HF 3911 · enacted 2024

Minnesota packaging EPR: what you owe and when

Packaging Waste and Cost Reduction Act. Current phase: Producer responsibility organization registered; fees set in the first stewardship plan, due October 2028.

Facts last verified 14 September 2026.

Estimate your Minnesota fee

Am I covered

For packaging sold in Minnesota the producer is, in order: the manufacturer if the item carries its own brand or no brand, then a licensee making it under someone else's brand, then the brand owner. Only where none of those is in the United States does it pass to the importer of record, and then to whoever first distributes the item into Minnesota. For online sales, shipping packaging belongs to whoever packs the item for shipment.

Source: Minnesota Statutes section 115A.1441 , Minn. Stat. 115A.1441, subd. 26. Verified 14 September 2026.

The exemption

A de minimis producer is not covered: one that, in its most recent fiscal year, introduced less than one ton of covered material into Minnesota, or earned global gross revenues of less than $2,000,000. Government bodies, 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) organizations, and certain paper mills are also excluded from the definition of producer.

Source: Minnesota Statutes section 115A.1441 , Minn. Stat. 115A.1441, subd. 13 and subd. 26(b). Verified 14 September 2026.

What the threshold is measured against

Either test is enough. The tonnage test counts only covered material introduced into Minnesota; the revenue test uses global gross revenue, not Minnesota sales. The statute does not say whether a ton is a short ton or a metric ton.

Source: Minnesota Statutes sections 115A.1441 and 115A.03 , Minn. Stat. 115A.1441, subd. 13. Verified 14 September 2026.

What you owe

Registration

Since July 1, 2025 a producer must be a member of a producer responsibility organization registered in Minnesota. The organization, not the producer, registers with the MPCA, listing its member producers and their brands. From January 1, 2029 a producer may not sell covered materials into Minnesota without a written agreement to operate under an approved stewardship plan.

Source: Minnesota Statutes sections 115A.1448 and 115A.1443 , Minn. Stat. 115A.1448, subd. 1; 115A.1443. Verified 14 September 2026.

Who runs the program

Circular Action Alliance, confirmed by the MPCA as Minnesota's initial producer responsibility organization on February 18, 2025. It must submit the first stewardship plan by October 1, 2028.

Source: MPCA, confirmation of Minnesota's initial packaging producer responsibility organization , Minn. Stat. 115A.1451. Verified 14 September 2026.

Reporting

The statute sets no date for producers to report to the producer responsibility organization; the organization sets those deadlines. The organization reports to the MPCA every year from April 1, 2029, covering covered materials by type, performance by county, program costs, an independent audit and producer compliance.

Source: Minnesota Statutes section 115A.1456 , Minn. Stat. 115A.1456. Verified 14 September 2026.

Fee schedule

Minnesota has not published a final fee schedule. Minnesota has not set producer fees. They will be set in the first stewardship plan, due October 1, 2028. We will not fill that gap with another state's numbers or a national average, because a budget built on either is wrong in a way you cannot see.

Eco-modulation

Required by the statute but not yet in force. Fees must reward removing intentionally added toxic substances, less packaging, reuse, postconsumer content, recyclability or compostability, and renewable inputs, and charge more where a design could be improved on those factors. No fee schedule exists: fees will be set in the stewardship plan due October 1, 2028, which needs MPCA approval.

Source: Minnesota Statutes section 115A.1454 , Minn. Stat. 115A.1454, subd. 1. Verified 14 September 2026.

Timing: the year you sell is not the year you pay

Not yet confirmed. When Minnesota producers are first invoiced. The first stewardship plan will set it. We would rather show you a gap than a plausible number.

If you do not comply

Up to $25,000 per day of violation. Once a stewardship plan is approved, a producer or producer responsibility organization faces up to $50,000 per day for a second violation within five years, and up to $100,000 per day for a third or later one.

Source: Minnesota Statutes section 115A.1462 , Minn. Stat. 115A.1462. Verified 14 September 2026.

Recent changes

February 2026: the MPCA published its preliminary assessment of covered packaging tonnage, infrastructure and markets.

Source: MPCA, February 2026 Minnesota Preliminary Assessment , Minn. Stat. 115A.1450, subd. 1. Verified 14 September 2026.

May 26, 2026: the MPCA started rulemaking to implement the act, with a request for comments in the State Register.

Source: MPCA, Rulemaking: Packaging Waste and Cost Reduction Act , Minn. Stat. 115A.1459. Verified 14 September 2026.

Other state guides

Run your own numbers

Enter what you supply into Minnesota, in pounds, against this state's own reporting categories. You get a fee with the public document behind every rate it used.

Open the estimator