California’s SB 54 EPR Regulations Likely to Become Effective January 2026

EPR Group has closely followed California’s regulatory saga as its state agency, commonly known as CalRecycle, seeks to implement SB 54, California’s extended producer responsibility (“EPR”) law for certain packaging and plastic food service ware. In August, we provided an update on the proposed regulations and what regulated parties (“producers”) should plan for leading up to California’s program start on January 1, 2027.

This is a status update on California’s regulations and timeline, which will implicate producer compliance actions in 2026.

California’s EPR regulations will likely become final in January 2026. On November 24, 2025, CalRecycle submitted an updated draft regulatory package to California’s Office of Administrative Law (“OAL”), which will either approve and file the regulations with the Secretary of State or reject them within 30 working days. Unless Governor Newsom intervenes to direct CalRecycle to redraft the regulations, as he did in March 2025, the regulations will become effective once filed with the Secretary of State. Producers will then need to register with Circular Action Alliance, the designated Producer Responsibility Organization, and report their 2023 packaging data within 30 days of the regulations becoming effective.

A 30-day reporting turnaround is likely too time-crunched for producers that have not already registered and reported in Oregon and Colorado, so those producers should begin to evaluate their obligations and prepare to report instead of waiting for the regulations to become effective. Otherwise, producers may face penalties for time spent out of compliance (i.e., by late-reporting) or risk overpaying by overreporting for non-obligated scenarios in the scramble to comply on time.

Producers already in compliance in Oregon and Colorado may still want to make early preparations for California because its program presents certain unique features compared to other EPR states, such as plastic source reduction and reporting requirements, specific agricultural producer obligations and exclusions, incorporated truth-in-labeling laws, and 2032 mandates for recyclability and compostability.

There are still important questions about California’s regulations, which EPR Group will continue to monitor. CalRecycle’s November submission to the OAL did not make the regulatory package public nor provide an indication of what material changes, if any, this recent draft included compared to the August proposal. The August regulatory language contained an exemption that would seem to widely exempt packaging for products regulated by the FDA or USDA and included a provision allowing for chemical recycling under certain conditions—provisions that drew considerable criticism as running contrary to statutory language and intent. CalRecycle responded that it intended its new language to clarify rather than change its regulatory provisions. It is unclear whether the unpublicized November regulatory proposal further changes the regulatory language.

Notwithstanding the regulatory uncertainty, producer obligation under most product types and sales pathways remains clear according to the statute and the regulatory provisions that have remained stable throughout the regulatory proposals. The uncertainty and tight timelines implicated by California’s regulatory rollout mean that more prepared producers will be better positioned to avoid unnecessary compliance costs and internal disruptions in 2026.