What are the penalties for packaging EPR non compliance in each state?

The monetary ceilings, and how far apart they are

The ceilings differ by a factor of a hundred between the lowest and the highest, and most states escalate for repeat violations rather than setting a single figure.

Minnesota sets the highest ceiling, at up to $25,000 a day, rising to $50,000 a day for a second violation within five years after stewardship plan approval and $100,000 a day for a third or later. Those escalated tiers turn on plan approval, and Minnesota's plan is not due until October 2028, so only the first tier can apply today.

California allows an administrative civil penalty of up to $50,000 per day per violation, reduced to $25,000 per day for an entity meeting the small producer criteria. For a first offense that is not egregious the department is directed to consider a maximum of $25,000 a day, which makes California the highest ceiling a producer is likely to meet on a first violation.

Oregon describes failure to register or join a producer responsibility organization as a Class 1 violation that can result in fines of up to $25,000 a day.

Colorado runs three tiers, each a maximum: $5,000 for the first day plus $1,500 for each day the violation continues, then $10,000 plus $3,000 a day for a second violation, then $20,000 plus $6,000 a day for a third or later within twelve months of two previous ones.

Maryland sets $5,000 for a first violation, $10,000 for a second and $20,000 for a third or later, with each day after the correction period counting as a separate violation.

Washington is the lowest, at up to $1,000 per violation per day, rising to $10,000 for a second or later violation.

Those are ceilings set in law rather than schedules of what gets assessed. California's statute sets out a list of factors the department must weigh at a minimum before arriving at a figure, among them the gravity of the violation, whether it was corrected in a timely way, whether it was intentional and whether it was voluntarily reported.

Most states require notice and a period to correct

A ceiling is not a bill, and in most of these states nothing accrues until a producer has been told and given time.

California's penalties do not begin accruing until 30 calendar days after a notice of violation. Washington and Maryland each require written notice and 60 days to correct before a penalty attaches. Oregon runs a 90 day notice from the producer responsibility organization and then a 30 day correction window from the agency before a producer is even named publicly.

The pattern is consistent enough to be worth stating plainly. These programs are built to bring producers in, and the ceilings exist for those who will not come.

The consequence that is not a fine

A daily maximum is the number that gets quoted. The restriction on selling is the one that would actually stop a business, and it does not depend on an agency choosing to pursue a penalty.

Colorado's is already in effect. From July 1, 2025, a producer may not sell or distribute products using covered materials in the state unless it is participating in the program.

California's begins on January 1, 2027, or upon approval of the program plan if that comes sooner. From then, a producer may not sell covered materials in the state unless it takes part in an approved producer responsibility organization plan or has been approved as an independent producer.

Maryland's arrives on October 29, 2028, or a later date the Department identifies, when a producer without an approved plan for a covered material may not sell or distribute that material in the state.

Washington's arrives after March 2029, when producers that are not members of the producer responsibility organization may not sell their products in the state.

So in four states the eventual question is not what a brand owes. It is whether it can continue selling there, and in one it has already arrived while in another it arrives in January 2027.

Being named is its own penalty

Oregon publishes a quarterly list naming producers that were flagged, given 90 days to respond, sent a warning letter with a 30 day correction window, and still had not corrected.

California's statute works the other way round on the same idea: where a producer completes an approved corrective action plan, no penalty is assessed for the material the plan covers and the producer is not listed as noncompliant for it. Avoiding the listing is written into the statute as something a producer can achieve.

Two states treating publication as a lever, one by doing it and one by offering relief from it, suggests both regard it as carrying weight beyond the money.

The sequence that leads to a listing, and the routes back, are set out in missed an EPR deadline.

What a penalty is assessed on

Penalties attach to violations, and the violations are failures to do specific things: to register, to report, to pay, or to participate. They are not assessed on the size of a brand's packaging footprint.

That matters for a small producer, because the fee owed may be modest while the penalty ceiling is not scaled to it. The exception is California, which reduces its daily maximum for entities meeting the small producer criteria. Those criteria differ by state and are covered in the small producer exemption.

What we do

We establish which obligations are open in each state a brand supplies and in what order they fall due, so that the question of penalties does not arise. Where a deadline has already passed, we take the route back that the state publishes.