Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the Small Single-Use Plastic Bottle Act on Aug. 9, 2024. Come July 1, 2025, hotels with 50 or more rooms won’t be allowed to offer small, single-use plastic personal care bottles. All hotels in the state will be on the hook come Jan. 1, 2026.

Supporters said the bill is poised to have “ripple effects” to other sectors, supporting a shift from single-use to reusable options. There were no opponents recorded.

“By reducing their footprint and opting for more economical and environmentally-friendly toiletry options, Illinois’ hotel industry will keep thousands of pounds of plastic out of our landfills and waterways over the years,” said state Sen. Laura Fine, a bill sponsor and Democrat representing a Chicago-area district.

“We must keep advancing stronger laws to reduce plastic production, fix the broken recycling system, move manufacturers and retailers toward using less unnecessary plastic, and shift to reusable alternatives,” said Andrea Densham, senior policy advisor for the Alliance for the Great Lakes, in a statement.

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law March 28 a bill that allows the sale and purchase of wine in glass containers up to 15 liters – or almost four gallons – in the state. Other sizes noted in HB 583 include 4.5 liters, 6 liters, 9 liters and 12 liters. Floridians are currently prohibited from buying wine in containers exceeding one gallon, unless in a 5.16-gallon reusable container.

“If Floridians can purchase a large bottle of wine online from another state, they should be able to buy one from their local wine or grocery store,” DeSantis said in a statement.

“It is now time to free the grapes!” bill sponsor Rep. Chip LaMarca said in DeSantis’ release

The bill passed the House 118-0 and the Senate 38-1. The law will take effect July 1.

Gov. Janet Mills on March 6 signed a bill to permit businesses and consumers to voluntarily use business-supplied or third-party returnable, reusable and refillable containers for food, beverages and non-food items. The bill, sponsored by Democrats in the legislature, also allows businesses to refuse any such containers supplied by a consumer. It says containers returned by a consumer may be reclaimed by a business or third party and restored to health and safety standards.

HospitalityMaine, which represents restaurants and lodging establishments across the state, said it was neither for nor against the bill, calling it “a unique idea” but noting potential for regulatory, financial and legal liabilities. The bill was supported by nonprofits including Upstream and Just Zero.

“This bill will allow for a safe transition to reusable packaging for a broad range of businesses, which will save money for those businesses, reduce taxpayer burdens, and reduce waste,” said Vanessa Berry, Sustainable Maine Program Manager at the Natural Resources Council of Maine, in a statement.

The bill expands the California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act – the state’s bottle bill – by adding large fruit and vegetable juice containers, thereby allowing any size of juice container come 2024. Shelf labels for newly included beverages have until Jan. 15, 2024, to be updated. Manufacturers of vegetable juice containers that are 16 ounces or larger and 100% fruit juice beverage containers that are 46 ounces or larger are exempted from calculating separately required percentages of postconsumer recycled plastic until Jan. 1, 2026. 

Californians Against Waste heralded the estimated addition of 200 million redemption opportunities annually. It also called for further improvements to the program and recycling rates, noting financial distress as “program payments are failing to keep pace with the net cost of glass and plastic container recycling … where beverage producers contribute a fraction of the cost of recycling their containers.” There was no recorded opposition to the bill.

Restaurants and other food service establishments will be prohibited from providing polystyrene foam containers for ready-to-eat food or beverages come July 1, 2025. The same law bans plastic beverage stirrers as well as plastic cocktail and sandwich picks. Customers will have to request single-use plastic straws. There are some exemptions, including for coolers or ice chests used to ship certain meat, seafood and other foods, as well as for plastic straws in healthcare settings.

In June, Oceana and Plastic Free Delaware supported the bill’s passage. The bill previously faced opposition from the Delaware Restaurant Association, and it was amended to remove a provision stating that establishments could lose their operating license over failure to comply, FoodService Director reported.

Gov. J. B. Pritzker signed Democrat-sponsored legislation amending Illinois’ Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act to allow restaurants or retailers to fill or refill consumer-owned containers with ready-made or bulk food come Jan. 1, 2024. This adds to consumers being allowed to fill or refill their own containers with bulk food offerings. Take-home bags or cups must be maintained to be clean, sanitary and durable. Food establishments must adhere to multiple health safety requirements to prevent cross-contamination.

State Sen. Mary Edly-Allen said in a press release that this option will lessen plastic and polystyrene foam use, help reduce landfill waste and save restaurants money on packaging: “While we can't force people to be environmentally-friendly, we can encourage them and offer alternatives like using their own containers to help promote eco-friendly practices.”

The Alliance for the Great Lakes, Ocean Conservancy and Illinois Environmental Council previously applauded the bill. “Increasing reusable systems is the most effective and efficient way to reduce plastics and associated greenhouse gas emissions and transition to a safe, circular economy,” they wrote.

Maine’s bottle bill program began in 1978. Legislation modernizing the state redemption law includes provisions promoting reuse and refill systems. It calls for creation of a fund to support increasing the use of reusable and refillable beverage containers and other packaging, through initiatives like developing washing facilities or doing outreach and education around benefits of refillable containers. Unclaimed deposit value will help support the fund. The law also calls for a third-party study to be completed by July 15, 2026, assessing the feasibility of having 5% or 10% of beverage containers marketed in Maine be reusable or refillable, and what infrastructure and investments would be necessary to realize that. Organizations including the Natural Resources Council of Maine and Upstream applauded the bill’s passage, while the Maine Beer & Wine Distributors Association had opposed it.

This waste management law includes a provision requiring plastic bottles covered by Connecticut’s bottle bill to be formulated with 25% postconsumer recycled content by 2027. Producers will be required to register with the Department of Energy & Environmental Protection by April 1, 2026.

PCR requirements could expand in the future; the legislation stipulates that DEEP shares recommendations on future minimum standards for plastic bottles as well as other packaging by the end of 2032.

Gov. Daniel McKee signed into law a bill banning restaurants and food service establishments from processing, preparing, selling or providing food or drinks in disposable food containers made from polystyrene foam. The law also blocks those establishments from providing plastic beverage stirrers. The law takes effect Jan. 1, 2025.

Entities such as farmers markets and hospitals are exempt. The law also does not apply to prepackaged food items that a restaurant purchases, nor to containers used for processing or shipping food. Bill sponsors cited litter issues and stats suggesting Rhode Island’s Central Landfill will reach capacity by 2040 at current rates of disposal.

Rhode Island’s Senate Resolution 671 calls for a commission with state lawmakers, environmental advocates and food, beverage and alcohol industry representatives to study and identify pathways to improve the state’s recycling of plastic bottles, miniature alcoholic beverage containers (also known as “nips”) and single-use plastic packaging.

Citing plastic pollution problems, it also charges the group with considering container deposit and extender producer responsibility programs. The commission is supposed to share its findings and recommendations with the General Assembly by June 10, 2024.

As a precursor to a potential future EPR for packaging program, Maryland formalized a study bill that tees up a detailed statewide needs assessment to be completed by July 30, 2024. An independent consultant will detail recycling and waste management systems. The law stipulates that the Maryland Department of the Environment approves a single producer responsibility organization by Oct. 1, 2023. It also calls for an EPR advisory council – composed of private and public-sector haulers, processors, composters, and consumer goods sector and PRO representatives – to report to the governor by Dec. 1, 2024.

Through SB 543, Oregon enacted a ban — effective in 2025 — on food vendors serving food in containers made from EPS foam, while also blocking the sale or distribution of foam containers and packaging peanuts. Oregon’s governor simultaneously signed SB 545, which could spur the use of reusable containers. It enables customers to bring their own containers to restaurants to carry food away, effective June 30, 2024.

After multiple consecutive years of the state legislature considering EPR bills, California’s 2022 law approved goals for the next decade. By 2032, California will require all packaging in the state to be recyclable or compostable, that plastic packaging be cut by 25%, and that 65% of all single-use plastic packaging be recycled. It also established an EPR for packaging program that the state anticipates will raise billions of dollars from industry over a decade to put toward plastic pollution reduction efforts.

For the 25% plastic packaging reduction goal, 10% must be replaced by refillable or reusable packaging or eliminating a plastic component. The other 15% must be reduced through lightweighting, switching to a non-plastic covered material, opting for large-format, refillable packaging, or other strategies.

All producers of covered materials must form or join a producer responsibility organization by 2024. In 2026 CalRecycle intends to review and approve PRO plans and publish covered material recycling rates. The PRO will plan for how to achieve those 2032 goals.

Colorado’s law creates an EPR program for most types of packaging (paper, plastic, glass, metal, cartons, flexible foam, rigid packaging or other materials distributed to an end consumer).

It will be operated and funded by producers who join a nonprofit producer responsibility organization. Producers will pay dues each year based on the amount and type of applicable paper or packaging they use. Fees will go toward funding new or improved recycling services across the state. The bill exempts businesses with less than $5 million in gross annual revenue.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment will oversee the program with input from an advisory board of recycling stakeholders.

Implementation activities slated for 2023 include drafting primary regulations and conducting a needs assessment. 2024 will include PRO program plan development, a needs assessment review and primary regulation meetings. 2025 will include ecomodulation rule drafting and individual program plan submissions and review.

New Jersey’s law sets increasing minimum recycled content levels, starting in 2024, for various container categories, with an aim of stimulating recycling markets.

Broadly, after gradual scale-ups the ultimate recycled contents targets are: 50% in rigid plastic containers by 2036; 50% in plastic beverage containers by 2045; 35% in glass containers by 2024; 40% in paper carryout bags by 2024; and 40% in plastic carryout bags come 2027.

Manufacturers that must comply are parties that produce or generate these containers, or brand owners of products sold in the state that are packaged in these containers. Manufacturers must submit first-year compliance reports by July 18, 2025, and annually thereafter. There are exemptions for infant formula and milk products, for example, and packages containing food are temporarily exempt from PCR requirements through 2027.

The law also prohibits the sale of polystyrene loose fill packaging.

California’s law looks to set criteria for which products can feature the “chasing arrows” symbol or other indicators of recyclability. The law will ultimately prohibit the sale of products or packaging labeled as recyclable unless those items are regularly collected and processed or recycling in California. Consumers could start seeing changes in 2025.

The goal for tightening what’s allowed is to “help consumers recycle correctly” and reduce contamination. Through the law, CalRecycle will have to publish data about which materials are collected, sorted, sold, or transferred for recycling  in the state. Manufacturers and the public are directed to then determine whether a product meets criteria to be called “recyclable.”

CalRecycle is working to complete two steps by the start of 2024: to publish preliminary findings of the material characterization studies, and to update regulations requiring MRFs to report on how materials are collected or processed and which material types are recovered and not considered contaminants.

The Plastic Pollution and Recycling Modernization Act became the nation’s second EPR for packaging law, with recycling program changes slated to start in July 2025. The state’s Department of Environmental Quality is facilitating rulemaking in 2023 and 2024.

Producers of packaged items, paper products and food serviceware will be required to pay fees  that support recycling infrastructure based on their materials and how much they sell in Oregon. For packaged items sold via physical retail sale, the obligated producer is typically the manufacturer of the packaged item rather than the packaging itself. For packaging sold online or remotely, the party that packages and ships the item for sale into Oregon is the obligated producer of the packaging used in shipping. For food serviceware, the “producer” is the party that first sells the item into the state. 

A material’s recyclability is not a determining factor in whether a material is covered by the law; exemptions include beverage containers covered by the state bottle bill, pallets and specialty packaging used exclusively in industrial processes. 

The bill also established the Truth in Labeling Task Force to study “misleading or confusing claims” on packaging or a product regarding recyclability.

Maine was the first U.S. state to adopt an extended producer responsibility for packaging law, placing a fee on producers based on their packaging choices. Brand owners or importers must pay into a packaging stewardship fund selected by the Department of Environmental Protection through a competitive bidding process. Higher payments will be associated with certain packaging material based on volume, toxicity or lack of recyclability, with an aim of incentivizing less packaging use and more readily recyclable options. Municipalities can receive reimbursement payments to reflect costs of managing packaging material.

The law exempts beverage containers covered by Maine’s bottle bill, as well as certain other categories like packaging for long-term storage of a durable product.

Rulemaking is due to start by the end of 2023 following stakeholder outreach. Rules are set to be adopted in 2025, followed in 2026 by selection of a stewardship organization and first producer payments.

The law bans expanded polystyrene foam takeout containers at most restaurants beginning Jan. 1, 2024. HB 21-1162 simultaneously banned single-use plastic bags, adding a 10-cent fee per bag until the ban takes effect in 2024. Colorado became the first state to repeal its own preemption law barring municipalities from enacting stricter plastic packaging ordinances.

Washington’s law includes multiple solid waste provisions, including polystyrene foam bans and food serviceware-upon-request provisions. The minimum PCR content requirements began at the start of 2023 for some container types. After gradual scale-ups, the ultimate recycled contents targets by weight include: 50% in plastic beverage containers by 2031; 50% in dairy milk and wine in 187ml bottles by 2036; and 50% in household cleaning and personal care products by 2031.

Beginning in 2024 or when rulemaking is complete, the state’s Department of Ecology may annually consider adjusting minimum PCR requirements for the following year.

Washington banned EPS foam food service products, including clamshell containers, plates and cups, along with recreational coolers and packing peanuts. The provisions are effective June 2024, and certain items like foam meat trays are exempted. SB 5022 also set recycled content requirements for plastic beverage containers and set certain opt-in requirements for single-use food ware.

Virginia’s ban on foam food service containers affects certain chain restaurants, and two years later affects other covered food vendors. Originally supposed to take effect in 2023, Gov. Glenn Youngkin delayed enforcement by five years.

New Jersey opted to ban polystyrene foam food service products through S 864, effective as of 2022. The bill also restricted the distribution of single-use plastic straws and single-use plastic or paper carryout bags.

California’s law established recycled content standards for plastic beverage containers that are part of the state’s container redemption program. It required that containers be formulated with at least 15% PCR starting in 2022, increasing that proportion to 25% in 2025 and 50% in 2030. In 2023, CalRecycle held public feedback opportunities regarding proposed implementation regulations for the law.

Beverage manufacturers that don’t comply will be assessed penalties that will help fund recycling infrastructure. The law also requires that plastic material reclaimers report empty plastic beverage containers collected and sold, and that PCR manufacturers report the amount of food-grade and bottle-grade plastic material sold in California.

New York included a ban on most expanded polystyrene foam products — effective as of 2022 — through its fiscal year 2021 budget package, with an emphasis on foam food ware containers and loose fill packaging. Included language exempts uncooked eggs, meat and fish.

Vermont’s S.113 set forth a ban on single-use EPS foam food service ware, effective July 1, 2020. That law also banned single-use plastic carryout bags from stores and food service establishments, banned single-use plastic stirrers and stipulated that food service establishments are not to provide single-use plastic straws unless requested by customers.

Maryland was second after Maine in prohibiting the sale of EPS foodservice products. That ban was set to take effect in 2020 but was temporarily delayed amid the coronavirus pandemic. HB 109 has exemptions for meat, poultry and seafood containers.

Maine was the first state in the U.S. to enact such a ban, with a go-live date in 2021 that was delayed by several months due to effects of the coronavirus pandemic. LD 289 affected packages and serviceware partially or entirely made of EPS foam. There was an exemption for containers designed to process or ship seafood.