What does Maryland's packaging EPR law require from a producer?

The de minimis test has two routes

Maryland's guidance treats a de minimis producer as one that, in its most recent fiscal year, either introduced less than one ton of covered material into the state or earned global gross revenues of less than $2 million.

The word that does the work is either. A company can be well over the revenue figure and still fall out on tonnage, or be a small company shipping a large volume and fall out on revenue. Both are routes out, and they are tested independently.

A de minimis producer is excluded from the definition of producer altogether, which means it is outside the registration requirement rather than registered and exempt from fees. That distinction matters, because the two are not the same filing position.

Falling under a threshold is not the same as being able to show it. Maryland's compliance guide says a producer claiming an exemption must be able to provide evidence and demonstrate that it is exempt, so the tonnage or revenue position has to be established and documented rather than assumed.

One registration, by one of two routes

Maryland's regulations let a producer register with the Department or with its producer responsibility organization, and the route decides who actually files.

A producer that joins the organization supplies it with the brands and the material weights, and the organization files a single registration with the Department listing its members. A producer that does not join registers with the Department directly.

So the question is not whether to file twice. It is which route a brand is on, and whether the organization holds its brand and weight data in time for the filing it makes on that brand's behalf. A producer that joined and never supplied the data sits inside a registration that does not describe it, which looks like compliance from the outside and is not.

What the registration asks for

The registration is not a form of contact details. It asks for a list of brands and covered materials, by category and weight, distributed in the prior calendar year, the name and contact details of the person responsible for compliance, and the annual registration fee, submitted electronically on a Department approved form by June 30. That applies to the organization's filing on behalf of its members and to a producer registering outside it.

The phrase by category and weight is the one to notice. Neither route can be completed without a packaging record that carries weights, which is the same record every other state eventually requires.

Dates to know

May 13, 2025. The law was signed.

May 25, 2026. COMAR 26.04.14, the final implementing regulations, took effect.

May 31, 2026. The organization's own date for members to register with it, so that it could file its list with the Department.

July 1, 2026. The registration with the Department was due, listing participating producers, brands and covered materials.

June 30, each year after. Annual registration, with the brand and material list for the prior calendar year.

July 1, 2028. Producer responsibility plans are due, including individual producer plans for producers not joining the organization.

October 29, 2028. Producers without an approved plan for a covered material may not sell or distribute it in the state, or by a later date identified by the Department.

New entrants, records and notifications

A producer entering the Maryland market before July 1, 2028 registers before distributing product in the state. On or after that date, a new entrant needs organization membership or an approved individual plan before distributing at all.

Records are kept for a minimum of five years and produced within 15 business days of a request from the Department, or within the timeline the Department specifies, whichever is later. A producer holding an individual plan notifies the Department within thirty days of a termination, acquisition or merger.

What we do

We establish which of the two de minimis routes applies, if either, then build the packaging record by brand, category and weight that the annual registration requires, and file and maintain it each year.