(1) The California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989, administered by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, generally regulates the disposal, management, and recycling of solid waste. The act establishes stewardship programs for various products, including, among others, carpet. The act includes a product stewardship for carpet program and a successor carpet producer responsibility program, and requires the product stewardship for carpet program to become inoperative upon the completion of certain conditions related to the implementation of the successor carpet producer responsibility program.
Existing law, the product stewardship for carpet program, requires a manufacturer of carpets sold in this state, individually or through a carpet stewardship organization, to submit a carpet stewardship plan to the department, which is required to include specified elements, including achieving specified carpet recycling rates and a funding mechanism that provides sufficient funding to carry out the plan. Existing law authorizes the department to administratively impose a civil penalty of $25,000 per day on any person in violation of the program if the violation is intentional, knowing, or negligent.
This bill would instead authorize a civil penalty of $25,000 per day if the violation is intentional or knowing.
(2) Existing law, the successor carpet producer responsibility program, requires producers of covered products to form and join a single producer responsibility organization (PRO) for the collection and recycling of a covered product. Existing law defines a "covered product" as carpet, as defined, and requires the PRO to develop a producer responsibility plan for the collection, transportation, recycling, and the safe and proper management of covered products in the state.
Existing law requires, no later than January 1, 2029, a person who removes a covered product as part of the installation of a covered product to transport, or contract to transport, all of the removed covered product to an approved collection site, as provided. Under existing law, an approved collection site is a solid waste facility that has agreed to be a collection site for the PRO.
This bill would exempt a covered product from this transport requirement if certain conditions are met, including that it is returned to the producer. The bill would expand approved collection sites to include certain carpet recycling centers, municipal facilities, and retailers.
Existing law requires the governing board of a PRO to include, among others, a nonvoting member representing a nonprofit organization established to promote a circular economy and to address environmental issues. Existing law requires the PRO to submit an annual report to the department on or before July 1 of each year, as provided. Existing law requires a producer to publish on its internet website, for each of its covered products, an environmental product declaration that identifies a covered product's components, as provided.
This bill would eliminate the requirement for that nonvoting member to be from an organization established to promote a circular economy and would instead require the nonvoting member to be from an environmental nongovernmental organization, as defined. The bill would require the annual report to be submitted on or before September 1 of each year, instead of July 1 of each year. The bill would instead require a producer to publish on its internet website, for each of its covered products, the components that constitute more than 1% of the product's weight and any component that is a hazardous chemical, as specified.
Existing law requires a producer responsibility plan, among other things, to explain how producers will use standardized stamping or some other means to provide a visual mark on the back of a covered product that is a synthetic material to allow expeditious sorting of the carpet, as provided. Existing law requires the department to adopt regulations to implement the program with an effective date no earlier than December 31, 2026.
This bill would instead require a producer responsibility plan to explain how producers will use standardized stamping or some other means to provide a visual mark on the back of a covered product that provides the name of the manufacturer, the date of manufacture, and a listing of face fibers and backing materials contained in the product. The bill would instead require the department to adopt the regulations no later than December 31, 2026.

Statutes affected:
03/12/25 - Amended Assembly: 42968 PRC, 42968 PRC, 42968.1 PRC, 42968.1 PRC, 42968.4 PRC, 42968.4 PRC, 42968.21 PRC, 42968.21 PRC, 42968.32 PRC, 42968.32 PRC, 42968.40 PRC, 42968.40 PRC, 42968.62 PRC, 42968.62 PRC, 42978 PRC, 42978 PRC