SB 353

Bill Subjects

Abstract

(1) The California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act, of which a violation is a crime, requires a distributor to pay a redemption payment for every beverage container sold or offered for sale in the state. 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, but does not include cups or other similar open or loosely sealed receptacles. The act defines "beverage" to include certain types of products in liquid, ready-to-drink form, including carbonated fruit drinks and noncarbonated fruit drinks that contain any percentage of fruit juice, but not 100% fruit juice in 46-ounce containers or larger or vegetable juice containers with more than 16 ounces. This bill would expand the application of the act to any size container of 100% fruit juice and any size container of vegetable juice, beginning January 1, 2024. 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 impose a state-mandated local program by creating new crimes under the act relating to the regulation of beverage containers. (2) The act defines a "beverage manufacturer" as a person who bottles, cans, or otherwise fills beverage containers, or imports filled beverage containers, for sale to distributors, dealers, or consumers. This bill would amend the definition of "beverage manufacturer" to mean the same as above, except that for a beverage container containing beer, wine, or distilled spirits, the "beverage manufacturer" would be the person who holds the license from the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control authorizing the manufacture of the beer, wine, or distilled spirits, regardless of whether that person contracts with a third party to bottle, can, or otherwise fill the beverage container, so long as the beverage container is provided for sale to a distributor, dealer, or consumer by the holder of the license. (3) The act requires plastic beverage containers sold by a beverage manufacturer, as specified, to contain a specified average percentage of postconsumer recycled plastic. The act provides for periodic increases in the required percentage, but authorizes the Director of Resources Recycling and Recovery to lower the required percentage, based on specified criteria. The act imposes an administrative penalty on a beverage manufacturer that fails to include the required percentage of postconsumer recycled plastic in its plastic beverage containers. This bill would exempt beverage containers of 46 ounces or more of 100% fruit juice and beverage containers with more than 16 ounces of vegetable juice from consideration in calculating the required percentage of postconsumer recycled plastic for a beverage manufacturer until January 1, 2026. (4) The act requires a beverage manufacturer to label a beverage container sold or offered for sale by that beverage manufacturer in the state with one of several specified redemption value messages. 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 exempts 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. This bill would additionally exempt from the act's labeling requirements a beverage container included within the scope of the act beginning on January 1, 2024, that was filled and labeled before January 1, 2024, and a beverage container with 46 ounces or more of 100% fruit juice or more than 16 ounces of vegetable juice that was filled and labeled before July 1, 2024. (5) Existing law requires a dealer, as defined, to separately identify the amount of any redemption payment imposed on a beverage container on the shelf labels of the dealer's establishment, as specified. This bill would exempt from this shelf labeling requirement until January 15, 2024, a beverage container included within the scope of the act beginning on January 1, 2024. (6) The act requires a beverage manufacturer to pay to the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery a processing fee for each beverage container sold or transferred and requires the department to distribute those fees, with other moneys, as processing payments to processors and recycling centers. The act requires the department to calculate the processing payment annually and authorizes quarterly adjustments, both based on the prior 12-month scrap value. This bill would authorize the department to adjust the processing payment quarterly, based on the lower of either the applicable preceding 12-month or 3-month average scrap value instead of only the prior 12-month scrap value. The bill would require a processing payment equal to the processing payment applied to HDPE beverage containers to be applied to a beverage container that is a box, bladder, pouch, or similar container, containing wine or distilled spirits. This bill would require the department to pay to a recycling center in a rural area, as specified, in addition to a processing payment, a transportation, operations, and logistics payment for glass beverage containers, as specified, until January 1, 2030. The bill would continuously appropriate moneys in the California Beverage Container Recycling Fund to the department for this purpose, thereby making an appropriation. (7) The act requires a beverage distributor to pay to the department a redemption payment for a beverage container sold or offered for sale in the state by the distributor, as specified. The act exempts any lodging, eating, or drinking establishment, licensed wine or distilled spirits tasting room, or soft drink vending machine operator from the definition of dealer, as specified. This bill, commencing January 1, 2024, would exempt a beverage distributor from being required to pay a redemption payment for a beverage container that is used solely to pour wine, beer, or distilled spirits at a licensed wine, beer, or distilled spirits tasting room. The bill would additionally exempt a licensed beer tasting room from the definition of dealer. (8) The act requires the department, not less than once every 6 months, to post on its internet website an updated condition statement for the California Beverage Container Recycling Fund, and other specified information, for the current fiscal year and budget year and to provide a written copy of that information to specified committees of the Legislature. This bill would instead require the department to notify certain committees of the Legislature of the posting of the above-described information. (9) Existing law provides that the Division of Recycling in the department succeeds to and is vested with specified authority, duties, powers, purposes, responsibilities, and jurisdiction that once belonged to the Department of Conservation regarding the act. This bill would provide that the department, instead of the division within the department, succeeds to and is vested with the specified authority, duties, powers, purposes, responsibilities, and jurisdiction that once belonged to the Department of Conservation regarding the act. (10) 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. (11) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.