Packaging EPR in 2027: California's Plan Decision, Oregon's Assignment Rule and Who Reports the Polybag Added at Prep

By Bernardo Campelo, Forbes Business Council E-Commerce Leader, Amazon SPN Certified provider, Amazon SP-API authorized partner, and Founder of PrepVia.

As of October 29, 2026, California's packaging law is waiting on one decision above all: what CalRecycle does with the PRO's plan. CalRecycle says it received Circular Action Alliance's producer responsibility plan on October 13, 2026, and the SB 54 regulations give the agency 75 calendar days to act, which runs to late December 2026. Circular Action Alliance (CAA) is the first producer responsibility organization, or PRO, approved in California.

Oregon started earlier: its PRO, also CAA, has been allowed to charge producer fees since July 1, 2025.

Both laws reach the packaging a prep center adds to a unit: the poly bag, label, carton and tape. This guide summarizes public rules and is not legal advice: confirm your own position with your attorney.

Every date, rule and name below was checked on October 29, 2026 against the sources linked where they first appear. Several dates fall between December 2026 and February 2027; check the agency page before you act.

The Calendar: What Is Due Between Now and July 2027

SB 54, California's Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act, was signed on June 30, 2022, and its permanent regulations took effect on May 1, 2026. In the approved regulation text, CalRecycle must act on the plan "within 75 calendar days of receipt of the plan from the PRO" (14 CCR 18980.6.1(b)(2)).

Until then, CalRecycle is taking public comments through November 13, 2026, and the SB 54 Advisory Board meets on November 6, 2026. A plan approved with conditions "shall be considered approved" while the conditions are pending, and an approved plan is valid for five years (14 CCR 18980.6.2).

Oregon's life cycle duty belongs to its 25 largest producers by weight, a list that includes Amazon.com Services, LLC; each must evaluate the life cycle impacts of at least 1% of its covered products every two years, according to DEQ's life cycle evaluation page.

Who Is Inside: The Small-Producer Line in Each State

The first filter is size, and the two states draw the line in different places. California's statute exempts producers that, "in the most recent calendar year, had gross sales of less than one million dollars ($1,000,000) in the state" (PRC 42060), but the exemption is not automatic: under 14 CCR 18980.5.2, the company registers, applies with records of its California sales, and renews every two years. CalRecycle's exemptions page warns that small producers "need to plan for long-term compliance to ensure all packaging they sell is recyclable or compostable by 2032."

For most sellers, Oregon's line is revenue or weight. ORS 459A.863(32) gives seven ways to qualify as a small producer, and the two that matter here are "a gross revenue of less than $5 million for the organization's most recent fiscal year," or having "sold in or into Oregon less than one metric ton of covered products for use in this state in the most recent calendar year." DEQ's producer summary reads the revenue test as global revenue, Oregon's producer definitions rule adds related companies together for both tests, and DEQ says small producers "need not register with a PRO, report supply data, or pay fees to the PRO" (DEQ exemptions page).

Above the line, Oregon spells out the cost of staying out: failing to register or join a PRO "is a Class 1 violation that can result in fines of up to $25,000 per day" (DEQ producers page). A company above either state's line is already inside. California gave existing producers 30 days from May 1, 2026 to register and apply to join CAA or comply on their own, and a company that becomes a producer later in 2026 has 30 days from that point (14 CCR 18980.5). Oregon's DEQ says producers that have not yet reported supply data or paid fees to CAA "are likely out of compliance."

Packaging Added at Prep Is Packaging in Both States

California defines packaging as "any separable and distinct material component used for the containment, protection, handling, delivery, or presentation of goods," transport packaging included (PRC 42041), and CalRecycle's guide to covered materials lists "cardboard boxes, shrink wrap, plastic tape used on packaging, air pillows." A poly bag around a unit sold into California is covered packaging and a "plastic component," which the statute defines as "any single piece of covered material made partially or entirely of plastic."

Money follows that count. From 2027, the PRO owes the state a $500 million environmental mitigation surcharge each year and passes it to producers of plastic packaging "based on each producer's market share of plastic covered material, accounting for both number of plastic components and weight" (PRC 42064). The de minimis exclusion does not reach a bag: a de minimis component cannot be an "independent plastic component," while a label or tape "adhered to the surface" of another component is not one (14 CCR 18980.2.2). Read plainly, the bag stays in the count, and a printed label is excluded only if it meets all of the criteria CalRecycle publishes with its de minimis list.

Material matters too. In CalRecycle's covered material categories list released December 31, 2025, the two LDPE (#4) film categories, clear non-bag film and other flexible and film items, are not marked recyclable or compostable, with a joint estimated recycling rate of 5%; an LDPE poly bag falls in the second. Corrugated cardboard without a plastic component is marked recyclable and compostable, at 68%. Covered material has to be recyclable or eligible to be labeled compostable by 2032, and the next list is due by January 1, 2027.

CAA's plan proposes 2027 rates for LDPE (#4) other flexible and film items of $0.24 per pound in base fees, plus $0.03 per pound of plastic for reuse investment, and $0.26 per pound of plastic and $0.001 per plastic component toward the surcharge. The plan says its rates "will not become operative unless and until the program plan is approved by CalRecycle."

California also counts what is taken away. By January 1, 2027, the PRO must source reduce at least 10% of its producers' plastic covered material against a 2023 baseline, and "eliminating a plastic component" counts toward it (PRC 42057). Where Amazon's prep rules require a bag, it stays; where a bag is only habit, leaving it off takes a plastic component out of the report.

Oregon is just as broad. Packaging includes "single-use bags" and "nondurable materials used in storage, shipping or moving" (ORS 459A.863(18)), and DEQ's covered products rule lists "boxes, envelopes, labels, bubble wrap, packing peanuts, packing paper and packing tape." Items "not ultimately discarded inside this state" are not covered. DEQ's pending rules would exempt "labels that, if not removed, interfere with use of the product," such as hang tags and produce stickers, and they do not name barcode or shipping labels.

California: The Regulation Already Says Whose Bag It Is

California's statute names the producer in tiers: the in-state manufacturer that owns or licenses the brand; then the brand owner, or its exclusive licensee if the owner is not in the state; and if none of them is in California, "the person who sells, offers for sale, or distributes the product that uses the covered material in or into the state" (PRC 42041(w)). The regulation gives "in the state" its own test, built around whether the company can be served with a summons in California, or consents to California jurisdiction and registers as a producer (14 CCR 18980.1.1(a)).

The regulation then answers the prep question without using the word. The brand-based rule covers packaging added by the brand owner "or someone acting on behalf of the owner or licensee" (14 CCR 18980.1.1(c)(4)), and a brand owner in California is the producer "of all covered material items used by the good" when it is sold or distributed by the owner or someone acting on its behalf. A company that later sells the good "using additional covered material packaging" is "the producer of the additional covered material items," and if the brand owner is not in California, the first seller or distributor in the state answers for all of the packaging, "including any covered material items added by such person" (14 CCR 18980.1.1(f)).

The last two rows come from definitions: empty packaging "not yet used by a good" is not covered material, and "the mere transportation of products (e.g., parcel or freight shipping) on behalf of another person shall be deemed conducted by that person, not the transporter" (14 CCR 18980.1). The regulation never names prep centers or 3PLs, so the table is a plain reading of its text, and it sets no procedure for handing producer status to a service provider by contract.

Data reports are due on July 1 each year for the previous calendar year: for each material category, the total weight sold into the state and "the total number of plastic components sold, distributed, or imported in or into the state" (14 CCR 18980.10.1 and 18980.10.2). Producers inside CAA give their supply data to CAA, by May 31 under CAA's submitted plan, and CAA registers them with CalRecycle unless they choose to report on their own.

Oregon: Two Kinds of Packaging, and a Rule for Handing Off the Obligation

Oregon's statute splits the packaging in an online sale in two. "The producer of packaging used to directly protect or contain the item" is the same as in a store sale: the manufacturer when the item carries its own brand or none, the brand's licensee, or the importer into the United States if neither is in the country. "The producer of packaging used to ship the item to a consumer is the person that packages and ships the item to the consumer" (ORS 459A.866(1)(b)), and DEQ's producer summary uses Amazon as its example of that shipping-packaging producer. The same summary sets the principle: "Every non-exempt covered product must have one designated producer, unless that producer is exempted."

A bag added at prep for an Amazon FBA unit fits neither sentence cleanly. It contains the item, which points toward the brand, but it was added after manufacturing, by or for a company further down the chain. In a May 2026 rulemaking paper about goods sold in stores, DEQ wrote that intermediaries adding packaging take on producer obligations for it, and its proposed rule makes a non-manufacturer that adds packaging "the producer responsible for the added packaging." It is written for physical retail, not online sales.

Oregon does allow a hand-off. A producer "is not required to pay membership fees" for a covered product "if another person has registered with a producer responsibility organization as the producer responsible for that covered product" (ORS 459A.869(3)), and needs no PRO membership when that is true of everything it sells into Oregon (ORS 459A.869(4)). DEQ says this "allows producers to enter into voluntary agreements with other companies and reassign compliance obligations for some or all of their products."

DEQ's pending rule sets the form. Under the proposed text of OAR 340-090-0860(8), when someone other than the obligated producer registers, reports supply data or pays fees on its behalf, the two "must formalize their arrangement" through "a three-party contract with a producer responsibility organization" or a three-step registration with DEQ that the PRO confirms. DEQ's January 2026 paper covers a hand-off that fails: "legal obligation remains with the obligated producer."

DEQ set the close of public comment at 4 p.m. on October 30, 2026, and "plans on presenting the proposed rules to the Environmental Quality Commission for proposed rule adoption in January or February 2027" (DEQ rulemaking page). Meanwhile, supply data for the prior year are due to CAA "on or before May 31 of each year."

What the Brand and the 3PL Should Put in Writing

Who the producer is comes from the state rules, not from a service agreement. The brand and its 3PL decide how the numbers get made; write these points down before the first 2027 report.

• The producer, state by state. Record who the brand and its counsel conclude is the producer of each item in California and in Oregon, including any packaging a reseller adds to another company's brand.
• The spec and the supplier for each SKU. List every item on a unit or carton (bag, label, carton, tape, void fill), who supplies it, and who keeps its material and weight. An LDPE (#4) bag and a corrugated carton report in different categories.
• Counts. California asks for weight and the number of plastic components by category, so agree on who counts the items applied to each SKU.
• The state split. For FBA inventory, a prep center knows what went on each unit, not which state the unit sells into. That comes from the seller's own order data. CalRecycle's registration guide lists "marketplace-generated California summaries" among the corroborating documents for California sales in the small-producer exemption, so the same reports are a place to start.
• Who sends what, and when. In California, the report to CalRecycle is due July 1, but CAA's submitted plan asks its producers for their supply data by May 31; Oregon's supply data are also due to CAA by May 31. Name the person on each side.
• Any hand-off in Oregon. Plan on the form DEQ adopts, and remember that the obligation stays with the obligated producer if the other company fails.

They sit next to our prep center agreement checklist.

"Packaging added at prep is still packaging. Each state decides whose it is. The contract should say who counts it and who sends the numbers, before the report is due."

Bernardo Campelo, Founder of PrepVia

Where a Prep Center Fits

A prep center applies packaging. At PrepVia that includes FNSKU, barcode and suffocation-warning labels. Labeling, bagging, box packing and pallet building each add items that California or Oregon count as packaging, although Oregon excludes rigid pallets, and pallet wrap added by someone other than the producer of the palletized goods. That makes the choice between a compliance bag and a branded bag a reporting choice too.

Brands that finish packaging at the factory or at the prep center will answer these setup questions differently:

• Defaults. Which packaging do you add by default, and which only on our instruction?
• Materials. What material is each bag, carton and label you stock, and what does each one weigh?
• Changes. How is a packaging change recorded on a SKU, and from which shipment does it apply?

Frequently Asked Questions

When will CalRecycle decide on Circular Action Alliance's plan?

The regulation gives CalRecycle 75 calendar days from October 13, 2026, so a decision is due by late December 2026. Public comments are open through November 13, 2026, and a plan approved with conditions counts as approved while the conditions are pending.

Who reports the poly bag a prep center adds to units sold in California?

Under 14 CCR 18980.1.1, packaging added on behalf of a brand owner in California is the brand owner's, and a reseller that has packaging added is the producer of what it added. If the brand owner is not in the state, the first seller or distributor in California answers for all of the packaging. The regulation does not name prep centers, so this is a plain reading of its text.

Can another company take over my packaging obligations in Oregon?

The statute lets another company register with the PRO as the producer responsible for a covered product. DEQ's proposed rule would require a three-party contract with the PRO or a registration with DEQ, with adoption planned for January or February 2027, and the obligation stays with the obligated producer if the other company fails.

Am I a small producer?

California: under $1,000,000 in gross sales in the state in the most recent calendar year, by application, for two years, with the 2032 requirement still in place. Oregon: under $5 million in gross revenue in the most recent fiscal year, or under one metric ton of covered products sold into the state, with related companies added together and no application.

Do labels and tape count as packaging?

CalRecycle lists plastic tape used on packaging as covered material, and an adhered label is excluded only if it meets all of the de minimis criteria. Oregon's rule lists labels and packing tape as packaging, and its pending exemption covers only labels that interfere with use of the product, such as hang tags and produce stickers.

What is due in 2027?

California: the next materials list and the 10% source reduction milestone by January 1, a six-month window for new producers from that date, the first $500 million surcharge year, supply data to CAA by May 31 under its submitted plan and the July 1 report to CalRecycle. Oregon: DEQ's rule package before the commission in January or February, 2026 supply data by May 31, and five life cycle reports by June 30.

Will my prep center report packaging for me?

Do not assume it. A prep center applies the packaging, but each state's law decides who registers and reports. What the brand and its 3PL settle in writing is who counts each item and who sends the numbers, and in Oregon any hand-off will have to take the form DEQ adopts.

Final Take

In 2027, both programs keep asking for numbers that depend on packaging decisions made at a prep bench. California acts on CAA's plan by late December 2026, then starts its first surcharge year and its 2027 reporting cycle. Oregon's fees and May 31 reporting are already running, and DEQ plans to take its hand-off rule to the commission in early 2027.

The bag, the label and the carton added at prep are packaging in both states, and each state has its own rule for whose they are. Settle the producer question with your counsel, then write down with your 3PL who counts each item and who sends the numbers.