Most retailers still talk about Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) as something that happens to their vendors: A CPG brand misses a filing, a supplier scrambles to reclassify a material, a buyer gets looped in only when a compliance question holds up a purchase order. Two reporting cycles ago, that was a reasonable way to think about it. But then May 31, 2026 arrived, and six states —California, Colorado, Oregon, Minnesota, Maryland and Washington — all required producers to file Annual Supply Reports on the same day, the first time multiple state EPR programs have converged on one deadline. A lot of retailers found out last minute how much of the reporting obligation was actually theirs. Before your next planning cycle, four things are worth confirming: -Whether your private-label lines make you the producer of record; -What packaging data you're requiring from vendors and in what format; -Whether e-commerce and fulfillment packaging is explicitly built into your compliance plan; and -How your footprint maps against every state with an active EPR program.

The company ranked among the top 1% of the 30,000 companies that were assessed on a range of criteria across environment, labour practices and human rights, sustainable procurement and fair business practices. EcoVadis provides supplier sustainability ratings for global supply chains in companies such as BASF, Johnson & Johnson, Nestlé, Renault and Veolia. This achievement follows on from Smurfit Kappa reaching a sustainability target earlier in the year when it reached full chain of custody certification for its entire raw material supply chain, helping its customers to meet their own sustainability and environmental targets. Click Read More below for additional detail.

Fastmarkets RISI recognized another bump that brings producers closer to achieving the $70 per ton hikes they announced earlier this year. “While demand appears to be improving, contacts largely attributed this month’s incremental increase to cost pressures, particularly related to the Iran conflict including chemicals, OCC, fuel, and energy,” Michael Roxland, senior paper and packaging analyst at Truist Securities, said in an April 19 note to investors about the Fastmarkets RISI data release. “Moreover, some contacts anticipate difficulty sustaining current pricing on supply conditions alone if demand does not meaningfully move higher.”