Solid waste: home-generated sharps.

(1) The stated purpose of the California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989, administered by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, is to reduce, recycle, and reuse solid waste generated in the state to the maximum extent feasible in an efficient and cost-effective manner to conserve water, energy, and other natural resources. That act requires a pharmaceutical manufacturer selling or distributing medication that is intended to be self-injected at home to submit, on an annual basis, to the department a plan supporting the safe collection and proper disposal of specified waste devices, known as home-generated sharps. This bill would require a producer of home-generated sharps or a stewardship organization designated by the producer to submit a home-generated sharps stewardship plan by July 1, 2018, to the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery. The bill would require the plan to provide for the development and implementation of a recovery program to reduce the generation of, and manage the end of life of, home-generated sharps, and to include specified elements, including provisions to meet specified minimum collection rates for the home-generated sharps subject to the plan. This bill would provide for the review and approval of the plan by the department. The bill would require the department upon the date a plan is approved, to post on its Internet Web site a list of producers covered by the approved plan. This bill would require a producer or stewardship organization, by April 1, 2020, and every year thereafter, to prepare and submit to the department an annual report describing the activities carried out pursuant to its plan during the previous calendar year. The department would be required to review and either approve or disapprove the report and, if the annual report does not demonstrate the achievement of the required collection rate increase, would authorize the department to impose a civil penalty on the producer or stewardship organization or to require the program to take additional actions with regard to improving and increasing the number of home-generated sharps collection points, ensuring accessibility to those points, and providing additional education and outreach activities. This bill would require a producer or stewardship organization submitting a plan to the department to pay the department an annual administrative fee in an amount that is sufficient to cover the department's full costs of administering and enforcing these provisions. The bill would require the department to deposit the fees in the Safe Sharps Disposal Account, which the bill would establish in the Integrated Waste Management Fund, for the department's expenditure upon appropriation by the Legislature, to administer and enforce the bill's requirements. This bill would authorize the department to impose an administrative civil penalty on a person who violates the bill's requirements. The department would be required to deposit all penalties collected into the Safe Sharps Disposal Penalty Account, which the bill would create in the Integrated Waste Management Fund, available upon appropriation by the Legislature, to enforce the bill's requirements. The bill would require the department, by February 1, 2018, to appoint a stakeholder advisory committee to provide specific recommendations and strategic guidance to producers and stewardship organizations. The bill would also require the stakeholder advisory committee to annually report to the department on the progress of the producers' and stewardship organizations' implementation of the bill's provisions. (2) The Medical Waste Management Act, administered by the State Department of Public Health, prohibits a person from knowingly placing home-generated sharps waste in certain types of containers, requires that home-generated sharps waste be transported only in a sharps container, as defined in that act, or another container approved by the department or local enforcement agency, and requires that this waste be managed only at specified locations. This bill would additionally allow home-generated sharps waste to be managed at a facility or collection point operated pursuant to an approved home-generated sharps stewardship plan.