Waste management: synthetic plastic microbeads.

The Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 (Proposition 65) prohibits any person, in the course of doing business, from knowingly and intentionally exposing any individual to a chemical known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity without giving a specified warning, or from discharging or releasing such a chemical into any source of drinking water, except as specified. Existing law prohibits the sale of expanded polystyrene packaging material by a wholesaler or manufacturer. Existing law prohibits a person from selling a plastic product in this state that is labeled with the term "compostable," "home compostable," or "marine degradable" unless, at the time of sale, the plastic product meets the applicable American Society for Testing and Materials standard specification. This bill would prohibit, after January 1, 2019, a person, as defined, from selling or offering for promotional purposes in this state a personal care product containing synthetic plastic microbeads, as specified, unless the personal care product is an over-the-counter drug, and would prohibit a person, after January 1, 2020, from selling or offering a personal care product containing synthetic plastic microbeads, including a personal care product that is an over-the-counter drug. The bill would exempt from those prohibitions the sale or promotional offer of a product containing less than 1 part per million (ppm) by weight of synthetic plastic microbeads, as provided. The bill would make a violator liable for a civil penalty not to exceed $2,500 per day for each violation. The bill would authorize the penalty to be assessed and recovered in a civil action brought in any court of competent jurisdiction by the Attorney General or local officials, as provided. The bill would require the civil penalties collected in an action brought pursuant to the act to be retained by the office of the Attorney General or local official who brought the action. The bill would declare that its provisions occupy the whole field of regulation of the sale or offering for promotional purposes of personal care products containing synthetic plastic microbeads. The bill would prohibit a city, county, or other local public agency, on or after January 1, 2019, from adopting, enforcing, or otherwise implementing, an ordinance, resolution, regulation, or rule, or any amendment thereto, relating to the sale or offering for promotional purposes of personal care products that are not over-the-counter drugs and that contain synthetic plastic microbeads, and would prohibit a city, county, or other local public agency from taking similar actions, on or after January 1, 2020, relating to the sale or offering for promotional purposes of personal care products, including, but not limited to, over-the-counter drugs, that contain synthetic plastic microbeads, except as expressly authorized.