What is on a CAA invoice, and how is the amount worked out?

When the invoices arrive

CAA's 2027 Oregon schedule states that producers receive two invoices for their annual fees, 50 percent in January and 50 percent in July, with each invoice showing fees by material category. Colorado follows the same pattern under its 2027 dues schedule, and so does California.

California carries one addition. Alongside the January fee invoice, producers receive a separate invoice for the Plastic Pollution Mitigation Fund, which the program remits to the state at $500 million a year from 2027 through 2037. California's 2027 rates remain preliminary and are nonbinding until CalRecycle approves the program plan.

How the amount is built

Fees are set per pound, by reporting category, and CAA states that they reflect producer reported supply data, projected program costs and applicable regulatory requirements.

In Oregon's 2027 schedule each category carries four figures: a base fee rate, two reserve drawdowns, and a final fee rate, all in dollars per pound. The final rate is what the invoice applies. That structure is why an invoice is reconcilable. The pounds come from the producer's own report, the rate comes from a published schedule, and the two multiply.

Where an invoice and a brand's own expectation do not meet, the packaging record is usually the thing that is wrong rather than the invoice. A component assigned to the wrong reporting category, or a weight estimated rather than measured, moves a line without anything looking out of place.

Colorado builds its dues differently

Oregon's schedule reduces a base rate through reserve drawdowns. Colorado's does not. Each category in CAA's 2027 Colorado dues schedule carries base dues, two penalty adjustments, one for materials that disrupt recycling and one for materials that are not on the state's minimum recyclable list, a bonus for materials with high recycling rates, and then final dues.

The practical consequence is that the same component can be charged on a different basis in each state. In Oregon the question is what the reserve drawdown leaves. In Colorado it is whether the material is penalized or rewarded for what it is. A brand supplying both states is reconciling two schedules built on different logic, against one packaging record.

Why some rates fall to zero or below

CAA states that for 2027 it is returning approximately $80 million in program reserves to Oregon producers through reduced fee rates, along with $3 million in previously collected SIM fees, shown as reserve drawdowns in the schedule.

Those drawdowns are large enough that a handful of categories end the year at zero or below, and they get there by two different routes. Clear or natural HDPE bottles, jugs and jars start at $0.11 a pound and finish at minus $0.04, because the drawdown exceeds the base rate. Aluminum containers start at minus $0.03 before any drawdown is applied and finish at minus $0.09. Glass bottles and jars land at exactly zero. A rate at or below zero is not an error in the schedule, and a brand whose packaging sits mostly in those categories will see it reflected in what it is billed.

Where the money goes

CAA's 2027 Oregon schedule states that 88 cents of every dollar in producer fees goes directly to collection, processing, and education and outreach. Within that, processing takes 40 cents, collection 37 cents and education and outreach 11 cents. Regulatory costs take 5 cents and administrative and all other costs take 7 cents.

The flat fee option for low volume producers

CAA Oregon offers an optional flat rate for low volume producers, which it describes as reducing administrative and reporting costs. It is graduated on tons supplied into the state and does not vary by material category.

Producers supplying 10 metric tons or less of covered materials into Oregon are eligible. The published 2027 tiers are $700 for 1 to 2.5 metric tons, $1,300 for 2.5 to 5, $2,200 for 5 to 7.5, and $3,100 for 7.5 to 10. CAA notes that the lowest two tiers are also available to producers with over $10 million in gross revenues, and that flat fees adjust with the annual budget.

CAA Colorado offers a flat rate on the same principle, with its own published 2027 tiers: $900 for 1 to 2.5 tons, $1,800 for 2.5 to 5, $2,900 for 5 to 7.5 and $4,100 for 7.5 to 10.

One difference between the two matters more than the figures. Colorado measures these bands in short tons and Oregon measures them in metric tons, so the same tonnage does not sit in the same band in both states. Colorado's schedule also carries no note about producers over $10 million in gross revenues and no line about flat fees adjusting with the annual budget, both of which Oregon's does.

This matters for brands with a narrow footprint in one state. A company selling a small volume into Oregon may owe a flat figure in the low thousands rather than a rate calculation across every component, but the tonnage still has to be established before anyone can tell which applies.

What we do with an invoice

We reconcile each line against the packaging record we built: the components, their material classes, their assigned reporting categories and their weights. Where a line does not tie out, the answer is in the record rather than in the invoice, and the record is what gets corrected before the next cycle.