Services
From "are we covered?" to a filed report and a fee you can plan around.
Packaging EPR (extended producer responsibility) laws require the company responsible for a product to report its packaging — every component, by material and weight — and pay fees on it, state by state. We run that whole process for you.
- 01
Determine
We work out which states you're obligated in and why.
- Who counts as the "producer" for each product
- Thresholds and exemptions by state
- Registration and reporting deadlines
- 02
Collect
We gather the packaging data your suppliers hold.
- Requests sent from an email address on your company's domain, which suppliers answer far more readily than requests from an outside firm
- Every component: material and weight
- Gaps flagged and followed up
- 03
File
We register and report in every state where you're obligated.
- Registration with each program
- Annual material reporting
- A calendar of every deadline
- 04
Forecast
We tell your finance team what it will cost — and how to lower it.
- Fees by state and material
- Accrual-ready numbers
- Packaging changes that reduce fees
Your effort
What you do, and what we do.
Most of the work in EPR compliance is chasing suppliers for data. That's the part we take off your plate.
You
- Send us your SKU list
- Send us your supplier contacts
- Review and approve before we file
Producer Desk
- Obligation analysis across every state
- Supplier data requests and follow-up
- Mapping components to each state's material categories
- Registration and reporting
- Fee forecasts and ways to lower them
- Monitoring rule changes
Two ways to start
Start with a Forecast, or with what you've already overpaid.
If you haven't filed yet, or need a number for next year's budget, start with the Fee Forecast. If you filed in Oregon or Colorado in the last 24 months, start with the Overpayment Review.
Haven't filed yet, or need a budget number
Fee Forecast
- Obligation determination within 48 hours of receiving your SKU list: which states you're obligated in, under which rule, with the reasoning written out so your counsel can review it
- SKU-level packaging map: what data you have, what's missing, and which supplier holds it
- Fee forecast by state and by material for the next reporting year, compared with your last invoice if you've filed
- Savings, sized: reporting corrections that need no packaging change, and packaging changes shown as optional
- Penalty exposure and a filing calendar with every deadline
- A recorded walkthrough and a next-steps page with your price, plus a 20-minute call if you'd like one
Credited in full against your first year of the EPR Office if you sign within 90 days. Expecting under $40,000 a year in fees? You can skip the Forecast; see below.
Filed in Oregon or Colorado in the last 24 months
Overpayment Review
- Free pre-screen in five business days. Send your filed reports, invoices and SKU list; we tell you the likely credit before any work starts
- We find the over-reporting: miscoded components, catalog weights and estimates replaced with measured data, math errors
- We file the Adjustment with CAA, fully documented, after you approve it, and answer CAA's questions
- Honest both ways: any under-reporting we find goes in too, and our fee is on the net credit
CAA allows one Adjustment to each filed report, requested within 24 months, and applies an approved credit to your next invoice. We invoice our 25% when the credit appears. Changes to allocation method alone don't qualify. We take three Reviews a quarter.
The EPR Office
Your whole obligation, for one fixed fee.
Set from your fees before we change anything, and locked for two years. If we lower your fees, your price doesn't move. Every dollar we save you is yours.
How the fee is set
- One fixed annual fee, set by the size of your annual EPR fees, and quoted in writing with your Forecast or Overpayment Review
- Set from your projected annual fees before any savings, reserve returns or credits
- Locked for two years, then reset every two years to your fees at that time
- Billed 50% at signing and 50% at month six; your Forecast fee comes off year one
- One-year minimum, then cancel with 60 days' notice; your data goes with you
We take twelve Office clients for 2027.
What's included
- Supplier data chase. We request and verify spec sheets from every supplier until every SKU has real weights
- Category coding for every component in every state, with each call documented
- Filings in your name: registration and every report, in every obligated state
- Invoice check: every CAA invoice reconciled before you pay it
- Annual savings review: coding, weights, exemptions and elections re-checked against each year's rates
- Re-forecast within ten business days of any state publishing new rates
- New SKUs and new states mapped as they launch, with no change in fee until renewal
- Client portal and a named lead, with a weekly email check-in
- Fee Watch for your states, with the dollar impact on your packaging
- A year-end audit file you own: every filing, invoice and calculation
Paying under $40,000 a year in fees? Ask about our Filing Desk: we file your reports and check your invoices, and no Forecast is needed. Email us.
Sending this to your controller or CFO? What finance gets. Importing a brand owned outside the US? You may be the producer.
Registration Rescue
Behind on registration, or holding a letter?
If you're on Oregon's producer status list, missed a registration deadline, or have a letter from a state agency or CAA, we register you within five business days of receiving two lists, or the Rescue is free. $4,500 for up to two states.
Questions
Frequently asked.
We already pay our PRO. Why would we need you?
In most states with packaging EPR laws, producers register, report and pay through a producer responsibility organization (PRO) such as Circular Action Alliance. The PRO takes your report and your payment. It won't chase your suppliers for packaging data, reconcile your obligations across states, or model the packaging changes that would lower your fee. That's the work we do.
What if we turn out not to be obligated?
That's what the free obligation check is for. If you're not covered, we'll tell you in writing, and there's nothing to buy.
What are the guarantees?
Three, each written into your agreement with us. The Fee Forecast: if it isn't worth $3,500 to you, tell us within 14 days and we refund it. The EPR Office: if we miss a deadline that was ours to meet, that year's fee is refunded; and if an invoice overcharge we approved is found later, we refund it from our fee. Our guarantees refund our fees. They don't cover penalties or promise a level of savings.
Why a fixed fee instead of a share of the savings?
Because a compliance firm should be paid the same whether your reported fees go up or down. A fee tied to lower reported fees is a fee tied to reporting less, and that's not a position we want either of us in. The one exception is the Overpayment Review: it corrects reports filed before we worked with you, and CAA itself reviews and approves every credit.
How does the Overpayment Review get paid?
After CAA approves the Adjustment and the credit appears on your CAA invoice, we invoice 25% of the net credit. If CAA approves nothing, you owe nothing. If CAA requires an independent review of the Adjustment, its cost comes off the credit before our share is calculated.
Is this legal advice?
No. We provide regulatory analysis and compliance operations. For a formal legal opinion, work with your counsel — we're happy to coordinate with them.
Which states do you cover?
Oregon, Colorado, California, Maine, Minnesota, Maryland and Washington, plus new states as their programs begin.
Do you work with importers?
Yes. When a brand owner isn't based in the US, the obligation can fall on the importer or first distributor. See For importers.
Find out where you stand.
A free, written obligation check — which states, which rule, what deadline.