Shareholders Applaud California’s Extended Producer Responsibility Law Following 15 Years of Plastic Pollution Advocacy
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Binding 2032 targets, $50,000-per-day penalties, and a May 31 reporting deadline put real teeth behind producer responsibility — vindicating shareholder proposals long dismissed by Fortune 500 producers as “ordinary business.”
MEDIA CONTACT: Ryon Harms, [email protected], 310-730-9407
EL CERRITO, CALIFORNIA— MAY 5, 2026 – As You Sow, the nation’s leading shareholder representative, today applauded California’s implementation of SB 54, the most ambitious Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) law for packaging in the United States. On May 1, California’s Office of Administrative Law approved final regulations that put binding obligations on producers of single-use packaging into immediate effect.
“For 15 years, As You Sow has worked with consumer brands and their investors seeking adoption of voluntary practices that would deliver the measurable, enforceable plastic reductions our communities and ecosystems need,” said Conrad MacKerron, Senior Vice President at As You Sow. “Unfortunately, regulatory action was necessary. SB 54 establishes the regulatory floor we have been calling for since 2012 — and it should now become the baseline that responsible producers adopt nationwide, not just in California.”
SB 54 sets binding 2032 targets for producers of covered packaging in California: 100% of packaging must actually be recyclable or compostable, 65% must be recycled, and overall single-use plastic packaging must be reduced by 25%. CalRecycle is empowered to levy civil penalties of up to $50,000 per day, per violation. The first compliance milestones are already in motion — annual producer registration with the Circular Action Alliance closed March 1, and the first Supply Report and Source Reduction Report (covering 2025 data) are due May 31, 2026.
Today’s milestone is partly the result of a long, deliberate campaign by As You Sow and its partners to move corporate America toward shared responsibility for packaging waste. Key inflection points include:
2012: As You Sow issued a landmark report, Unfinished Business: The Case for Extended Producer Responsibility for Post-Consumer Packaging, documenting how EPR laws boosted recycling rates across Europe and quantifying the roughly $11 billion worth of packaging material wasted each year in the United States in the absence of EPR.
2012–2014: Working alongside Future 500, Riverkeeper’s Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and then-Nestlé Waters North America CEO Kim Jeffery, As You Sow brought EPR directly to consumer-brand boardrooms.
Shareholder Engagement: As You Sow engaged companies like Walmart and Procter & Gamble to publicly endorse EPR programs and policies in the U.S. Although companies were initially unwilling to commit to full EPR, sustained engagement helped catalyze partial-responsibility commitments — most notably from Walmart, which became a founding funder of Closed Loop Partners, the private-equity vehicle now financing recycling-infrastructure improvements nationwide.
Past Five Years: As producers have come to recognize the need for a level playing field on collection and processing costs, EPR for packaging has advanced steadily across the United States. Seven states — including California and Oregon — now have active EPR laws on the books.
SB 54 lands at a moment when federal climate and ESG policy is in retreat. While federal laws and regulations are pulled back, states like California are locking in binding obligations on multinational producers — a stark reminder that the regulatory floor for corporate accountability is rising, not falling, even in the absence of federal leadership.
As You Sow is calling on every producer, whether covered by SB 54 or not, to:
Work towards adoption of SB 54-aligned recyclability, recycled-content, and source-reduction commitments in states without EPR laws by supporting modernized recycling infrastructure in all states, not just for California-bound packaging.
Disclose progress towards meeting SB 54’s requirements annually in ESG reports.
Cease any opposition to comparable EPR proposals in other states and at the federal level.
“Many of the Fortune 500 producers now scrambling to comply with SB 54 spent the last decade telling their shareholders that As You Sow’s sustainable packaging proposals were ‘ordinary business’ or impractical,” MacKerron added. “They were not. They were an early warning. The companies that get ahead of this — by adopting SB 54-aligned commitments nationwide and disclosing their progress in annual reporting — will have a competitive edge over their competitors.”
About As You Sow
As You Sow is the nation’s leading shareholder representative, with a 30-year track record promoting environmental and social corporate responsibility. Its focus areas include climate change, ocean plastics, toxins in the food system, the Rights of Nature, racial justice, and workplace diversity. Click here to view As You Sow’s shareholder resolution tracker.