The California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act: processing payments and handling fees.

Existing law, the California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act, requires every beverage container sold or offered for sale in this state to have a minimum refund value. Under the act, the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery is required to calculate a processing fee for each beverage container with a specified scrap value, which is required to be paid by beverage manufacturers for each beverage container sold or transferred to a distributor or dealer. The department is required to calculate the processing fee in a specified manner, so that the actual processing fee generally equals 65% of the processing payment that the department is required to pay to processors if the scrap value of the container having a refund value pursuant to the act is less than the cost of recycling. The act establishes the California Beverage Container Recycling Fund and, except for administrative costs, continuously appropriates moneys in the fund to the department for specified purposes, including the amount necessary to pay processing payments to processors and to pay handling fees to certain types of recyclers to provide an incentive for the redemption of empty beverage containers in convenience zones. This bill would require, notwithstanding the provisions establishing the calculation of processing payments and handling fees, until January 1, 2024, processing payments and handling fees to be set at the rate in effect on July 1, 2020. The bill would make an appropriation by changing the terms and conditions under which the department is authorized to make payments from a continuously appropriated fund. The bill would require the department to expend from the fund the amount necessary to pay supplemental handling fees on a per-container basis to recycling centers in prescribed amounts, thereby making an appropriation. The bill would require the department to suspend usage of surveys and calculations of recycling costs for purposes of calculating processing payments and handling fees until January 1, 2024.