Maryland Packaging Regulations - Comments due March 9th!
The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) released draft regulations to implement the first phase of the State’s new packaging extended producer responsibility (“EPR”) program.
Comments are due from the public by March 9, 2026. Trash Free Maryland is working with our Coalition to comment on the draft regulations and ensure key environmental priorities are emphasized in the program.
The draft regulations, draft guidance, and information on how to submit comments are at this link.
The “Phase One” regulations include covered materials and entities, requirements for alternative collection programs, advisory committee composition and work, and timelines for implementation. MDE also released draft guidance for public review.
We are working with our environmental community of anti-litter advocates and watershed protection groups to ensure the program guidelines and definitions support SB901’s express legislative intent to “minimize the environmental and human health impacts of packaging.” We want to ensure that this legislative intent is embedded in the program as definitions and guidelines are clarified through rulemaking and guidance. In this early phase of implementing regulations, we are suggesting that waste reduction and reuse and refill are clearly defined and incentivized. We are also urging MDE to ensure that the Advisory Committee has representation from subject matter experts in reuse and/or refill as well as composting best practices.
Since Maryland’s EPR for packaging law outlines a skeleton or framework for the program, many of the details will need to be worked out by the Advisory Committee and through the regulatory and producer plan approval processes to ensure the program incorporates the right incentives to meet the legislative intent (see below). Here is the language from SB901 that describes the intent:
“It is the intent of the General Assembly that this subtitle provide a framework for:
1) minimizing the environmental and human health impacts of packaging, including by:
I) reducing the amount of packaging, especially plastic packaging, sold in the state;
II) reducing packaging waste;
III) redesigning packaging to be recyclable, compostable, and reusable;
IV) reducing the toxicity of packaging;
2) conserving resources by increasing the recycling rates and recycled content of covered products;
3) modernizing and improving waste and recycling systems in the state, including by:
I) facilitating the improvement of reuse, composting, and recycling;
II) stimulating responsible end markets for covered materials; and
III) improving access to and the efficiency of recycling, composting, and reuse infrastructure, with special emphasis on underserved communities; and
4) making producers financially responsible for investing in the needed infrastructure and reimbursing local governments and other service providers for costs associated with transporting, collecting, and processing covered materials.
We advocated for these legislative intentions to protect environmental and human health to be included in the bill, and we are now working to make sure that the program is implemented as the legislature intended.
