Maine Enacts Law to Modify Packaging EPR Requirements
Maine recently enacted a law that modifies the state’s stewardship program for packaging. “An Act to Improve the Stewardship Program for Packaging” (LD 1423) was signed into law by Governor Janet Mills on June 22, 2025.
Maine passed the first-in-the-nation packaging extended producer responsibility (EPR) law in 2021. Several years later, in February 2024, the state’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) proposed rules for implementing the law, however, substantial revisions to those rules were announced in July 2024. The final rules were adopted in December 2024. (PL.com articles on the implementing rules for Maine’s Stewardship Program for Packaging can be found here and here and an anticipated schedule for implementation can be found on DEP’s website.)
Modifications to Maine's Stewardship Program for Packaging brought about by LD 1423 include changes to some of the definitions and requirements. Among these are:
- A revised definition of "consumer" that:
- includes, in addition to a single-family or multifamily residence, any school, municipal or state government facility, public space or commercial business that uses or partners with a municipal or state waste management service; and
- exempts manufacturers that use packaging solely for transport of products to non-consumers or as part of the manufacturing process for the products
- An expanded definition of “post-consumer recycled material” that no longer excludes post-industrial or pre-consumer material;
- A more detailed definition of a “producer” that, depending on several factors, may be the manufacturer, brand owner, importer, or distributor; and
- A clarified definition of “toxicity” that makes clear that the regulated substances in packaging are those that are “intentionally-added” and not substances that are merely present in the packaging.
Advocates of the bill hailed that these revisions more closely align Maine’s EPR law with recently adopted packaging EPR laws of other states, although the changes were not without some opposition, as environmental advocates like the Natural Resources Council of Maine claimed that LD 1423 “weaken[s] a strong law before it even has a chance to deliver the benefits it was designed to provide.”