Solid waste: used mattresses: recycling and recovery.

Existing law requires a retailer of various specified products, such as rechargeable batteries and cellular telephones, sold in the state to have in place a system for the acceptance and collection of those products for reuse, recycling, or proper disposal. This bill would establish the Used Mattress Recovery and Recycling Act. The bill would authorize a qualified industry association, as defined, to establish a mattress recycling organization, as defined. The bill would authorize the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery to certify that a mattress recycling organization has been established. The bill would require the mattress recycling organization to develop, implement, and administer a mattress recycling program pursuant to the act. The bill would require manufacturers, retailers, and renovators of mattresses to register with the mattress recycling organization on or before January 1, 2015. This bill would prohibit, on and after January 1, 2016, a manufacturer, renovator, or retailer from, among other things, selling in, or importing a mattress into, this state under circumstances of noncompliance with the bill's requirements. The act would require the retailer, by July 1, 2014, to give a consumer the option to have a used mattress picked up, at no additional cost, at the time a new mattress is delivered or be provided with an opportunity for free dropoff of the used mattress. This bill would require the mattress recycling organization, by July 1, 2015, to develop a state plan for recycling used mattresses in the state that includes specified goals and elements and to submit the plan to the department, as specified. The plan would be required to include, among other things, the provision of a mechanism to local governments and certain solid waste facilities for the recovery of illegally disposed mattresses that is funded, as specified. The plan would also be required to ensure that it addresses the impact of the requirement of the California Constitution that a local government submit the imposition, extension, or increase in a general or special tax, as defined, to the electorate for approval by a majority or 23vote, respectively, with regard to local governments participating in the program. The bill would require the organization, by July 1, 2015, to annually prepare and approve a proposed used mattress recycling program plan budget for the next calendar year and to submit the budget to the department for approval, as specified. The bill would require the department to notify the organization of the department's costs that are directly related to implementing and enforcing the act and the organization would be required to reimburse the department for those direct costs. The bill would require the department to deposit these amounts submitted by the organization into the Used Mattress Recycling Fund, which the bill would establish in the State Treasury. The bill would require the department to expend the moneys in the fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to administer and enforce the act and to reimburse any outstanding loans made from other funds used to finance the startup costs of the department, as provided. This bill would require the organization to annually set the amount of a state mattress recycling charge that would be added to the purchase price of a mattress, and would require a manufacturer, renovator, retailer, wholesaler, distributor, or other party that sells a mattress to add the charge to the purchase price for the mattress and remit the charge collected to the organization. The bill would exempt mattresses manufactured by the Prison Industry Authority and purchased by the state from collecting and remitting the mattress recycling charge. This bill would authorize the department to impose an administrative civil penalty on a manufacturer, organization, recycler, renovator, or retailer in violation of the act. The bill would require the department to deposit these penalties into the Mattress Recovery and Recycling Penalty Account, which the bill would create in the Used Mattress Recycling Fund. The department would be authorized to expend the moneys in that account, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to implement the act. The bill would authorize the department to adopt emergency regulations in a specified manner with regard to establishing a process for the submission of the used mattress recovery and recycling plan to the department, and the approval of that plan, and for the submission of the proposed used mattress recycling program budget to the department, and the approval of the budget by the department. The bill would constitute a change in state statute that would result in a taxpayer paying a higher tax within the meaning of Section 3 of Article XIIIA of the California Constitution, and thus would require for passage the approval of 23 of the membership of each house of the Legislature.