 per day per violation.^18,19
• Sales. At DEQ's request, the Oregon Department of Justice can go to court to stop sales of a non-compliant producer's products.¹⁹

The court challenge

The National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW), a trade association, sued in 2025. In February 2026 it won a preliminary injunction, a temporary court order blocking enforcement, that covered only its members. In August 2026 the federal court ruled for the state on every remaining claim and lifted the injunction. DEQ said the ruling allows the state to continue implementing the law.^20,21 NAW has appealed to the Ninth Circuit.^22,23 A separate class action, filed by Lollicup in June 2026, is stayed until the Ninth Circuit decides NAW's appeal. Producers remain subject to all of the law's obligations during the stay. Under an earlier agreement in that case, DEQ paused some pre-enforcement notices; it did not stop fees or the public listing.^23,24 One attorney reports that the pause appears to have expired on August 31, 2026, and the stay filing doesn't mention renewing it.²⁵

What's changing

• DEQ rulemaking. DEQ is updating the program rules, including producer definitions, obligation assignments and exemptions. Public comments close October 30, 2026, with adoption expected in early 2027.²⁶
• Program plan. The program plan is the DEQ-approved document that sets out how CAA runs the program. CAA has proposed an amendment to its current plan, with comments due October 19, 2026, and is consulting on its plan for 2028 onward.^27,28
• 2027 fees. CAA published the 2027 fee schedule on October 1, 2026. Of the 60 categories in both years' schedules, 58 are lower, 28 of them by half or more, mainly because CAA is returning about $80 million of program reserves. Small-format plastic rose, from 28¢ to 78¢ (2026 schedule, page 2; 2027 schedule, page 3). Producers that supply 10 metric tons or less into Oregon can pay a flat fee of $700 to $3,100 instead of per-category fees (2027 schedule, page 4).^11,12 The 2027 rates are in the table above.

What to do now

1. Confirm whether you're the producer for each product sold into Oregon, including online sales.
2. Check the small-producer tests using global revenue and Oregon tonnage.
3. If you're obligated and not registered, register with CAA now and ask how CAA will handle reports and fees for the periods you missed.
4. Check your status. Search CAA's registry of compliant members and DEQ's latest producer status list.²⁹
5. Check the material category assigned to each package before the next report. Misclassified packaging is one of the easiest ways to overpay.

Related guides

Sources

1. Oregon DEQ, Producers of covered products. oregon.gov/deq
2. Oregon Revised Statutes ch. 459A (Plastic Pollution and Recycling Modernization Act, SB 582, 2021). oregonlegislature.gov
3. ORS 459A.863 (definitions, covered products, exclusions, small producer). oregon.public.law
4. ORS 459A.866 (producer). oregon.public.law
5. OAR 340-090-0860 (producer identification; small producers). oregon.public.law
6. Oregon DEQ, Recycling Modernization Act exemptions. oregon.gov/deq
7. OAR 340-090-0840 (covered product exemptions). oregon.public.law
8. Circular Action Alliance, Producer resource center. circularactionalliance.org
9. Personal Care Products Council, Oregon EPR summary (May 2026). PDF
10. Oregon DEQ, Life cycle impact evaluation. oregon.gov/deq
11. Circular Action Alliance, Oregon 2026 fee schedule (published Oct. 29, 2025). circularactionalliance.org
12. Circular Action Alliance, Oregon 2027 Fee Schedule (Oct. 1, 2026). circularactionalliance.org
13. Circular Action Alliance, Oregon eco-modulation and Bonus A overview (June 2025). PDF
14. ORS 459A.869 (PRO membership, registry, non-compliance notices). oregon.public.law
15. Recycling Modernization Act Producer Status List, as of April 9, 2026. PDF
16. Resource Recycling, “Oregon DEQ flags 250 producers for RMA noncompliance,” April 21, 2026. resource-recycling.com
17. EPR Atlas, Oregon (2027 fee schedule summary; DEQ producer status lists of April 9 and September 4, 2026). epratlas.com
18. ORS 459.995 (civil penalties). oregon.public.law
19. ORS 459A.962 (DEQ enforcement). oregon.public.law
20. Oregon DEQ, “Oregon recycling law upheld as constitutional,” Aug. 28, 2026. oregon.gov
21. Holland & Knight, “Federal court upholds Oregon's EPR law in full,” August 2026. hklaw.com
22. MDM, “Oregon EPR fight moves to appeals court,” September 2026. mdm.com
23. Nelson Mullins, “Ninth Circuit to review constitutional challenge to Oregon's EPR law”. nelsonmullins.com
24. Arnold & Porter, “A reprieve from packaging EPR enforcement in Oregon,” July 2026. arnoldporter.com
25. Packaging Dive, “Lollicup's Oregon class action stayed pending NAW appeal,” Oct. 13, 2026. packagingdive.com
26. Oregon DEQ, Recycling Modernization Act updates 2026 rulemaking. oregon.gov/deq
27. Oregon DEQ, Modernizing Oregon's recycling system (program plan and amendments). oregon.gov/deq
28. Circular Action Alliance, Oregon consultation series for the 2028 program plan (July 2026). circularactionalliance.org
29. Circular Action Alliance, Oregon searchable registry of producer members, Q3 2026. PDF

What changed

• October 19, 2026 Litigation: Lollicup's class action is stayed until the Ninth Circuit decides NAW's appeal, and DEQ's agreed enforcement pause appears to have expired on August 31, 2026.
• October 11, 2026 Corrected how we describe the 2027 rate changes: 58 of the 60 categories in both schedules fell, transport corrugated stayed at 0¢, and small-format plastic rose from 28¢ to 78¢. Also corrected why aluminum containers are a credit: their base rate is already negative.
• October 10, 2026 Added CAA's 2027 fee rates to the rate table and updated the fee notes.
• October 9, 2026 Second review: Oregon producer status list counts and the September 4 list, Bonus A caps, and source links.
• October 5, 2026 Corrected and updated after a source-by-source review, including the 2027 fee schedules published October 1, 2026.
• October 2, 2026 First published.

General information, not legal advice. This guide summarizes laws, rules and program documents as we read them on the review date above. These programs change often, and how a law applies depends on your products, contracts and facts. For a formal opinion, consult counsel. Producer Desk is not a law firm.