AB 792

Bill Subjects

Abstract

(1) Existing law, the California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act, requires every beverage container sold or offered for sale in this state to have a minimum refund value. Under the act, the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery is required to calculate a processing fee for each beverage container with a specified scrap value, which is required to be paid by beverage manufacturers for each beverage container sold or transferred to a distributor or dealer. The department is required to calculate the processing fee in a specified manner so that the actual processing fee generally equals 65% of the processing payment that the department is required to pay to processors if the scrap value of the container having a refund value pursuant to the act is less than the cost of recycling. Existing law provides that a violation of the act or a regulation adopted pursuant to the act is a crime. This bill, on and after January 1, 2021, would require the total number of plastic beverage containers filled with a beverage by a beverage manufacturer, as specified, to contain, on average, specified amounts of postconsumer recycled plastic content per year pursuant to a tiered plan that would require the total number of plastic beverage containers to contain, on average, no less than 50% postconsumer recycled plastic content per year on and after January 1, 2030, except as specified. The bill would impose civil penalties, in specified amounts, on a beverage manufacturer for a violation of these requirements, except as specified. The bill would authorize the department to enforce these provisions and would authorize the department to conduct audits and investigations of a beverage manufacturer for the purpose of ensuring compliance. The bill would exempt from the California Public Records Act information resulting from those audits and investigations. The bill would require penalties collected to be deposited in the Recycling Enhancement Penalty Account, which the bill would create. The bill would require moneys in the Recycling Enhancement Penalty Account to be expended upon appropriation for the sole purpose of supporting the recycling, infrastructure, collection, and processing of plastic beverage containers in this state. The bill would require the department to contract with a research university for a specified study and would authorize the department to allocate moneys from the California Beverage Container Recycling Fund, upon appropriation, for the study. The bill would require the study to be completed by May 1, 2025. The bill would prohibit a city, county, or other local government jurisdiction from adopting an ordinance regulating the minimum recycled plastic content requirements for plastic beverage containers. Because a violation of these provisions would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) The act requires the department to pay a market development payment to a reclaimer, as defined, for empty plastic beverage containers that have been collected for recycling in the state, and that the reclaimer washes and processes into flake, pellet, sheet, or any other form that is then usable as input for the manufacture of new plastic products, as defined, by product manufacturers in the state. The act also requires the department to pay a market development payment to a product manufacturer, as defined, for plastic flake, pellet, sheet, or any other form of plastic purchased from a reclaimer and used by that product manufacturer to manufacture a plastic product in the state. The act makes these provisions inoperative on July 1, 2022. This bill, for when the department is determining which entity to make a market development payment to, would require the department to prioritize allocations that increase the collection, production, procurement, and usage of beverage-grade recycling plastic in beverage containers, as specified. (3) Existing law requires a manufacturer of a beverage sold in a plastic beverage container subject to the California Redemption Value, as specified, to annually report to the department the amount of virgin plastic and postconsumer recycled plastic used by the manufacturer for plastic beverage containers subject to the California Redemption Value for sale in the state in the previous calendar year. This bill would require, beginning March 1, 2020, and annually thereafter, a plastic material reclaimer to report to the department, under penalty of perjury, the number of empty plastic beverage containers, as specified, that the plastic material reclaimer has collected and sold in the previous calendar year. The bill also would require, beginning March 1, 2020, and annually thereafter, a manufacturer of postconsumer recycled plastic to report to the department, under penalty of perjury, the amount in pounds of "food-grade" flake, pellet, sheet, fines, or other forms that were sold in the previous calendar year and their capacity to produce "food-grade" material, as specified. By requiring that the information be submitted under penalty of perjury, this bill would expand the crime of perjury and impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the department to post on its internet website, beginning July 1, 2020, a specified summary annually, and, beginning September 1, 2020, a specified analysis biennially. (4) Existing law requires all rigid plastic bottles and rigid plastic containers sold in the state to be labeled with a code indicating the resin used to produce the rigid plastic bottle or rigid plastic container. This bill would specify that the above labeling requirement does not apply to rigid plastic containers or rigid plastic bottles that are medical devices, medical products that are required to be sterile, prescription medicine, and packaging used for those products. (5) 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. 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.