FAQ
What Atlas Circular tracks, how it works, and what you get.
The basics
What is Atlas Circular?
Atlas Circular tracks circularity-aligned legislation across 37 jurisdictions — all 50 US states, the EU and its member states, and national law from Japan to Kenya to Chile, plus US federal action — Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), right-to-repair, deposit-return, recycled-content, labeling, disposal bans, and related laws — in one place. It turns a firehose of legislative activity into the handful of bills, deadlines, and obligations that actually affect you.
Who is it for?
Producers and the teams responsible for staying compliant as EPR spreads — plus advocates, nonprofits, researchers, journalists, and students who need to see the landscape. The Student and Researcher tiers are built for the latter; Professional is built for regulatory, sustainability, and product teams who need every deadline and obligation.
What exactly does it track?
Bills and enacted laws touching the circular economy: EPR / producer-responsibility programs, right-to-repair, recycled-content mandates, deposit-return / bottle bills, labeling and compostability claims, disposal and packaging bans, and financial incentives. We also track federal preemption and related federal agency actions via the Federal Register.
Data & accuracy
Where does the data come from?
Legislative data is sourced from Open States (Plural Policy), and federal actions from the Federal Register. Every bill links back to its official primary source so you can verify the original text.
How does the classification work — and how accurate is it?
Every bill is screened against a fixed set of circularity criteria, then auto-classified for relevance, policy instrument, and the material streams it touches — each with a confidence score. Relevant bills have their compliance details (deadlines, covered products, producer obligations) extracted from the bill text, and a growing set is spot-reviewed by a human. Each bill shows whether its relevance call is auto-classified or reviewed. Classifications are automated and can contain errors — always verify against the primary source before relying on any result. See the full methodology →
How current is the data?
The corpus is refreshed on a regular ingestion cycle that pulls new and updated bills from Open States, with bulk backfills for historical coverage. Coverage is most complete from roughly 2017 onward and usable back to about 2009; older sessions are sparser.
Can I rely on this for legal compliance?
No. Atlas Circular is an intelligence and research tool, not legal advice. Deadlines and obligations are surfaced to help you find what matters faster — but you (and your counsel) are responsible for confirming the law that applies to you. See our Terms of Service.
Plans & billing
What are the plans?
Four. Free is the Bill Explorer and jurisdiction data — browse the whole corpus, no account needed. Student is free on a verified .edu or .ac.uk address and adds Ask the Atlas and the Design Guide. Researcher ($30/mo, or $240/yr) adds the impact and bills-over-time analysis for published work. Professional adds the deadline calendar, watch lists and alerts, the Packaging Studio, and Federal Actions. Enterprise is scoped and invoiced per engagement. Compare plans →
What do I get without paying?
The Bill Explorer and the jurisdiction data behind it — every measure we track, its status, and a link to the source document, across every jurisdiction. Deadlines, alerts, watch lists, the full Design Guide, the Packaging Studio and Federal Actions sit on the paid tiers; students get most of the research surface free. We'd rather say that plainly than describe a free tier that quietly shrinks.
How much does Professional cost?
$200/mo or $1,800/yr for the first seat, at the founding rate — half the list price of $400/mo / $3,600/yr. Additional seats are $50/mo ($600/yr billed annually). The founding rate is capped at 50 seats and stays with your seat for as long as you keep it. Cancel anytime.
Is there a free trial?
Yes, and no card is needed to start: a new account gets a 7-day Professional trial immediately. Taking a founding seat at checkout adds a 90-day trial on top, billed only when it ends. You can extend access further by referring others.
How do I cancel or manage my plan?
From your account, open Manage plan to reach the billing portal, where you can update payment details or cancel. Cancellation stops future renewals; you keep your plan through the end of the period you have paid for.
Features
What are watch lists and alerts?
Watch lists (Professional) let you and your team follow specific bills and get notified when their status or deadlines change. Alerts email you about new and changing legislation across every instrument, with custom filters — also Professional. Separately, anyone can subscribe to the free email updates from the sign-up form on any page: pick your jurisdictions, materials and topics, confirm the address, and we'll email you when matching legislation moves. You can unsubscribe from any email at any time.
What is the Design Guide?
The Design Guide synthesizes what enacted EPR and circularity law actually requires into design-for-compliance principles — so product and packaging teams can act on policy, not just read it. Signed-out visitors see the headline imperatives; the complete guide opens at Student and above.
What is Portfolio Exposure?
Portfolio Exposure maps how legislation intersects with a company's materials and geographic footprint to estimate where compliance risk is concentrating. These are directional estimates intended to prioritize attention, not precise liability figures. Deeper, portfolio-specific exposure mapping is available as a bespoke engagement — see pricing →
Is there an API?
Yes — the circularity-legislation dataset (bills, statuses, deadlines, and classifications across every jurisdiction we track) is available via API, with a rate-limited free developer tier and usage-based paid plans. See the developer docs, or request access from the pricing page.
Account & contact
Do I need an account?
You can browse the Bill Explorer and map without one, and subscribe to the free email updates without one. An account is what carries a plan: Student for the research surface, Professional for the deadline calendar, watch lists, alerts and export. Sign-in is by email or Google.
Who builds Atlas Circular?
It's developed by Kenny Arnold Design, made possible by Open States. More about the project →
How do I get in touch?
Email kenny@superfun.studio with questions, corrections to a classification, or partnership inquiries.