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03/10/2026
Extended Producers Responsibility: Legal Advisors Offer Guidance
Source: Mailers Hub, March 9, 2026
California’s Packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Program: Why Commercial Printers and Mailers are Officially in the Conversation
For years, environmental compliance lived comfortably upstream – brand owners worried about it, packaging manufacturers designed around it, and commercial printers and mailers mostly executed.
Not any longer. If your business touches printed packaging, inserts, labels, catalogs, mailers, or fulfillment, California’s Extended Producer Responsibility program is no longer a “watching brief.” It’s a fast-developing compliance system that will change who pays, who reports, and how packaging is designed and sourced – with ripple effects through print and mailing workflows. California’s EPR program changes that dynamic.
While the program is still framed legally around “producers,” recent developments from CalRecycle make one thing clear: printers and mailers are now operationally essential to compliance. The rules are still being finalized, but the direction of travel is unmistakable – and the data, design, and documentation burden is already moving downstream. Commercial printers and mailers may indeed qualify as producers, and even now sit uncomfortably close to the regulatory blast radius.
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