California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act: empty beverage container redemption.

The California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act requires dealers within a convenience zone where no recycling location has been established, or within a convenience zone that is unserved for 60 days and not exempt from convenience zone requirements, to alternatively (1) submit an affidavit to the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery stating that the dealer has met specified standards for empty beverage container redemption or (2) pay $100 per day to the department, for deposit in the continuously appropriated California Beverage Container Recycling Fund, until a recycling location is established or until the dealer meets the standards for redemption specified in the affidavit provisions. Existing law creates the Penalty Account in the fund and requires all civil penalties and fines collected by the department pursuant to the act to be deposited in that account. Existing law makes funds in the account available to the department, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for purposes of the act. A violation of the act or a regulation adopted pursuant to the act is a crime. This bill would revise that alternative requirement to instead require those dealers to submit that affidavit to the department unconditionally. The bill would make a dealer who does not submit that affidavit liable for a civil penalty of an unspecified amount per day that is greater than $100. To the extent that these provisions expand the scope of existing crimes relating to beverage containers, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would also repeal an obsolete provision. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.