Updated May 22: Minnesota became the fifth state to enact an extended producer responsibility program requiring companies to pay for recycling of packaging waste, when Gov. Tim Walz signed the legislation May 21.
The EPR plan was part of budget measures passed as the state legislature wrapped up its session May 19.
The plan, which is supported by some packaging and consumer product groups and local recyclers but opposed by the paper industry, shifts much of the cost of residential recycling from taxpayers to companies putting packaging on the market.
Specifically, the law requires companies to start paying 50 percent of the cost of residential recycling in 2029, rising to 75 percent in 2030 and 90 percent in 2031.
The EPR scheme will also set targets in areas like recycled content and could restrict "problematic" packaging, as well as mandate packaging redesign for recyclability and compostability.
In a May 20 statement, Ameripen suggested the Minnesota law is a "unique" framework that builds on the state's strong recycling and composting infrastructure, but is more limited to "core" recycling functions than EPR plans adopted by some other states.
It said the law requires companies to set up a producer responsibility organization, or PRO, to manage payments, with reimbursement limited to "only core recycling functions for residents and limited other entities."
"Minnesota's packaging producer responsibility legislation is a fair compromise that establishes a model of shared responsibility and is aligned with Ameripen's key principles," said Dan Felton, executive director of the group, which represents makers and users of all types of packaging materials, not just plastics.
"This legislation supports a system that is reliable, efficient and effective, and enables a strong producer responsibility organization to ensure that producer fees will directly fund initiatives to increase recycling and composting even further in the state," Felton said.
Ameripen said the Minnesota PRO would be more limited than what some states are doing.
"The PRO, under this framework, can remain focused on core activities without the burdens imposed by EPR laws in other states, such as artificial timelines for arbitrary recycling targets; mandates to fund recycling for massive commercial operations that can manage their own recycling costs or landfilling; and unrelated mandates around packaging composition," Ameripen said.
Four other states — California, Colorado, Maine and Oregon — passed EPR laws for packaging in 2021 and 2022. Maryland passed a more limited EPR law in 2023.
California's EPR law includes specific targets for reducing single-use plastics and, in 2027, is set to begin collecting $500 million a year from brand owner companies and plastic resin makers to pay for cleaning up legacy plastic pollution in the environment.
Each of those four states are currently writing rules for implementing their EPR laws.
The Minnesota EPR program emerged from a conference committee of House and Senate lawmakers May 16.
A news service operated by the legislature said that the bill, the "Packaging Waste and Cost Reduction Act," would shift the cost of waste disposal from consumers to producers.