Recycling: plastic 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. This requirement is repealed on January 1, 2013. Existing law prohibits a city, county, or other local public agency from taking specified regulatory actions with regard to the recycling of plastic carryout bags. Existing law provides for the enforcement of those provisions by local agencies and by the state and requires the civil penalties collected by the state to be expended by the Attorney General, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to implement these requirements. This bill would extend those at-store recycling program requirements until January 1, 2020, and would repeal the provisions preempting local regulatory action.