SB 270

Bill Subjects

Abstract

(1) Existing law, until 2020, requires an operator of a store, as defined, to establish an at-store recycling program that provides to customers the opportunity to return clean plastic carryout bags to that store. This bill, as of July 1, 2015, would prohibit stores that have a specified amount of sales in dollars or retail floor space from providing a single-use carryout bag to a customer, with specified exceptions. The bill would also prohibit those stores from selling or distributing a recycled paper bag at the point of sale unless the store makes that bag available for purchase for not less than $0.10. The bill would also allow those stores, on or after July 1, 2015, to distribute compostable bags at the point of sale only in jurisdictions that meet specified requirements and at a cost of not less than $0.10. The bill would require these stores to meet other specified requirements on and after July 1, 2015, regarding providing reusable grocery bags to customers, including distributing those bags only at a cost of not less than $0.10. The bill would require all moneys collected pursuant to these provisions to be retained by the store and be used only for specified purposes. The bill, on and after July 1, 2016, would additionally impose these prohibitions and requirements on convenience food stores, foodmarts, and entities engaged in the sale of a limited line of goods, or goods intended to be consumed off premises, and that hold a specified license with regard to alcoholic beverages. The bill would allow a retail establishment to voluntarily comply with these requirements, if the retail establishment provides the department with irrevocable written notice. The bill would require the department to post on its Internet Web site, organized by county, the name and physical location of each retail establishment that has elected to comply with these requirements. The bill would require the operator of a store that has a specified amount of sales in dollars or retail floor space and a retail establishment that voluntarily complies with the requirements of this bill to comply with the existing at-store recycling program requirements. The bill would require, on and after July 1, 2015, a reusable grocery bag sold by certain stores to a customer at the point of sale to be made by a certified reusable grocery bag producer and to meet specified requirements with regard to the bag's durability, material, labeling, heavy metal content, and, with regard to reusable grocery bags made from plastic film on and after January 1, 2016, recycled material content. The bill would impose these requirements as of July 1, 2016, on the stores that are otherwise subject to the bill's requirements. The bill would prohibit a producer of reusable grocery bags made from plastic film from selling or distributing those bags on and after July 1, 2015, unless the producer is certified by a 3rd-party certification entity, as specified. The bill would require a reusable grocery bag producer to provide proof of certification to the department. The bill would require the department to provide a system to receive proofs of certification online. The department would be required to publish on its Internet Web site a list of reusable grocery bag producers that have submitted the required certification and their reusable grocery bags. The bill would require the department to establish an administrative certification fee schedule, which would require a reusable grocery bag producer providing proof to the department of certification or recertification to pay a fee. The bill would require that all moneys submitted to the department pursuant to these fee provisions be deposited into the Reusable Grocery Bag Fund, which would be established by the bill, and continuously appropriated for purposes of implementing these proof of certification and Internet Web site provisions, thereby making an appropriation. The bill would also require a reusable grocery bag producer to submit applicable certified test results to the department. The bill would authorize a person to object to a certification of a reusable grocery bag producer by filing an action for review of that certification in the superior court of a county that has jurisdiction over the reusable grocery bag producer. The bill would require the court to determine if the reusable grocery bag producer is in compliance with the provisions of the bill and, based on the court's determination, would require the court to direct the department to either remove or retain the reusable grocery bag producer on its published Internet Web site list. The bill would allow a city, county, or city and county, or the state to impose civil penalties on a person or entity that knows or reasonably should have known it is in violation of the bill's requirements. The bill would require these civil penalties to be paid to the office of the city attorney, city prosecutor, district attorney, or Attorney General, whichever office brought the action, and would allow the penalties collected by the Attorney General to be expended by the Attorney General, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to enforce the bill's provisions. The bill would declare that it occupies the whole field of the regulation of reusable grocery bags, single-use carryout bags, and recycled paper bags provided by a store and would prohibit a local public agency from enforcing or implementing an ordinance, resolution, regulation, or rule, or any amendment thereto, adopted on or after September 1, 2014, relating to those bags, against a store, except as provided. (2) The California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989 creates the Recycling Market Development Revolving Loan Subaccount in the Integrated Waste Management Account and continuously appropriates the funds deposited in the subaccount to the department for making loans for the purposes of the Recycling Market Development Revolving Loan Program. Existing law makes the provisions regarding the loan program, the creation of the subaccount, and expenditures from the subaccount inoperative on July 1, 2021, and repeals them as of January 1, 2022. This bill would appropriate $2,000,000 from the Recycling Market Development Revolving Loan Subaccount in the Integrated Waste Management Account to the department for the purposes of providing loans for the creation and retention of jobs and economic activity in California for the manufacture and recycling of plastic reusable grocery bags that use recycled content. The bill would require a recipient of a loan to agree, as a condition of receiving the loan, to take specified actions. (3) The bill would require the department, no later than March 1, 2018, to provide a status report to the Legislature on the implementation of the bill's provisions.