Music City Labs

Packtally guide

How to calculate packaging weight by state for EPR reports

A step-by-step method for Shopify brands to work out pounds of packaging by material shipped into each state, including who reports the box when a 3PL packs.

By Blake Smith, founder of Music City Labs. Updated .

Short answer: List every packaging component you ship with its material and weight, assign packaging to each product and each type of shipment, then add up the packaging on every order you fulfilled by its ship-to state. The result is pounds of each material shipped into each state, which is what the reports ask for.

Step 1: Build your packaging list

Write down every component that reaches a customer, with its material and weight in pounds or grams:

  • Product packaging: jars, lids, bottles, labels, cartons, hang tags, poly bags.
  • Shipping packaging: boxes and mailers in each size, tissue, void fill, tape, inserts, invoices.

Note where each weight came from: your own scale, a supplier spec sheet, an invoice or an estimate. Weigh small items in a stack of ten and divide, so a 4 gram label doesn't round to zero.

Step 2: Sort components into each state's material categories

Each program has a list of material categories, such as corrugated cardboard, paperboard, specific plastic resins, plastic film, glass, aluminum and steel. Plastic film usually needs its resin type. Map each component to the right category once, and reuse it.

Step 3: Assign packaging to products and shipments

  • Give each product its own packaging profile: a candle might be a glass jar, a metal lid, a paper label and a paperboard carton.
  • Write shipping rules: one or two items go in the small mailer, three to six in the medium box, and so on. Add a default rule so no order counts as zero packaging.

Step 4: Add it up by ship-to state

  1. Export a full year of fulfilled orders from Shopify with line items and the shipping state. Leave out cancelled, test and fully refunded unshipped orders.
  2. For each order, add the product packaging for each unit plus the shipping packaging its rule picks.
  3. Total the weight by material for each state.
  4. Add other channels, such as Amazon or wholesale, from their own reports, and note how you estimated them.

Who reports the shipping box when a 3PL packs?

In most states the shipping box belongs to whoever packs the order, which can be your 3PL. California assigns shipping packaging to the brand owner even when a 3PL packs it. Branded boxes and contracts can change who is responsible, so agree in writing with your 3PL which of you reports what, and make sure nothing gets counted twice or not at all.

Write down your method

Keep a short description of how you got the numbers: the data year, the order export, the weights and their sources, the shipping rules, and any estimates. Reports generally can't be edited after submission, and the method is what lets you explain or correct a number later.

A general method as of October 2026, not legal advice. Each program publishes its own categories and reporting instructions.

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