Maine DEP Receives No Proposals To Act as the Stewardship Organization Administering Its EPR Law for Packaging

On August 20, 2026, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced that it had received no proposals to act as a Stewardship Organization under its extended producer responsibility (EPR) law for packaging.  Although Maine DEP’s Stewardship Program for Packaging website indicates that it had anticipated that registration and invoicing would begin at the end of 2026, its August 20 announcement also states that it is “assessing all options at this time” and that “further information will be forthcoming.”

By way of background, Maine’s packaging EPR law, the Stewardship Program for Packaging (38 M.R.S. § 2146), was passed in July 2021 and requires Maine DEP to enter into a contract with a Stewardship Organization to operate its packaging stewardship program. Maine DEP published an RFP for the Stewardship Organization on June 15, 2026, and the deadline to respond was August 18, 2026. 

Circular Action Alliance (CAA) – which serves as the producer responsibility organization (PRO) administering the packaging EPR laws in California, Colorado, Maryland, Minnesota, Oregon, and Washington – decided not to respond to Maine DEP’s RFP “based on the scope of this specific RFP, not on Maine’s EPR goals or CAA’s interest in participating in Maine’s program,” because “[t]he Maine RFP as scoped is not aligned with our operational practices, systems and data stewardship standards or the delivery of the consistent producer experience that is central to our strategic operating principles.”  CAA also commented that, “[i]f Maine issues future RFPs with a scope more closely aligned with CAA’s operating model as a PRO, we will explore those pathways and evaluate them thoughtfully.”

Maine DEP’s August 20 announcement can be found here, and CAA’s statement can be found here.