Solid waste: single-use carryout bags.

Existing law 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. Existing law imposes various requirements on at-store recycling programs, including requiring a store to maintain records describing the collection, transport, and recycling of plastic carryout bags collected by the store. Under existing law, the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (department) administers laws related to waste management. This bill would, on and after July 1, 2011, prohibit a store, as defined, from providing a single-use carryout bag to a customer unless the store charges a fee of not less than $0.25 per bag at the point of sale. The bill would exempt certain customers from paying the fee. The bill would establish the Bag Pollution Fund in the State Treasury and would require a store to remit the single-use carryout bag fees, less a specified amount, to the State Board of Equalization for deposit in that fund. The bill would prohibit a store from distributing a single-use carryout bag that is not a plastic or compostable carryout bag that meets specific requirements. The bill would require the department to administer and enforce the single-use carryout bag provisions and would require the State Board of Equalization to administer the collection of the fees imposed on those bags. The moneys in the fund would be required to be expended, upon appropriation by the Legislature, in a specified order of priority, by the department for grants to cities and counties for programs related to single-use carryout bags and reusable bag giveaway programs, by the State Board of Equalization to reimburse its costs associated with collecting the fees, by the department for purposes of implementing the above provisions, and by the department, in consultation with specified state agencies, to develop and implement specified programs related to single-use carryout bags. The bill would expressly prohibit the expenditure of revenues from the fund for activities unrelated to the prevention or reduction of single-use bag pollution. The bill would require the department, on or before January 1, 2014, to submit to the Legislature a report regarding the effectiveness of the above provisions and recommendations to further encourage the use of reusable bags.