Recycled-content registration: Washington and New Jersey
Two states make brands register certain containers under recycled-content laws, which set a minimum share of post-consumer recycled (PCR) material. These are separate from packaging EPR, with their own agency, portal and deadline. In Washington you register with the Department of Ecology by April 1 each year if you sell plastic beverage bottles, plastic trash bags, or household cleaning and personal care products in plastic containers. Small producers are exempt from the fees and minimums but must still file a de minimis notice. In New Jersey you register with NJDEP between September 1 and December 31 each year if you're the brand owner of a product in a rigid plastic container, plastic beverage container or glass container, among others. The fee is $1,000, waived if your gross revenue is under $5 million.
Washington: who must register
Washington's law (chapter 70A.245 RCW) covers three product categories:
Beverages in plastic beverage containers: rigid bottles holding 2 fluid ounces to 1 gallon of water, soda, beer, wine, spirits or any other beverage. Refillable containers, and bottles used for drugs, medical devices or dietary supplements, are excluded. Wine in 187 ml plastic bottles and dairy milk come in later, from 2028.
Household cleaning and personal care products in plastic containers: laundry detergents and softeners, household cleaners, liquid soap, shampoo, conditioner and other hair care, and lotion, moisturizer, toner and other skin care. The container must be rigid, hold 8 fluid ounces to 5 gallons, and have a neck or mouth narrower than its base.
Plastic trash bags at least 0.70 mils thick, including garbage, recycling, leaf, kitchen and compactor bags. Compostable bags are excluded.
Who is the producer: the manufacturer, if the product carries its own brand or no brand; otherwise the brand licensee, unless the manufacturer or brand owner has agreed to take responsibility; and only if neither is within the state's reach, the importer or distributor. Ecology says that without any other evidence it will treat the brand owner as the manufacturer. Governments and 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) organizations are excluded.
Washington: the de minimis notice
You're a de minimis producer for a category if, in that category, you either:
sell less than 1 ton a year into Washington, or
make less than $1,000,000 a year in gross revenue from that category's sales into Washington.
The test is per category, and counts every brand you own and any affiliates under 50% or more common ownership. You can be de minimis for trash bags but covered for shampoo bottles.
De minimis producers don't pay fees and don't have to meet the PCR minimums. But Ecology's rule says they must still indicate their de minimis status every year in its online registration system. Ecology's guidance puts the deadline at April 1. The statute itself leaves de minimis producers out of the definition of "producer", so this filing comes from Ecology's rule (WAC 173-925-040), not the statute.
Washington: registering, reporting and fees
Deadline: April 1 every year. The next one is April 1, 2027.
Portal: Ecology's Waste Reduction Portal, which you reach through a SecureAccess Washington (SAW) account. A third party can register for you, but you stay responsible.
What you file: your company details, every brand and sub-brand, and plastic resin data for each category. For categories whose reporting has started, you also report pounds of virgin plastic and of PCR plastic by resin type. Reporting began April 1, 2024 for beverage bottles and trash bags, and April 1, 2026 for cleaning and personal care containers.
Fees: Ecology's yearly costs are split among non-de minimis producers by the pounds of resin they report. For fiscal year 2027 Ecology estimated about $285,800 in total, roughly $0.0009 per pound for program administration plus $0.0005 per pound for PCR oversight if your category must meet a minimum. Ecology planned to send that year's invoices by mid-May 2026. The rule makes fees due 30 days after Ecology sends the bill.
This is a different registration from Washington's packaging EPR law. See Washington packaging EPR for that one.
Washington: the minimum PCR percentages
Each is an average, by weight, across everything you sell into the state in the category:
Plastic beverage bottles: 25% from 2026 through 2030, then 50% from 2031. Wine in 187 ml bottles and dairy milk: 15% from 2028, 25% from 2031, 50% from 2036.
Cleaning and personal care containers: 15% through 2027, 25% from 2028, 50% from 2031.
Trash bags: 15% in 2025 and 2026, then 20% from 2027.
Ecology can lower a percentage for a year after a review, and must temporarily exclude products where federal health or safety law makes PCR infeasible. Excluded producers still register and report.
Washington: penalties
Not registering, reporting or labeling: up to $1,000 per day, but only after Ecology has sent at least two notices of violation by certified mail.
Missing a PCR minimum: 20 cents for every pound of PCR you fell short by, assessed from June 1 of the following year. Ecology can reduce it or ask for a corrective action plan instead.
New Jersey: who must register
New Jersey's Recycled Content Law (P.L.2021, c.391, signed January 18, 2022) covers rigid plastic containers, plastic beverage containers, glass food and beverage containers, paper and plastic carryout bags, and plastic trash bags. It calls the obligated party the "manufacturer":
For products sold in a rigid plastic container, plastic beverage container or glass container: the brand owner, unless it names a licensee that agrees in writing to NJDEP to take responsibility. If there's no brand owner or licensee the state can reach, the importer or distributor.
For empty containers and bags (rigid plastic containers, carryout bags, trash bags): the company that makes them.
Not covered: a business that makes, packages and sells its product directly to consumers at a single physical location, such as a restaurant, café or food truck.
A "rigid plastic container" holds 8 fluid ounces to 5 gallons and keeps its shape when empty, so a lot of ordinary consumer packaging is in scope.
New Jersey: exempt products
Some products are exempt from the PCR minimums. A manufacturer whose products are all exempt registers once, not every year, and pays no fee. The exemptions include:
Rigid plastic containers holding drugs, dietary supplements, medical devices or cosmetics (as federal law defines them), or FIFRA-regulated pesticides. Refillable and reusable containers, and containers that leave the state with the product, are also exempt.
Packaging for milk products (including plant-based "milks"), medical food, food for special dietary use and infant formula.
Food packaging, temporarily: packaging that contains food is exempt for five years from the law's effective date, which runs to January 2027 (NJDEP's page says it "expires 2027"). This doesn't cover plastic beverage containers or glass beverage containers. NJDEP may extend it.
Washington draws the line differently: shampoo and lotion bottles are covered there, while New Jersey exempts rigid plastic containers holding products that federal law treats as cosmetics.
New Jersey: the window, the fee and the report
When: NJDEP runs a combined registration and compliance reporting period every year from September 1 to December 31, through its Online Business Portal. The current window closes December 31, 2026.
Fee:$1,000 a year. It's waived if you show NJDEP that your gross revenue is under $5,000,000. The statute just says "gross revenue". NJDEP describes the same $5 million test for the waiver application fee as "gross global revenue", and its 2022 form asked for a tax document such as Schedule C as proof.
What you file: the registration covers the covered products you sell in the current year. The compliance certification covers the previous calendar year: whether each product type met the minimum or was exempt or waived, with pounds of virgin material and pounds of PCR used. It's signed under penalty of perjury.
Records: keep records showing how you complied, or why you're exempt, and give them to NJDEP within 30 days of a request.
New Jersey: the minimum percentages
The minimums started in 2024, two years after the law took effect, and are averages across your products:
Rigid plastic containers: 10%, rising 10 points every three years to 50%.
Plastic beverage containers: 15%, rising 5 points every three years to 50%. Hot-fill bottles are capped at 30%.
Glass containers: 35%, or 25% if at least half of your PCR is mixed-color cullet.
Paper carryout bags: 40%, or 20% for bags that hold 8 pounds or less. Plastic carryout bags: 20%, then 40% from 2027.
Plastic trash bags: 5% to 20% depending on thickness, doubling to 10% to 40% from 2027.
If you can't meet a minimum, you can apply for a waiver (for example, because of FDA rules or lack of supply). The waiver fee is $1,000, also waived under $5 million in revenue.
New Jersey: penalties
Not registering: you first get a written warning, then 90 days to register. After that, the general penalties apply.
Civil administrative penalties: $1,000 to $25,000 per violation, and each day counts as a separate violation. A court can impose up to $50,000 a day.
Missing a PCR minimum: a penalty per pound of virgin material used where recycled material was required, at a rate set by rule. We haven't confirmed the current rate.
A knowingly false registration or certification is a third-degree crime, with a fine of up to $50,000.
Has anything changed in 2026?
Not that we found. Senate bill S677 in the 2026 New Jersey session is about plastic construction materials in state-funded building projects. It doesn't change the container rules or the registration. A similar requirement for construction materials became law as P.L.2025, c.308. In Washington, the definitions, percentages and penalty sections of chapter 70A.245 RCW are unchanged since 2021.
Other states with PCR minimums
California and Maine also set PCR minimums, but only for plastic beverage containers in their bottle-deposit systems, and the obligation falls on the parties already in that system. In California, beverage manufacturers must average 25% PCR from 2025 through 2029 and 50% from 2030, and report their plastic use to CalRecycle by March 1 each year. In Maine, initiators of deposit and spirits manufacturers must average 25% from 2026 through 2030 and 30% from 2031, or pay a fee. They report to Maine DEP by April 1 each year with a registration fee of up to $500.
Still uncertain
Whether New Jersey's $5 million revenue test for the registration fee means global or New Jersey revenue. NJDEP's wording for the matching waiver fee says global.
New Jersey's per-pound penalty rate for missing a minimum.
Whether NJDEP will extend the temporary food-packaging exemption past January 2027.
Washington's fee for the year starting July 1, 2027, which depends on Ecology's next workload analysis, due each January.
What to do next
List your products by container. Washington: beverage bottles, cleaning or personal care containers of 8 oz to 5 gallons, trash bags. New Jersey: rigid plastic of 8 oz to 5 gallons, plastic beverage, glass, bags.
For Washington, check each category against 1 ton and $1,000,000 in Washington sales. Under either, file the de minimis notice in SAW by April 1. Over both, register, report and pay the fee by April 1.
For New Jersey, check whether all your containers are exempt (cosmetics, supplements, drugs, milk products). If they are, you register once with no fee. If not, register every year between September 1 and December 31.
If your gross revenue is under $5 million, claim New Jersey's fee waiver and keep the tax document that proves it.
Ask your container suppliers for the PCR content of what you buy, by resin and weight. Both states' reports need it.
If something here doesn't fit your products, check with Ecology (recycledcontent@ecy.wa.gov) or NJDEP (recycledcontent@dep.nj.gov).
These are on top of packaging EPR. Check whether you also owe anything in the seven packaging EPR states.