{"id":13339,"date":"2026-05-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.packagingindustrynews.com\/?p=13339"},"modified":"2026-05-18T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T04:00:00","slug":"podcast-packaging-eprs-2026-reality-check","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.packagingindustrynews.com\/?p=13339","title":{"rendered":"PODCAST | Packaging EPR\u2019s 2026 Reality Check"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div wp_automatic_readability=\"88.458393319896\"><!---- This is for embedded images that can be opened in a popup  windows -----><br \/>\n<!---- Begin imageModalBackground --->\n<link href=\"https:\/\/www.packagingstrategies.com\/ext\/resources\/css\/Image-Modals.css\" rel=\"stylesheet\"\/>\n<div id=\"imageModalBackground\" onclick=\"backgroundClick(event);\">\n<p>\u2715<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- End imageModalBackground. -->\n<link rel=\"stylesheet\" type=\"text\/css\" href=\"https:\/\/www.packagingstrategies.com\/ext\/resources\/css\/PS-articles.css\"\/>\n<style><![CDATA[<![CDATA[<![CDATA[<![CDATA[\n\t.pod {\n\t\twidth: 97%; background-color: #1C4974; border-radius: 25px; padding: 20px; display: flex; justify-content: center; align-items: center; margin: 0px auto;\n\t}\n\t\n\t.listenBtn {\n\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t}\n\t\/* unvisited link *\/\n\t\n\t.listenBtn a:link {\n\t\tcolor: #fff; padding: 7px 20px; background-color: #1C4974; border-radius: 25px; text-decoration: none; border: none; font-size: 21px; font-weight: bold; text-align: center; font-family: Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; -webkit-transition: all 0.5s ease; -moz-transition: all 0.5s ease; -o-transition: all 0.5s ease; -ms-transition: all 0.5s ease; transition: all 0.5s ease; box-shadow: 10px 10px 10px grey;\n\t}\n\t\/* visited link *\/\n\t\n\t.listenBtn a:visited {\n\t\tcolor: #fff; background-color: #1C4974;\n\t}\n\t\/* mouse over link *\/\n\t\n\t.listenBtn a:hover {\n\t\tcolor: #f4f5f6; background-color: #404144; border: none; padding: 8px 22px; font-size: 23px; -webkit-transition: all 0.5s ease; -moz-transition: all 0.5s ease; -o-transition: all 0.5s ease; -ms-transition: all 0.5s ease; transition: all 0.5s ease;\n\t}\n\t\/* selected link *\/\n\t\n\t.listenBtn a:active {\n\t\tcolor: #fff; background-color: #1C4974;\n\t}\n\n]]]]]]]]><![CDATA[><![CDATA[><![CDATA[>]]]]]]><![CDATA[><![CDATA[>]]]]><![CDATA[>]]><\/style>\n<p>On <strong>May 31, 2026<\/strong>, companies selling packaging, paper and foodservice materials in the U.S. face a major regulatory milestone: the first coordinated deadline for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.packagingstrategies.com\/topics\/4241-extended-producer-responsibility-epr\" rel=\"noopener noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Extended Producer Responsibility<\/a> (EPR) reporting. Six states\u2014California, Colorado, Maryland, Minnesota, Oregon, and Washington\u2014all expect detailed data reports on the same day, forcing companies to navigate a complex patchwork of state-specific templates and material definitions.<\/p>\n<p>To discuss the challenges of meeting both imminent and long-term EPR requirements, we recently sat down with <strong>Anna Kendall<\/strong>, U.S. EPR Leader at Ernst &amp; Young LLP.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Surprise Factor.<\/strong> We asked Kendall about aspects of EPR that tend to surprise even experienced sustainability or packaging leaders.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Companies are sometimes caught off guard by the size and scale of EPR fees\u2014either in one state or as they think about extrapolating them out,&#8221; Kendall notes.<\/p>\n<p><strong>May 31 Reporting Deadline.<\/strong> We asked Kendall about some of the challenges that companies are facing as the coordinated reporting deadline approaches.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The two areas I would say companies are struggling with most often are interpretation and data collection,&#8221; Kendall said. &#8220;One example would be in the pharmaceutical or medical-device space. We do see a lot of categorical exclusions for FDA-regulated products, but companies have to decide whether that also extends to the transport packaging\u2014secondary packaging or tertiary packaging.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Cross-Functional Coordination.<\/strong> With EPR touching everything from sustainability to finance to the supply chain, we asked Kendall how companies are organizing internally to manage that complexity.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Like with most new requirements, we see EPR often starting off as a hot potato, with no one really wanting to own EPR compliance reporting,&#8221; Kendall said. &#8220;There certainly has been an emerging trend\u2014especially among food and beverage and consumer goods companies\u2014to hire full-time EPR roles.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Where that\u2019s not possible, we\u2019re seeing cross-functional teams collaborating together. In that cross-functional team, we would expect to see folks from legal, tax, finance, IT, supply chain, procurement, sustainability, and sometimes marketing or sales.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">Listen to the full interview with Kendall<\/h3>\n<p><!--- Podcast embed ---><\/p>\n<aside style=\"text-align: center; margin: 0px auto;\" wp_automatic_readability=\"1.2564102564103\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.packagingstrategies.com\/media\/podcasts\/3067\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Packaging Perspectives Podcast Logo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.packagingstrategies.com\/ext\/resources\/Custom_Content\/2020\/PS-PackagingPerspectives-250.png\" style=\"display: block; float: none; vertical-align: top; margin: 5px auto; text-align: center;\" align=\"center\"\/> <\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n<audio controls=\"\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><source src=\"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/www.packagingstrategies.com\/ext\/resources\/podcasts\/EPR-2026-REALITY-CHECK-PODCAST_mixdown.mp3?t=1779149697\" type=\"audio\/mpeg\">Your browser does not support the audio element.<\/source><\/audio>\n<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.packagingstrategies.com\/media\/podcasts\/3067\" rel=\"noopener noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Listen to more podcasts here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.packagingstrategies.com\/articles\/106455-podcast-packaging-eprs-2026-reality-check\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2715 On May 31, 2026, companies selling packaging, paper and foodservice materials in the U.S. face a major regulatory milestone: the first coordinated deadline for Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) reporting. Six states\u2014California, Colorado, Maryland, Minnesota, Oregon, and Washington\u2014all expect detailed data reports on the same day, forcing companies to navigate a complex patchwork of state-specific [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":13340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[165],"tags":[2079,301,874,2678,36],"class_list":["post-13339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-packaging-news","tag-packaging-perspectives","tag-packaging-regulations","tag-podcasts","tag-procurement","tag-supply-chain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.packagingindustrynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.packagingindustrynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.packagingindustrynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.packagingindustrynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.packagingindustrynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.packagingindustrynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.packagingindustrynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.packagingindustrynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.packagingindustrynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.packagingindustrynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}