All Roll Calls
Yes: 245 • No: 159
MarylandSB 09012025 Regular SessionSenate
Environment - Packaging and Paper Products - Producer Responsibility Plans
Sponsored By: Malcolm Augustine (Democratic)
Signed by Governor
EnvironmentAccessibility - see also- Blind; Deaf; Disabilities; etcAuditors and AuditsAwareness and OutreachBeverage ContainersChild CareCivil Rights and Social EquityCommerce and Business -see also- ElectrComm; ForeignTr; etc.Committees and CommissionsCounties -see also- Chartered Counties; Code Counties; etc.Demographics -see also- Census; DataDisclosureElectronic CommunicationElectronic GovernmentEnvironment, Department of theEnvironmental HealthEnvironmental IncentivesEnvironmental Matters -see also- Conserv; Nat Resrce; PollutEquipment -see also- Charging; Med. Equip.; MV Equip; etc.Fees -see also- Attys' Fees; Devt Fees & TaxesFormsHazardous and Toxic Substances -see also- Asbestos; RadiatnHuman Infrastructure -see also- WLEIndependent ContractorsIndustry and TechnologyInternet -see also- Internet AccessLiabilityMedical Equipment and DevicesMinoritiesNonprofit OrganizationsNoticesOpen GovernmentPenalties and Sentences -see also- Death PenaltyPlasticsPrices -see also- Consumer Price IndexPrimary Schools -see also- Private Schools; Public SchoolsPrivacyPublic Buildings and Facilities -see also- Stadiums; St HseRecords -see also- Land Records; Vital RecordsRecyclingRefuse Disposal -see also- RecyclingRegistration -see also- Motor Vehicle RegistrationReimbursement RatesReportsResidential Property -see also- Apartments; CondominiumsRetail SalesRevenue and Taxes -see also- (specific tax)Rules and RegulationsSalaries and Compensation -see also- Overtime; Reimb. RatesSecondary Schools -see also- Private Schools; Public SchStorageStudies -see also- Commitees & Commissions; ReportsTermination of ServicesTimeTransportation -see also- Aircraft; Airports; Boats; etcWeights and MeasuresWomen -see also- GenderWork, Labor, and Employment -see also- JobTrn; Leave; etc.
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
15 provisions identified: 5 benefits, 2 costs, 8 mixed.
Recycling workers gain wage and safety standards
Plans must include applicable provider standards for safety programs, health benefits, and living wages. Provider standards also require acceptance of the listed materials relevant to their services. Plans must provide reimbursement at least quarterly for covered transport, collection, and processing, with arbitration for rate and payment disputes. They must also protect providers’ nonpublic data and describe technical assistance.
Maryland requires wider recycling collection access
Maryland must create a statewide list of covered materials suitable for curbside recycling or composting by July 1, 2027. Listed materials must receive convenient collection, at minimum wherever mixed trash collection is available. The Department can update the list and must send changes to producer organizations, which must promptly share them with providers. Organizations must work to incorporate related reimbursement-rate changes within 1 calendar year after receiving an updated list.
Maryland sets long-term producer recycling goals
Producer plans must set relevant material-by-material goals to reach within 5 years after the first plan version is approved. Goals cover recycling, composting, reuse, returns, waste reduction, recycled content, and greenhouse gas cuts. Maryland sets recycling-rate targets at 5, 10, and 15 years using the latest statewide needs assessment and an assessment-informed baseline. Recycled-content goals exclude compostable materials unable to contain recycled content for specified chemical, physical, health, or safety reasons.
Producers must get recycling plans approved
Producers must submit plans by July 1, 2028, and every 5 years afterward, individually or through a producer organization. They must first consult the advisory council and respond in writing; another person can assume responsibility for their materials. Producers cannot sell, offer, distribute, or import covered materials for Maryland use without an approved plan on file. The Department must approve, conditionally approve, or reject plans within 120 days, with the Office of Recycling consulting the council. Submitters must pay review and estimated oversight costs within 60 days after initial approval and start within 6 months; plans expire after 5 years without approved renewal, renegotiation, or amendment, and approval can be rescinded for good cause.
Packaging businesses face rules and exemptions
The law covers packaging and paper sold, offered, imported, or distributed in Maryland, but excludes bound books and specified unsafe materials. For store products, responsibility follows a hierarchy of manufacturers, licensees, brand owners, importers, and first distributors. Shipping packers handle online shipping packaging; publishers and specified paper businesses handle paper products, and franchisors handle qualifying franchise packaging. Producers are exempt if their latest fiscal year involved less than 1 ton introduced into Maryland or less than $2 million in worldwide gross revenue. Further exclusions cover government, registered charities and social-welfare groups, specified mills, restaurants, single retail establishments, certain alcohol licensees, and specified medical, infant-formula, animal-drug, propane, newsprint, hazardous-product, paint, business-to-business, and long-term packaging.
Producer fees fund rising recycling reimbursements
Producer fees must cover plan operations, service reimbursements, state oversight and enforcement, and reuse, composting, and recycling improvements. Minimum reimbursement rates reach 50% of cost per ton by July 1, 2028, 75% by July 1, 2029, and 90% by July 1, 2030, and annually afterward. The rate method must be updated annually using the latest needs assessment, regional costs, and material quality and value. Proposed producer fees require 90 calendar days of public comment and must reflect handling costs, with higher fees for unlisted or low-recycled-content materials. Producer organizations keep collected fees in their own accounts, and the Department can request financial audits at any time.
Recycling investments come with stricter standards
Beginning June 1, 2025, improvement funding must support markets and infrastructure for reuse, composting, and recycling, prioritizing existing facilities. Plans must fund service gaps, describe expected results, and use open, competitive, fair selection for infrastructure investments. Plans must also address packaging design and health, climate, hazardous-waste, and environmental-justice impacts. Materials must reach responsible end markets, with state rules establishing or requiring a process to check those markets. Burning, energy generation, fuel production, landfill cover, and landfill disposal do not count as recycling; no specific spending amount is stated.
Recycling providers get payments with duties
Providers can request plan payments for eligible collection, transport, and processing of covered materials. Payments do not cover composting food waste or other materials outside the program. Beginning January 1, 2029, providers seeking payment must register each January 1 and submit contact details and applicable prior-year billing. Funded providers must provide applicable covered services, submit invoices, meet plan standards, track material types and weights, and use responsible end markets. They must show customers the price after subtracting the plan reimbursement.
Health rules allow packaging goal exemptions
Plans must identify health or safety rules that prevent packaging reduction, reuse, recycling, or composting and propose related exemptions. Producers can request exemptions on the state form; after council review, the Department must decide or seek more information within 120 days. Approval requires a specific federal or state health or safety barrier, lasts 2 years, and allows another request after expiration. Products packaged at specified federally inspected or state-regulated meat, dairy, and cheese facilities are exempt from plan performance goals. Retail-prepared and packaged cheese, meat, and poultry receive a 5-year exemption after the first plan’s approval and establishment, with another 5 years allowed if infrastructure is developed to safely handle pathogen-contaminated packaging.
Producers get alternative collection fee relief
Beginning July 1, 2026, producers can operate approved alternative collection programs for covered materials they sell or distribute in Maryland. Programs must improve collection and provide dedicated collection for those materials. Reuse, recycling, or composting through an approved program can offset some or all related producer payments. If Maryland enacts a beverage deposit-return program, the Department must coordinate it with producer plans. Deposit-program materials must receive either an exemption from producer plans or reduced financial obligations.
Producers face escalating recycling violation penalties
Beginning June 1, 2025, producer or producer-organization violations carry $5,000 for a first violation and $10,000 for a second. A third or later violation carries a $20,000 civil penalty. Producers receive written notice and 60 days to correct a violation before penalties; each continuing day afterward counts separately. For missed performance goals, the Department can require plan changes and fine the producer organization up to $250,000. Collected penalties go to the State Recycling Trust Fund.
Consumer fee limits allow service charges
Plans must use producer fees, not new or additional program fees charged to households, governments, businesses, or other nonproducers. This ban does not cover redeemable deposits for refill, reuse, or recycling, or service-provider charges. Service providers may charge for costs producer reimbursements do not cover, including operating profits and returns on required investments. Providers also keep all revenue from selling covered materials. The law does not set a household charge or guarantee lower bills.
Producer fees pay for recycling assessments
Maryland’s Office of Recycling must hire an independent statewide needs-assessment consultant by July 30, 2034, and at least every 10 years afterward. The assessment covers service needs, infrastructure, costs, equity, economic opportunities, and producer-responsibility impacts. The consultant must consult producer organizations, the advisory council, local governments, and regional waste organizations; findings go to state leaders. Producer organizations pay fees for the 2023 assessment and later assessments. Those fees and related program fees and penalties enter a separate State Recycling Trust Fund account restricted to assessments and plan review, oversight, and enforcement.
Producer groups gain protections and duties
Producer organizations must be producer-created, tax-exempt charities, and the approved organization must register annually beginning July 1, 2026. Registration lists producers, brands, materials, and a contact; annual fees cover listed state costs, with only the recordkeeping portion capped at $1,000 yearly. Fees can also cover material-list work, necessary regulation work in 2026, and provider registration costs from 2028 onward. Beginning July 1, 2033, the state can approve additional nonprofits when needed to improve a material’s recycling; they must register within 30 days, renew by July 1 annually, pay fees, and coordinate services and outreach. Compliant plan participants receive Maryland antitrust protection for covered cooperative recycling, reuse, and disposal activities.
Recycling reports balance disclosure and privacy
Beginning July 1, 2029, producers and organizations with approved plans must report annually on the prior calendar year. Reports cover progress, costs, collected materials, investments, audits, and education, and include payment of the state’s estimated next-year oversight costs. Annual reports must appear on the Department’s website and the submitter’s website, while reported financial, production, and sales data remain confidential. Providers can designate submitted proprietary information confidential, protecting it from public-records disclosure. The Department can share provider summaries only when they do not directly or indirectly reveal a facility’s proprietary information.
Sponsors & Cosponsors
Sponsor
Malcolm Augustine
Democratic • Senate
Cosponsors
Benjamin Brooks
Democratic • Senate
Katie Fry Hester
Democratic • Senate
Cheryl C. Kagan
Democratic • Senate
Sara Love
Democratic • Senate
Mary Washington
Democratic • Senate
Roll Call Votes
Senate vote • 4/7/2025
Third Reading Passed
Yes: 33 • No: 11 • Other: 3
House vote • 4/7/2025
Third Reading Passed
Yes: 100 • No: 36 • Other: 4
House vote • 4/7/2025
Floor Amendment {213325/1 (Delegate Grammer) Rejected
Yes: 37 • No: 100 • Other: 3
Senate vote • 3/17/2025
Committee Amendment {233827/1 Adopted
Yes: 40 • No: 0 • Other: 4
Senate vote • 3/17/2025
Third Reading Passed
Yes: 35 • No: 12
Actions Timeline
Approved by the Governor - Chapter 431
5/13/2025Passed Enrolled
4/7/2025SenateThird Reading Passed (33-11)
4/7/2025SenateSenate Concurs House Amendments
4/7/2025SenateThird Reading Passed (100-36)
4/7/2025HouseFloor Amendment {213325/1 (Delegate Grammer) Rejected (37-100)
4/7/2025HouseSecond Reading Passed with Amendments
4/5/2025HouseFavorable with Amendments {733521/1 Adopted
4/5/2025HouseFavorable with Amendments Report by Environment and Transportation
4/5/2025HouseHearing 3/27 at 1:00 p.m. (Environment and Transportation)
3/20/2025HouseHearing canceled (Environment and Transportation)
3/20/2025HouseHearing 3/26 at 1:00 p.m. (Environment and Transportation)
3/19/2025HouseReferred Environment and Transportation Economic Matters
3/18/2025HouseThird Reading Passed (35-12)
3/17/2025SenateSecond Reading Passed with Amendments
3/17/2025SenateCommittee Amendment {233827/1 Adopted (40-0)
3/17/2025SenateMotion Special Order until Next Session (Senator West) Rejected
3/17/2025SenateFavorable with Amendments {233827/1
3/17/2025SenateFavorable with Amendments {233827/1 Adopted
3/17/2025SenateMotion Laid Over (Senator Ready) Adopted
3/14/2025SenateFavorable with Amendments {233827/1
3/14/2025SenateFavorable with Amendments Report by Education, Energy, and the Environment
3/14/2025SenateHearing 2/18 at 1:00 p.m.
2/4/2025SenateFirst Reading Education, Energy, and the Environment
2/3/2025Senate
Bill Text
Enacted
5/13/2025
Enrolled
4/7/2025
Third Reading
3/17/2025
First Reading
2/4/2025
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