SEATTLE (Recycling Monster): An estimated 8.5 million tons of packaging ended up in the state's landfills last year, according to a revised study report released by CalRecycle. September 30, 2025, saw the publication of the updated report. It should be mentioned that by the end of June of this year, CalRecycle had released its initial results.

The report was prepared based on collection of data from 16 landfills in the state between February and April 2025, in collaboration with Cascadia Consulting Group.

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Nearly 40 million tons of materials reached landfills in 2024, according to the study's conclusions. Materials covered by the state's expanded producer responsibility for packaging law made up about 21% of these.

The goal of the CalRecycle study was to ascertain how much "covered material" associated with EPRs ended up in landfills over the course of the year. This would help determine how many of these materials would need to be redirected when the EPR program is put into place in 2027.

The survey discovered that plastic and paper products were the most important types of covered materials in landfills. The most common component, making up about 5% of the materials examined, was cardboard. Flexible and film polymers of many kinds were another popular class of materials.