Thank You, Producers!
All annual fees and penalties for the 2025 reporting cycle have been paid! Thank you, producers, for your cooperation with Washington State’s minimum post-consumer recycled content (PCRC) registration and reporting requirements, and for a timely turn-around on making your payments.
If you are a producer of covered products, but haven't registered for products sold in 2024, you can still register; however, any fees associated with this year’s reporting will be reflected in next year's fee (and you will still need to register next year). If you have any questions, please reach out to the Recycled Content team at RecycledContent@ecy.wa.gov.
 This year was the first year that PCRC minimum requirements applied to household cleaning and personal care products, beginning at 15% PCRC. This means that 2026 will be the first year that this category of producers must submit reports along with their annual registration. The reports must include a breakdown of plastic resin types used and the percentage of PCRC resin included. The minimum requirements for trash bags also went up this year from 10% to 15%, so the 2026 report should demonstrate compliance with this increase.
If you have any questions about next year’s reporting cycle, please visit the plastic producer registration and reporting webpage or watch this video from the PCRC web series, Part 4: How to Register and Report. Remember that ALL covered producers, regardless of product category, must submit their annual registration between January 1st and April 1st. Please review the below to make note of when future increases in the PCRC requirements take effect.
Exclusions to the PCRC requirements
Friendly reminder! Producers seeking exclusions from the minimum PCRC requirements for the 2027 reporting cycle must submit their temporary exclusion request by September 1, 2025. This year, we will extend the due date for temporary exclusions to September 15.
Exclusion requests must include the following:
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Identify federal health and safety standards that make the achievement of Washington’s minimum PCRC requirements infeasible for a type of covered product; and
- Include supporting documents with validated testing data or the sworn declaration of a qualified engineer to support the producer's claim that it is technically infeasible to meet the minimum PCRC requirements during the following year.
If a request for exclusion is submitted in 2025, it will apply to covered products produced in 2026 and to data reported in 2027.
Temporary exclusions from the minimum recycled content requirements do not exempt producers from registering, reporting, and paying fees. Please review WAC 173-925-070 for more information.
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Data Overview
Be on the lookout for the 2025 post-consumer recycled content producer data overview. This will provide data visualization from the PCRC registration and reporting process, including information like the total recycled resin used by product type and total penalties paid by product type.
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Welcome to the Team!
This winter we said goodbye to our team member, Alyssa, and now welcome our new team member, Caleb Carlson. The best way to get in touch with either team member, Shannon Jones or Caleb Carlson, is to email RecycledContent@ecy.wa.gov.
Hello all! My name is Caleb Carlson, and I’m the new Plastics Recycled Content Specialist within the PCRC Team. I’ve been with Ecology and the Solid Waste Management Program for the past three years. My hobbies include live music, cooking, and exploring the National Park System (13 so far), and enjoying Seattle sports.
I look forward to assisting the producer community with any questions you may have regarding the post-consumer recycled content law and utilizing all I’ve learned to support the PCRC team. Thank you!
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