(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, including, among other solid waste, single-use plastic straws.
The Sustainable Packaging for the State of California Act of 2018 prohibits a food service facility located in a state-owned facility, operating on or acting as a concessionaire on state property, or under contract to provide food service to a state agency from dispensing prepared food using a type of food service packaging unless the type of food service packaging is on a list that the department publishes and maintains on its internet website that contains types of approved food service packaging that are reusable, recyclable, or compostable.
Existing law makes a legislative declaration that it is the policy goal of the state that not less than 75% of solid waste generated be source reduced, recycled, or composted by 2020.
This bill would enact the California Circular Economy and Pollution Reduction Act, which would impose a comprehensive regulatory scheme on producers, retailers, and wholesalers of single-use packaging, as defined, and priority single-use products, as defined, to be administered by the department. As part of that regulatory scheme, the bill would require the department, before January 1, 2024, to adopt regulations that require producers, as defined, (1) to source reduce, to the maximum extent feasible, single-use packaging and priority single-use products, and (2) to ensure that all single-use packaging and priority single-use products that are manufactured on or after January 1, 2030, and that are offered for sale, sold, distributed, or imported in or into California are recyclable or compostable. The bill would require the regulations to achieve and maintain, by January 1, 2030, a statewide 75% reduction of the waste generated from single-use packaging and priority single-use products offered for sale, sold, distributed, or imported in or into the state through source reduction, recycling, or composting. The bill would authorize the department to determine which actions producers may undertake to achieve those requirements. The bill would require the department, by January 1, 2023, and before adopting the regulations, to finalize an implementation plan, as specified. The bill would require the department to establish a Circular Economy and Waste Pollution Reduction Panel for the purpose of identifying barriers and solutions to creating a circular economy consistent with the act. The regulatory scheme would include, among other requirements, registration, reporting, and recordkeeping requirements. The bill would require reports and data provided to the department pursuant to the act to be accurate and attested to under penalty of perjury, thereby imposing a state-mandated local program by expanding the crime of perjury. The bill would prohibit a retailer or wholesaler, as defined, from offering for sale or selling single-use packaging, products packaged in single-use packaging, or priority single-use products if the producer of the single-use packaging or priority single-use product is listed as noncompliant on the department's internet website on a list that the bill would require the department to post, as specified.
The bill would require the department to develop criteria to determine whether the packaging or priority single-use products are reusable, recyclable, or compostable. The bill would authorize local governments, solid waste facilities, recycling facilities, and composting facilities to provide information requested by the department for purposes of developing that criteria.
The bill would require single-use packaging and priority single-use products offered for sale, sold, distributed, or imported in or into California by a producer to meet specified recycling rates that are based on date of manufacture and that increase over a prescribed timeframe, and would authorize the department to impose a higher or lower recycling rate, as specified. The bill would require the department to establish, update, and post on its internet website a list of packaging and product categories, and recycling rates for those packaging and product categories, as specified.
The bill would authorize producers, if the department adopts specified regulations authorizing the establishment of a stewardship program, to collectively form a stewardship organization that adopts a stewardship plan, as an alternative to individually complying with the above-referenced comprehensive regulatory scheme. The bill would require the department to establish, and a producer to pay, the California circular economy regulatory fee. The bill would require the department to set the amount of the fee at no more than is necessary for the regulatory costs of the above-referenced comprehensive regulatory scheme and stewardship program, and would require a stewardship organization to pay the regulatory fee on behalf of its member producers, as specified.
The bill would require the department to report to the Legislature every 3 years its progress in implementing the act's provisions.
The bill would provide for exceptions to, and enforcement of, the act, including authorizing the department to impose an administrative civil penalty in an amount not to exceed $50,000 per day per violation on an entity that is not in compliance with the act's requirements.
(2) The California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989 requires each city and county, and each regional agency formed pursuant to the act, to develop a source reduction and recycling element of an integrated waste management plan to divert 50% of all solid waste, through source reduction, recycling, and composting activities.
This bill would prohibit a city, county, city and county, or other local public agency from requiring a grocery store, as defined, to use a certain type of food packaging for any food sold in the grocery store unless the majority of residential households within the jurisdiction of the local agency have access to a curbside program, as defined, that accepts the material from which that food packaging is made. The bill would also prohibit those local agencies from requiring a grocery store to use a food packaging container that does not meet specified criteria. The bill would repeal these provisions as of January 1, 2030.
(3) The Alcoholic Beverage Control Act, administered by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, regulates the granting of licenses for the manufacture, distribution, and sale of alcoholic beverages within the state. The act requires an out-of-state vendor shipping beer into the state to hold a certificate of compliance granted by the department, as prescribed. The act authorizes the department to suspend or revoke the certificate of compliance, as specified, if an out-of-state-vendor after obtaining the certificate fails to submit a certain monthly report or fails to comply with a particular provision of the California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act.
This bill would authorize the department to suspend or revoke the certificate of compliance of an out-of-state vendor that fails to comply with the provisions of the California Circular Economy and Pollution Reduction Act.
(4) Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest.
This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.
(5) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Statutes affected:
SB 54: 23671 BPC
12/11/18 - Introduced: 23671 BPC
02/25/19 - Amended Senate: 23671 BPC
03/07/19 - Amended Senate: 23671 BPC
03/25/19 - Amended Senate: 23671 BPC
05/07/19 - Amended Senate: 23671 BPC
05/22/19 - Amended Senate: 23671 BPC
06/24/19 - Amended Assembly: 23671 BPC
07/10/19 - Amended Assembly: 23671 BPC
08/14/19 - Amended Assembly: 23671 BPC
09/06/19 - Amended Assembly: 23671 BPC
09/10/19 - Amended Assembly: 23671 BPC
SB54: 23671 BPC