Product stewardship: household batteries.

The California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989, administered by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, 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. The bill would require, by September 30, 2011, a producer or the household battery stewardship organization created by one or more producers of a household battery to submit a household battery stewardship plan to the department, which would be required to include specified elements, including product goals and a collection rate for the household batteries subject to the plan, calculated in a specified manner. The bill would allow a registered hazardous waste transporter to elect to submit a household battery stewardship plan to the department on behalf of one or more producers and would require a hazardous waste transporter making that election to comply with the provisions of the bill applicable to a household battery stewardship organization. The department would be required to review a household battery stewardship plan submitted to the department and deem the plan either complete or incomplete within 45 days after receipt. The bill would prohibit a producer, wholesaler, or retailer, on and after January 1, 2012, from selling a household battery unless the plan for that battery is deemed complete by the department. The act would require a producer or the household battery stewardship organization to implement the household battery program pursuant to the household battery stewardship plan, including achieving the collection rate. Each producer or household battery stewardship organization implementing a household battery stewardship plan would be required to prepare and submit to the department an annual report describing the activities carried out pursuant to the household battery stewardship plan. A producer or household battery stewardship organization submitting a household battery stewardship plan would be required to pay the department a plan review fee, as determined by the department, when submitting the plan to the department and to pay an administrative fee, as determined by the department, when submitting the annual report. The bill would provide for the imposition of administrative civil penalties upon a producer that does not comply with the bill's requirements or a wholesaler or retailer selling household batteries in violation of the bill. The bill would create the Household Battery Stewardship Account in the existing Integrated Waste Management Fund and would require that the fees be deposited into that account and that the penalties be deposited into the Household Battery Stewardship Penalty Subaccount that the bill would create in that account. The bill would authorize the fees and penalties to be expended, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to cover the department's program implementation costs and would authorize all funds collected or received by the department under the program, except for the fees, to be expended as incentives to enhance recyclability and redesign efforts and to reduce environmental and safety impacts of household batteries.