SB 1013

Bill Subjects

Abstract

(1) The California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act defines the term "beverage" to include certain types of products in liquid, ready-to-drink form and excludes, among other things, wine or wine from which alcohol has been removed in whole or in part, whether or not sparkling or carbonated. The act defines the term "beverage container" to mean the individual, separate bottle, can, jar, carton, or other receptacle, however denominated, in which a beverage is sold, and which is constructed of metal, glass, or plastic, or other material, or any combination of these materials. The act requires a distributor to pay a redemption payment for every beverage container sold or offered for sale in the state of $0.05 for a beverage container with a capacity of less than 24 fluid ounces and $0.10 for a beverage container with a capacity of 24 fluid ounces or more to the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, and requires the department to deposit those amounts in the California Beverage Container Recycling Fund. The act also requires those beverage containers to have a refund value of $0.05 and $0.10, respectively. The money in the fund, except for civil penalties, fines, and administrative costs, is continuously appropriated to the department to pay refund values and administrative fees to processors, defined to mean persons certified by the department who purchase empty beverage containers from recycling centers and process the containers in a prescribed manner, to fund a reserve for contingencies and, after setting specified funds aside, for various purposes relating to beverage container recycling, litter cleanup and prevention, and education, including up to $10,000,000 annually for quality incentive payments for empty glass beverage containers. Under the act, the department 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 act requires processors and distributors of beverage containers to report specified information to the department, in the form and manner prescribed by the department. The act imposes certain requirements on the invoice or other form of accounting of a transaction submitted by a beverage distributor of beverages to a dealer, but authorizes a distributor of beer and malt beverages or wine or distilled spirit coolers to separately identify certain information. The act prohibits a person from offering to sell, or selling, to a consumer a beverage container that has not been labeled as required by the act. The act defines "wine and distilled spirit cooler" as a beverage containing wine or distilled spirits to which is added concentrated or unconcentrated juice or flavoring material and containing not more than 7% alcohol by volume. The act requires the total number of filled plastic beverage containers sold by a beverage manufacturer to contain specified amounts of postconsumer recycled plastic content per year, as provided. The act authorizes the department to impose a civil penalty of up to $1,000 for a violation of the act, and up to $5,000 for a violation that is intentional or negligent. A violation of the act is a crime. The Alcoholic Beverage Control Act, which is administered by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, regulates the application, issuance, and suspension of alcoholic beverage licenses. Existing law authorizes a person licensed in California or any other state as a winegrower who obtains a wine direct shipper permit to sell and ship wine directly to a resident of California, who is 21 years of age or older, for the resident's personal use and not for resale. A violation of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act is a crime. This bill would require a wine direct shipper permitholder, before sending any shipment to a resident of California, to register with the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery as a beverage manufacturer and distributor under the California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act. The bill would require a wine direct shipper permitholder to comply with the California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act, including, but not limited to, the reporting and payment provisions applicable to the permitholder as a beverage manufacturer and distributor, and would authorize the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to suspend or revoke the wine direct shipper permit if the permitholder fails to comply with certain provisions of the California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act. The bill would also authorize the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery to adopt regulations related to the wine direct shipper permit. The bill would thereby impose a state-mandated local program by creating new crimes under the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act. The bill would require, with respect to the payment of processing fees and redemption payments for beverages manufactured outside the state and sold directly to consumers within the state with a direct shipper permit, the beverage manufacturer or distributor to be deemed to be the person or entity named on the direct shipper permit issued pursuant to the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act, and would require the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery to provide related notice. The bill would require the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery and the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to enter into a contract concerning the implementation of that requirement for redemption payments, and would authorize the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery to expend from the fund the amount necessary for reimbursing the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control for its costs incurred in implementing the requirement. The bill would thereby make an appropriation by authorizing the expenditure of moneys from the continuously appropriated fund for a new purpose. The bill would explicitly authorize the department to require the information reported to the department by a processor or distributor of beverage containers to be submitted electronically. The bill would, as of January 1, 2024, revise the definition of "beverage" to include distilled spirits, wine, or wine from which alcohol has been removed in whole or in part, whether or not sparkling or carbonated, and wine or distilled spirits contained in a beverage container that is a box, bladder, or pouch, or similar container, regardless of the material type from which the beverage container is made. The bill would require a beverage container that is a box, bladder, or pouch, or similar container, containing wine or distilled spirits to have a redemption payment and refund value of $0.25, would exclude a licensed wine or distilled spirits tasting room from the act's definition of "dealer," and would limit the exclusions in the act's definition of "dealer" to the sale of beverages in beverage containers to consumers for consumption onsite, as provided. The bill would grant wine and distilled spirits contained in a beverage container that is a box, bladder, or pouch, or similar container, an additional 2 years to comply with the act's postconsumer recycled plastic content requirements. The bill would require, commencing January 1, 2024, and until January 1, 2026, a processing fee equivalent to the processing fee applied to high-density polyethylene beverage containers to be applied to a beverage container that is a box, bladder, or pouch, or similar container, containing wine or distilled spirits. The bill would, as of January 1, 2024, revise the act's definition of "wine and distilled spirit cooler" by eliminating the requirement that the beverage contain not more than 7% alcohol by volume. Since the additional payments for the beverage containers that this bill would make subject to the act would be deposited in a continuously appropriated fund, the bill would make an appropriation. The bill would additionally authorize a distributor of wine, or wine from which alcohol has been removed in whole or in part, whether or not sparkling or carbonated, or distilled spirits to separately identify specified information on an invoice or other form of accounting of a transaction submitted to a dealer. The bill would require the department, to the extent feasible, to make efforts to streamline and consolidate forms used by wineries who are also distributors to register and provide payments under the act. The bill would increase from $10,000,000 to $15,000,000 the annual amount authorized to be expended from the fund for quality incentive payments for empty glass beverage containers, thereby making an appropriation, and would restrict those payments to beverage containers that are used for the manufacturing of glass beverage containers in this state. The bill would exempt a beverage container included within the scope of the act beginning on January 1, 2024, from the act's labeling requirements until July 1, 2025. The bill would require the department to create the Recycled Glass Processing Incentive Grant Program to provide grants to applicants who demonstrate the ability to expand glass cullet processing in the state, as prescribed. The bill would authorize the department to expend from the fund up to $4,000,000 annually for those grants, thereby making an appropriation. The bill would require the department to create the Increased Recycling of Empty Glass Beverage Containers Grant Program to assist in funding regional pilot programs furnishing bins for collection of empty glass beverage containers from restaurants and on-sale retail licensed establishments, as prescribed. The bill would authorize the department to expend from the fund up to $4,000,000 annually for those grants, thereby making an appropriation. The bill also would require the department to create the Empty Glass Beverage Transportation Grant Program to facilitate the use of rail transportation of empty glass beverage containers to glass processing facilities within the state, as prescribed. The bill would authorize the department to expend from the fund up to $1,000,000 annually for those grants, thereby making an appropriation. The bill would authorize the department to pay a market development payment to a glass beverage container manufacturer who purchases recycled glass collected within this state for use in manufacturing new beverage containers in this state. The bill would authorize the department to expend from the fund up to $60,000,000 annually for these glass market development payments, as prescribed, thereby making an appropriation. The bill would repeal these glass market development payment provisions as of January 1, 2028. The bill would appropriate $10,000,000 from the fund to the department to disburse to community conservation corps in the form of grants for beverage container litter reduction programs and recycling programs, thereby making an appropriation. The bill would increase from $1,000 to $5,000 the amount of the civil penalty that the department may impose for a violation of the act and would increase from $5,000 to $10,000 the amount for an intentional or negligent violation. (2) The California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act requires the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery to annually designate convenience zones statewide and requires at least one certified recycling center or location within every convenience zone that accepts all types of empty beverage containers and pays the refund value, if any, at one location. The act defines "convenience zone" as an area within a 12-mile radius of a supermarket or, alternatively, authorizes the department, in a rural region and upon petition by an interested person, if certain conditions are met, to increase a convenience zone to include the area within a 3-mile radius of a supermarket or to designate as a convenience zone the area within a 3-mile radius of a dealer. The act requires dealers within a convenience zone where no recycling location has been established, or within a convenience zone that is unserved for 60 days and not exempt from convenience zone requirements, to either (A) submit an affidavit to the department stating that the dealer has met specified standards for empty beverage container redemption or (B) pay $100 per day to the department, for deposit into the fund, until a recycling location is established or until the dealer meets the standards for redemption specified in the affidavit provisions. The act authorizes the department to grant a convenience zone an exemption from certain redemption requirements, including certain dealer and recycling center redemption requirements, based on certain factors. The act limits the total number of exemptions that may be granted to 35% of the total number of convenience zones identified as having one or more of those factors applicable. This bill would revise the act's definition of "convenience zone" to expand that area from a 12-mile radius to a one-mile radius of a supermarket. The bill would expand the area to which the department may increase a convenience zone in a rural region from a 3-mile radius to up to a 5-mile radius of a supermarket. The bill would decrease from 35% to 15% the percentage of the total number of those convenience zones that may be granted an extension. The bill would, as of January 1, 2025, eliminate the option to pay $100 per day to the department rather than submit that affidavit to the department. The bill would require a dealer, as an alternative to submitting that affidavit, to join a dealer cooperative, as defined, to provide a dealer cooperative redemption plan to the department and implement the approved plan to serve that convenience zone. The bill would exempt from those requirements a dealer that has demonstrated to the department that the dealer has gross annual sales of less than $1,500,000, excluding sales of fuel, or is less than 5,000 square feet. The bill would, by January 1, 2024, authorize the department to provide one or more model dealer cooperative redemption plans for dealer cooperatives to adopt and require the department to adopt emergency regulations that provide access and convenience for consumers that are comparable to specified existing law. The bill would impose requirements on a dealer cooperative, including, among others, assessing fees on the dealers in the zone or zones covered by the redemption plan necessary to cover operational costs and implementation of the approved plan and redeeming all material types and offering one or more redemption locations within the dealer cooperative zone. The bill would make a dealer cooperative eligible for reimbursement of California Redemption Value funds paid to consumers, processing payments, handling fees, and administrative fees unless a certified recycling center operates in a convenience zone in which a dealer participating in the dealer cooperative is located. By authorizing the expenditure of moneys from the continuously appropriated fund for a new purpose, the bill would make an appropriation. The bill would provide for enforcement of these provisions by the department, including requiring the department to audit each cooperative at least once every 24 months. (3) The California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act authorizes the department to pay a market development payment to a reclaimer 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 by product manufacturers in the state. The act also authorizes the department to pay a market development payment to a product manufacturer 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. The act authorizes the department, for the 2019–20 fiscal year to the 2021–22 fiscal year, inclusive, to expend up to $10,000,000 each fiscal year from the fund for market development payments to reclaimers and product manufacturers for the activities described above. This bill would extend the market development payment inoperative date from July 1, 2022, to July 1, 2025. The bill would also instead authorize the department to expend an unspecified amount of funds for market development payments until the 2025–26 fiscal year. By extending the term of a continuous appropriation, the bill would make an appropriation. (4) This bill would impose a state-mandated local program by creating new crimes under the California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act relating to the regulation of beverage containers. The bill would also make conforming changes. (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.