Solid waste: extended producer responsibility program.

The California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989, administered by the California Integrated Waste Management Board, is required to reduce, recycle, and reuse solid waste generated in the state to the maximum extent feasible in an efficient cost-effective manner to conserve water, energy, and other natural resources. This bill would create the California Product Stewardship Act of 2009 and would require the board to administer the program. The bill would require the board to adopt regulations by July 1, 2011, in order to implement the program to provide environmentally sound product stewardship protocols that encourage producers to research alternatives during the product design and packaging phases to foster cradle-to-cradle producer responsibility and reduce the end-of-life environmental impacts of the product. The bill, on and after January 1, 2012, would require the board to select covered products, as defined, according to certain requirements. The bill would exempt the selection of covered products from the requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act. On and after July 1, 2012, a covered product would be prohibited from being sold or used for promotional purposes unless the producer or product stewardship organization, as defined, of the covered product, submits a product stewardship plan to the board that meets certain timelines and content requirements, including, but not limited to, a description of the system for collecting discarded covered products, methods proposed to maximize the recycling of packaging, a description of the processing and disposal system, and strategies for managing and reducing the life cycle impacts of covered products and packaging such as through redesign. The bill would establish an annual reporting requirement for producers or stewardship organizations, require administrative fees to be set by the board, and authorize civil penalties of up to $50,000 to be imposed by the board. The bill would require that the administrative fees be deposited into the Extended Producer Responsibility Account and that the penalties be deposited into the Extended Producer Responsibility Penalty Subaccount that the bill would create in the Integrated Waste Management Fund. The bill would authorize the fees and penalties to be expended, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to cover the board's program implementation costs and as incentives to enhance recyclability and redesign efforts and to reduce environmental and safety impacts of covered products.