Four US states now set recycled content floors for plastic bottles, and the label rules around them are stuck between a court order and a 2012 federal guide

Four states, four schedules

The four content laws for plastic beverage containers share a shape, an average across the producer’s covered sales in one state, but not a calendar (Exhibit 2). California’s AB 793 (Chapter 115, Statutes of 2020) was signed on 24 September 2020 and set the earliest start, 15% from 1 January 2022, CalRecycle says. Washington’s SB 5022 of 2021 started at 15% from 1 January 2023. New Jersey’s law, approved on 18 January 2022, applied two years after its effective date, from 18 January 2024. Connecticut’s Public Act 23-170, approved on 29 June 2023, starts on 1 January 2027.

California’s rule is the narrowest in scope. It applies only to plastic beverage containers carrying the California Redemption Value, and CalRecycle says manufacturers that use only glass, aluminium or bi-metal containers, or sell only refillables, need not report. Compliance is one annual average per manufacturer across all its CRV plastic containers, so high-PCR lines offset low ones.

Washington’s beverage definition is wider: water, beer, wine, spirits, soft drinks and any other beverage between two fluid ounces and one gallon, for human or animal consumption (RCW 70A.245.010(1)). Dairy milk and wine in 187 ml containers run on a later schedule: 15% from 2028, 25% from 2031 and 50% from 2036.

New Jersey reaches 25% only in 2030. Its statute raises the beverage minimum by five points every three years from five years after the effective date, until it reaches 50%. SPI reads that cadence as 25% in 2030, 30% in 2033, 35% in 2036, 40% in 2039, 45% in 2042 and 50% in 2045, while NJDEP’s FAQ of 12 May 2025 lists 45% in 2041 and 50% in 2044. SPI has not yet confirmed which dates NJDEP will apply to the last two steps; neither falls within a current planning cycle.

Connecticut’s plateau is the lowest: 30% from 2032, with the Commissioner reporting to the legislature’s environment committee on the requirements by 31 December 2032 (Public Act 23-170, section 1(d)).

New Jersey: six categories and a food exemption that runs out

New Jersey’s P.L.2021, c.391 is the widest of the four content laws, covering rigid plastic containers, plastic beverage containers, glass containers, paper carryout bags, plastic carryout bags and plastic trash bags (sections 3 to 8). PR-US-010 records it. Exhibit 3 sets out each schedule from the enacted text.

Three dates matter now. The 2027 step on 18 January 2027 doubles the rigid container minimum to 20%, lifts beverage containers to 20% and plastic carryout bags to 40%, and doubles each trash bag band. Registration for the following year runs from 1 September to 31 December, at USD 1,000 a year, according to NJDEP’s FAQ. And the statute’s temporary exemption for food packaging, set at five years from the Act’s effective date in section 10(b), points to 18 January 2027 unless NJDEP extends it.

NJDEP has published material in 2026 on a food-grade recycled content extension and a revised FAQ dated June 2026. SPI has not yet confirmed their terms, so this article does not state a new end date for the food exemption. The section 10(b) exemption never covers plastic beverage containers or glass containers holding beverages.

Enforcement is the open question. Section 16 sets administrative penalties of USD 1,000 to USD 25,000 per violation, each day a separate offence, civil penalties of up to USD 50,000 per day in Superior Court, and a third-degree crime for knowingly or recklessly false statements, with a fine of up to USD 50,000. The per-pound penalty for virgin material used in place of required recycled content is to be set by rule, and NJDEP’s May 2025 FAQ expected proposed rules in 2025. SPI has not yet confirmed that the rate has been set.

Washington: five categories, a workload fee and a penalty record

Washington’s chapter 70A.245 RCW, from SB 5022 (Chapter 313, Laws of 2021), sets floors for three covered product types: plastic trash bags, household cleaning and personal care products in plastic containers, and beverages in plastic containers, with dairy milk and 187 ml wine on their own schedule (Exhibit 4). PR-US-012 records the act’s foam rules; the content rules are cross-referenced there.

Producers register with Ecology each year by 1 April and report pounds of virgin and postconsumer plastic by resin type (RCW 70A.245.030). Reporting began on 1 April 2024 for beverage containers and trash bags and on 1 April 2026 for household cleaning and personal care products. The statute gives 1 April 2029 for dairy milk and 187 ml wine reports; Ecology’s November 2024 guidance gives April 2030. SPI has not yet confirmed which date Ecology will apply.

The fee is set to cost. Each 31 January Ecology publishes a workload analysis, and the total fee must cover that workload without exceeding it (RCW 70A.245.020(3)). For FY2027, from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027, Ecology estimates USD 285,766 in total, 1.75 staff, and per-pound rates of USD 0.0009 for programme administration and USD 0.0005 for PCR oversight. Producers in the CY2025 registration period reported 210,051,352 pounds of plastic resin, of which 196,648,293 pounds was subject to minimum content.

Penalties are formula-based. RCW 70A.245.040 multiplies the shortfall in pounds by 20 cents, lets Ecology require a corrective action plan instead of or as well as a penalty, and requires it to consider anomalous market conditions and recycled plastic supply. Penalties start on 1 June of the year after a category’s requirements first apply, so household cleaning and personal care containers, first required in 2025, came within the penalty window from 1 June 2026. Separately, failures to register, label or report carry up to USD 1,000 per day (RCW 70A.245.050).

Ecology may also review the minimums each 1 January, but may not raise them above the statutory level, and may not go below 10% for household cleaning and personal care containers or below the 2023 to 2024 level of 10% for trash bags (RCW 70A.245.020(7)). Ecology says adjustment requests should ideally arrive by 31 December with the annual registration.

Who is out of scope

Exemptions decide whether a pack is in the calculation at all, and they differ by state (Exhibit 5). Only New Jersey names FIFRA-registered products in statute; Washington instead excludes drugs, dietary supplements and medical products through its definitions, and California covers only CRV containers.

Three details deserve attention. New Jersey’s FAQ says toxic or hazardous products that are not required to be FIFRA-registered do not get the pesticide exemption. Washington’s definition of a covered product excludes any container the state is preempted from regulating under federal law, and Ecology grants blanket exclusions only for dietary supplements and FDA-regulated drugs; other federally regulated products must apply by 1 September of the year before. And Washington’s general beverage definition excludes infant formula and medical food as defined in 21 U.S.C.

Registration, fees and penalties side by side

Exhibit 6 gathers the money provisions. All amounts are USD and come from the statute or regulator named; none is summed across states.

California penalties go to the Recycling Enhancement Penalty Account and can be paid quarterly or on an alternative schedule, CalRecycle says, and CalRecycle posts manufacturer reports within 45 days of the 1 March due date. Washington penalties can be paid at once, quarterly or on a schedule of up to 12 months, and appealed to the Pollution Control Hearings Board within 30 days.

Washington's enforcement record

Washington is the one state where SPI has seen penalty totals published by the regulator (Exhibit 7). California publishes manufacturer reports but, as of 25 October 2026, no compliance rates or penalty totals on its AB 793 page.

For 2023, Ecology said 128 companies had to meet the minimums and 93 met or exceeded them, about 73%. Of more than 150 million pounds of plastic in the two categories, about 24%, or 36 million pounds, was recycled content. Individual fines ran from USD 39 to USD 67,196, and two producers had half their fine suspended in exchange for corrective action plans.

For 2024, the minimums were still 15% for beverage containers and 10% for trash bags. Ecology listed each penalised producer’s content, from 0% to 14.66%, and named the largest fine as USD 54,868 to Arizona Beverages USA, at 0% recycled content.

A framework: content floor and claim rule

Two questions sort the states: does the state set a recycled content floor for packaging, and does it restrict recyclability claims beyond federal guidance? Exhibit 8 places each state SPI has read on those two axes. It is an SPI device built from the tracker records and the statutes above.

Double lock. California layers AB 793 for CRV bottles, the older Rigid Plastic Packaging Container (RPPC) programme, under which a container can comply with 25% postconsumer material, a 45% recycling rate, 10% source reduction or reuse options (14 CCR 17945.3), and SB 343 for claims. A California pack has to meet a content test and, once enforcement resumes, a claim test.

Content led. Washington, New Jersey and Connecticut set floors and collect registrations but, on SPI’s reading, have no statute restricting the chasing arrows. Their cost is resin and administration.

Fee led. Colorado prices recycled content through its EPR plan and dues rather than a standalone mandate, while Oregon’s EPR schedule prices material and acceptance list. Colorado’s HB22-1355 requires the programme plan to include minimum postconsumer recycled content rates for certain material types, including rates after 1 January 2030, and allows dues discounts for high levels of postconsumer recycled material use (C.R.S. 25-17-705(4)). Oregon’s Truth in Labeling Task Force reported on 1 June 2022 that the state then had no requirements on how materials are labelled.

Federal baseline. Everywhere else, the FTC’s Green Guides and general state consumer protection law apply.

Labelling: SB 343 and the Green Guides

SB 343 (Chapter 507, Statutes of 2021) amended Public Resources Code section 42355.51 to stop the chasing arrows, or any statement implying recyclability, from appearing on a product or package unless it is collected and processed for recycling in California (PR-US-011). CalRecycle’s FAQ of 13 August 2025 sets out the statewide test: acceptance by programmes that together serve at least 60% of Californians, and sorting by large volume facilities that together serve at least 60% of statewide recycling programmes, plus the design limits in section 42355.51(d)(3).

The timing follows CalRecycle’s material characterisation study. Final findings for 2023 and 2024 were published on 4 April 2025, Table 2 was updated on 8 August 2025 and 24 June 2026, and the restrictions apply to products and packaging manufactured after 4 October 2026. CalRecycle’s FAQ says the test turns on when products and packaging are manufactured, not when they are sold. The next full study is due in 2027, and CalRecycle held a scoping workshop on 29 September 2026.

Enforcement belongs to the Attorney General and local jurisdictions under PRC 42358, not CalRecycle, and on 14 July 2026 the US District Court for the Southern District of California issued a preliminary injunction in California League of Food Producers v. Bonta (No. 3:26-CV-01675). CalRecycle notes the 4 October 2026 date may be affected by the litigation. SPI has not yet confirmed whether items made while the injunction stands could face action if it is lifted.

Exhibit 9 compares SB 343 with the federal guides and with Oregon’s task force recommendations.

The Green Guides at 16 CFR Part 260 treat any misrepresentation that a product or package is recyclable as deceptive (260.12(a)), and say that the chasing arrows by itself likely conveys that a package is both recyclable and made entirely from recycled material (260.13, Example 8). On recycled content, 260.13(b) allows claims only for materials recovered or diverted from the waste stream, pre-consumer or post-consumer.

The review has stalled in public view (Exhibit 10). The FTC’s request for comment, published on 20 December 2022 at 87 FR 77766, asked whether to revisit the 60% threshold, whether to address items collected but not recycled, whether to give guidance on mass balance and certificate systems for recycled content, and whether to start a rulemaking under its FTC Act authority. Comments were due on 21 February 2023, and the FTC workshop on recyclable claims followed on 23 May 2023, with comments to 13 June 2023. The FTC’s Green Guides page lists no notice after October 2012, and SPI has seen no revised guides as of 25 October 2026.

Other states SPI has read do not, on its reading, restrict the chasing arrows by statute. Oregon’s task force recommended that claims be allowed only for items on state collection lists, that the symbol otherwise appear only inside a circle with a 45-degree slash, and that a resin code inside a solid triangle not count as a claim. It also noted that the 2021 legislature repealed the Oregon statute requiring the resin code inside chasing arrows on rigid plastic containers. SPI has not yet confirmed that any of the recommendations has been enacted.

Where content laws meet EPR fees

Content laws and EPR fee schedules touch at three points: fee modulation, PRO performance targets and reporting (Exhibit 11). The detail on CAA’s Oregon and Colorado rates is in SPI’s line-by-line fee schedule analysis, and the state-by-state EPR picture in the US state packaging EPR overview.

In Colorado, the statute requires reporting of the postconsumer recycled content rate for each type of covered material (C.R.S. 25-17-709(2)(a)(VII)), so the data a producer builds for Washington or New Jersey is a starting point for Colorado’s dues reports. In Washington, RCW 70A.208.150(6) lets postconsumer content used to meet chapter 70A.245 count toward the PRO’s plastic source reduction target, within the 8% limit. In California, CalRecycle’s FAQ says SB 54 determinations are not liability assessments under SB 343, so a pack can count as recyclable for EPR purposes while its label claim is judged separately.

Scenarios: what a shortfall costs

The California and Washington penalty is the same arithmetic: required pounds minus postconsumer pounds, times USD 0.20. Exhibit 12 applies it to a producer selling 1,000,000 pounds of plastic beverage containers in one state, at three PCR levels, before and after the 50% step.

SPI calculation: base case, 1,000,000 x (0.25 minus 0.15) = 100,000 pounds short, x USD 0.20 = USD 20,000. At the 50% floor the same producer is 350,000 pounds short, USD 70,000. The penalty equals USD 440.92 per metric tonne of shortfall (0.20 x 2,204.62 pounds per tonne).

Two points follow. First, a producer exactly at 25% today faces USD 50,000 a year on this volume once the floor doubles, the same bill as the high case today. Second, the penalty puts a ceiling on what a shortfall costs per pound, so the decision is commercial: if food-grade PCR costs more than 20 cents a pound above virgin resin, paying the penalty can cost less than compliance. SPI does not track resin prices, so it gives no view on where that line sits; the reputational and reporting costs are separate, since Ecology names penalised producers and CalRecycle publishes reports.

Washington’s fee adds little: at the FY2027 estimate of USD 0.0014 per pound, the same 1,000,000 pounds would carry about USD 1,400 a year (SPI calculation). In New Jersey the per-pound penalty rate is not yet set, so SPI does not model it.