AUGUSTA — The Board of Environmental Protection adopted new rules Thursday that are designed to reduce the amount of cardboard and other packaging material in Maine.

The rules are in response to a 2021 state law that’s intended to “reduce the burden to municipalities of managing packaging material and improving the design and management of packaging material,” according to a staff memo from the Department of Environmental Protection.

The board voted 4-1 Thursday after hearing from supporters and opponents.

“We believe that Maine can’t afford to wait any longer,” said Sarah Woodbury of Defend Our Health. “Maine’s municipalities and taxpayers are already bearing the financial and environmental burden of managing packaging waste and they’ve needed relief for years.”

But on the other side, Mark Page of Oakhurst Dairy, said the rules are confusing and don’t spell out the cost to businesses.

“The Maine program is unlike any other program across the country or the world,” he said. “We’d like some consistency. How do I compete with businesses in New Hampshire and Massachusetts who are not operating under the same rules? We will be at a competitive disadvantage.”

The board vote came despite pleas from the Maine State Chamber of Commerce and other business groups who asked that the board slow down the process. The chamber and five other business groups wrote a letter to Gov. Janet Mills asking her to “consider requesting a pause to the regulatory process” to make the rules more consistent with how other states run similar programs.

The groups say four other states — Minnesota, Colorado, Oregon and California — required companies to write the rules that govern funding of the program and spell out efforts to improve recycling.

In Maine, the state is adopting “a state government-run approach,” according to the letter.

“Over the last several months, the Maine State Chamber has heard from members who are currently budgeting for 2026, but the unknown cost of this program is creating significant uncertainty,” Patrick Woodcock, chamber president, said in a statement issued earlier this week.

The rules require companies that produce packaging material to pay “the average per ton cost for recycling.” If the material is not recyclable, the company must pay two times the cost of “the most expensive readily recyclable packaging material.”

The program is years away from becoming reality and several times on Thursday, BEP board member Robert Duchesne said he anticipates that the Legislature will consider bills in the coming months to change the 2021 law.

As currently envisioned, the state will ask for companies to bid on managing the program next fall but won’t likely sign a contract until April 2026, according to a timeline on the department website.

Companies would be required to pay start up fees in 2026, with their first annual payments due in 2027. That’s the first year participating municipalities would start receiving reimbursements for the packaging material they handled in 2026, according to the timeline.

Susan Lessard, board chairwoman and town manager in Bucksport, said she anticipates the rule will drive up costs of consumer goods as companies look to recover the costs of the program.

“We are moving this cost off the property tax to something else,” she said. “It will have to go somewhere else because producers won’t add cost to their system without moving that cost along.”

But board member Barbara Vickery, who voted in support of the rule, said people are required to pay their property taxes but they can make different choices about what they buy in the store.

“I do as a consumer have a choice about which products I buy and if as part of all of this we the consumers start changing our own behaviors to say I don’t want to buy that, not only is it more expensive, but look at all the packaging,” she said.