The American Home Furnishings Alliance (AHFA) will hold its 2026 Packaging Forumon Wednesday, March 4, The Conference Center at Guildford Technical Community College in Colfax, North Carolina.

The program will review current EPR laws, examine problematic packaging currently used in shipping home furnishings and hear from packaging providers who are at the forefront of more environmentally-friendly solutions.

EPR laws for packaging require companies to take financial responsibility for the packing materials they use to ship their products and the waste those materials create. Home furnishings manufacturers and importers that ship into the states of Oregon, Colorado, Maryland, Maine, Minnesota, California or Washington already face responsibilities ranging from registration and data reporting to paying fees (or fines).

The 2026 Packaging Forum is open to all interested parties, including manufacturers, importers, retailers, shippers and packaging suppliers. Registrationis $99 for AHFA members and $199 for non-members.

Among invited presenters are officials from the Circular Action Alliance (CAA), the organization implementing EPR laws in Oregon, Colorado, Maryland, Maine, Minnesota and California. Confirmed presenters include Lowel Huffman, director of channel partnerships for rePurpose Global, a packaging sustainability and compliance platform; Joe Grzyb, director of sustainability for EFP, LLC, an industry leader specializing in high-volume molding and fabrication of engineered foam packaging; and Jamie Holt, national account manager-technical sales for Multi-Wall, a brand of Signode that offers a comprehensive line of protective packaging products.

The forum also will include an industry panel discussing best practices for complying with EPR packaging regulations, including collecting and reporting packaging data. The tentative agenda runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and includes lunch.

"The wave of EPR regulations implemented in 2025 sparked conversation throughout our industry, especially following AHFA's Regulatory Summit last August when we deconstructed several cartons of furniture and examined the packaging components in use," notes Alex Williams, AHFA's manager of sustainability and regulatory compliance.

"Companies that attend the Packaging Forum in March will reduce their compliance risk by becoming more informed. Our goal is to identify specific areas of protective packaging that companies may need to replace to avoid substantial fees and to introduce companies to packaging innovators who are researching and developing more sustainable packaging solutions for our industry."