As EPR regulations expand in the US, companies and producers are under increasing pressure to anticipate and account for next year’s compliance costs, well before CAA invoices are received and budgets are finalized. With 2026 shaping up to be a pivotal year for packaging compliance, with additional state regulations underway, companies are seeking accurate, accessible cost-estimation tools they can trust.

At rePurpose, our mission is to simplify and streamline compliance and remove uncertainty from EPR reporting. Our new EPR Fee Calculator, designed to give brands visibility into their upcoming EPR fees, is now available directly within the rePurpose platform. 

With rePurpose, customers get an up-to-date view of estimated EPR fees by US state and payment year using the PRO Circular Action Alliance (CAA)’s latest information and their submitted reports.

Interested in seeing how it works? Book a demo for a guided preview of the Fee Calculator.

What Drives EPR Fees?

State-level EPR fee schedules vary because each state has different recycling infrastructures, program requirements, and material supply volumes. To determine fees, the Producer Responsibility Organization (PRO), such as CAA, calculates the total cost of running each state program and distributes those costs across materials based on four components:

1. Total program cost: including system operations, administration, education, outreach, and market development.
   
   
2. Cost to manage each material type: reflecting differences in material properties, quantities, and recyclability.
   
   
3. Commodity revenue: crediting materials for the revenue they generate when recycled and sold to end markets, reducing their net cost.
   
   
4. Total tons of each material sold into the state: ensuring fees align with actual supply levels.

From these inputs, states establish base fees that apply equally to all producers for a given covered material category . On top of this, eco-modulation refers to the process where fee adjustments are applied for material categories or individual producers based on their actions or inactions to improve the environmental performance of their packaging. These monetary adjustments are typically applied in the form of incentives or disincentives on top of the producer's base fee for a particular material category. These adjustments can increase or decrease the final fee, as seen for example in the Colorado 2026 program fees that includes passive ecomodulation factors.

With these variables shifting state by state, companies need clarity, and they need it built directly into their workflow.

Bringing Clarity to a Complex Regulatory Year

Budget planning for 2026 is already underway, and companies need reliable information — not estimates based on outdated fee schedules, endless spreadsheets, or siloed data systems. With varying state structures, base fees, eco-modulation rules, and packaging categories, calculating EPR fees can quickly become a time-consuming operational burden.

rePurpose’s new in-app EPR Fee Calculator eliminates that complexity. It is:

• Current, using the most up-to-date CAA fee schedules and packaging covered material categories
• Real-time, generating estimates instantly
• Integrated, pulling directly from your submitted EPR data and reports
• Comprehensive, showing side-by-side state cost comparisons and breakdowns by component

How the In-App Fee Calculator Works

The calculator leverages packaging specifications already uploaded to the rePurpose platform — materials, weights, formats, and units sold — and pairs them with the most current EPR fee structures for the relevant markets.

Within seconds, users can:

• Generate a comprehensive 2026 EPR fee estimate
  
• Compare fees across multiple markets
  
• Understand how specific packaging choices impact cost
  
• Download fee estimates for budget planning and internal reviews

The EPR Fee Calculator builds on rePurpose’s packaging compliance solution: centralized packaging data management, EPR reporting workflows, and regulatory updates.

How the EPR Calculator Can Save You Money 

Our EPR Fee Calculator goes beyond budgeting for the finance team. With visual breakdowns of fees by individual packaging components and by state, this feature empowers sustainability and compliance teams to make smarter packaging decisions. By understanding the cost implications of materials, weights, or formats across states, brands can identify opportunities to:

• Reduce future compliance costs
  
• Understand the cost-benefit trade-offs of sustainable materials
  
• Prepare long-term packaging roadmaps aligned with upcoming regulations
  
• Adjust packaging components to achieve lower fee tiers (coming soon in a future update)

Start Estimating Your 2026 EPR Fees Today

The in-app EPR Fee Calculator is now available to all rePurpose platform users. If your team is already preparing next year’s budgets, this tool provides the transparency and immediacy you’ve been asking for.

To learn more or book a demo, contact our team at any time.