A month after passage, Maine businesses are still unpacking new packaging law

Courtesy / Allagash Brewing Co. Allagash Brewing, whose canning line in Portland is seen here, was an early proponent of Maine's new Extended Producer Responsibility Law.

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By Catie Joyce-Bulay

While Maine’s new Extended Producer Responsibility Law is a first in the nation, it’s not a new idea.

The packaging regulation follows others in 40 jurisdictions around the world and builds on Maine’s existing EPR laws for handling difficult-to-dispose waste.

Sponsored by state Rep. Nicole Grohoski, D-Ellsworth, "An Act to Support and Improve Municipal Recycling Programs and Save Taxpayers Money" became law and took effect July 12. But businesses probably won’t see its implementation until 2024.

The law establishes a producer-funded stewardship program operated by a contracted stewardship organization. Producers of products using packaging materials, like Amazon boxes, plastic packing pillows, bread bags or take-out containers, pay into a fund based on the amount by weight of packaging material.

The funds will reimburse municipalities for their recycling and waste management costs, cover operational costs of the stewardship program and go to education and infrastructure aimed at reducing packaging waste and improving recycling outcomes in the state.

“The fees are paid annually by the ton, and not per container so it’s not as tedious as it may seem,” Sarah Nichols, of the Natural Resources Council of Maine, told Mainebiz.

She cited British Columbia’s similar EPR law as an example of how Maine’s could work.

“It’s clear that the largest companies [in British Columbia] pay the most in fees, and the rest don’t pay much at all or only a low flat-fee,” she said. “Out of 3,000 businesses that pay there, 80% of the costs are covered by the top 150 companies.

"It’s unlikely that any [Maine] company would pay even anywhere near 1% of their gross revenue, and likely a small fraction thereof.”

Small producers, nonprofits and small farmers are exempt. Businesses that produce less than one ton of waste a year or report less than $5 million in gross revenue would be exempt. Producers can offset their payments by implementing their own recycling programs.

The new law, which expands upon eight other EPR laws covering electronic waste, mercury-containing products and unused paint, won’t fully take effect until 2024 at the earliest, said Nichols.

The Maine Department of Environmental Protection has until December 2023 to finish rulemaking and then an organization, which the DEP will oversee, will be selected through RFP to run the program. Specific fee amounts will be set each year based on costs of municipal recycling programs, taking into account changes in the recycling market.

Mixed reactions

Many businesses are already thinking ahead about the impact of the law, but it's not entirely clear to what it may be.

Portland-based Allagash Brewing Co., which recycles or side-streams 99.8% of its waste, was an early supporter of the bill.

“As the founder of Allagash, when I first heard about the Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging Law (LD 1541), I was hesitant to support it,” owner Rob Tod wrote in testimony supporting the bill.

“But the reality was that, at the end of the day, despite our efforts, we’d still be creating about 25 tons of packaging each year for Maine’s consumers to properly recycle — if that was even an option in their areas ... The EPR for Packaging Law is one effective way to address the urgent issue of waste … by shifting the onus onto the companies that create it.”

The brewery launched a recycling co-op in March of this year, inviting other breweries such as Maine Beer Co., to participate in bundling their hard-to-recycle items, like plastic can carriers.

Tod told Mainebiz that there isn’t much the brewery can do yet to prepare for the implementation of the law until its details are hammered out.

“As always, we're looking at every decision we make with an eye toward becoming a more sustainable brewery, so we certainly won't be waiting on specifics of the EPR law if we see a solid opportunity to lessen our impact on the planet,” Tod said.

The complexity and potential costs of the new requirements have also provoked concern.

Opponents to the original bill included the Maine Grocers and Food Producers Association, Hospitality Maine, Maine State Chamber of Commerce and the Manufacturers Association of Maine.

“MAME and our members are good stewards of the environment and are proud of our environmental records,” said Jessica Laliberte, MAME’s policy relations manager. “We strongly advocate for policies which promote sustainability while maintaining the natural beauty of our state.

"This law is complex and the broad definition of producer, when read in conjunction with [the section on] setting forth Producer exemptions makes it difficult for us to fully gauge which Maine manufacturers will be impacted and to what effect, at this time.”