The California Beverage Container and Litter Reduction Act.

(1) The California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act, which is administered by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, is established to promote beverage container recycling and provides for the payment, collection, and distribution of certain payments and fees based on minimum refund values established for beverage containers. The act establishes the California Beverage Container Recycling Fund, moneys in which, except for civil penalties or fines, are continuously appropriated to the department to, among other things, pay refund values, processing payments, and handling fees, as prescribed. The act requires the department to annually designate convenience zones on a statewide basis and requires that at least one certified recycling center or location that meets certain requirements be located within every convenience zone, with exemptions. The act defines convenience zone as either the area within a 12 mile radius of a supermarket or the area designated by the department in a rural region. This bill would allow the department to designate a regional convenience zone serving up to 5 adjacent unserved supermarket-based zones based on specified factors. The bill would require the department to certify bag drop redemption programs, as defined, and dealers under certain conditions and would require those certified entities to be eligible for handling fees and processing payments, as provided, thereby making an appropriation. (2) The act requires a certified recycling center to accept from any consumer or dropoff or collection program any empty beverage container and to pay to the consumer or dropoff or collection program the refund value of the beverage container. This bill would require a certified bag drop redemption program, as defined, to pay the refund value of the beverage container as an electronic payment within 3 business days of redemption, if not paid onsite at the time of redemption.. The bill would impose or prohibit other requirements on bag drop redemption programs relating to staffing, operating hours, locations, reporting, and refund values. The bill would authorize a certified bag drop redemption program to charge a consumer a service fee to cover the cost of sorting empty beverage containers, as specified. (3) Under the act, the department 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 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 department is required to determine the statewide weighted average cost to recycle each beverage container type, as described, for purposes of determining processing payments. This bill would, commencing July 1, 2021, until January 1, 2025, require the director to increase processing payments to a certified recycling center to 50% higher for the first 40,000 glass containers and the first 200,000 plastic containers claimed by a certified recycling center each month and to provide additional processing payments for certified recycling centers in rural regions, as provided. The bill would require the department, from the California Beverage Container Recycling Fund, to pay the first operator of a recycling center certified to operate in a convenience zone that, as of January 1, 2021, has been continuously unserved by a recycling center for at least 6 months a handling fee payment regardless of the physical location of the certified recycling center within that convenience zone. By increasing payments from a continuously appropriated fund, the bill would make an appropriation. This bill would authorize the department to establish a program to provide startup loans in the amount of $50,000 to entities that establish and operate certified recycling centers in unserved or underserved areas in the state, as provided, and would authorize a startup loan to be entirely forgiven if the entity continually maintains operations for 36 months. The bill would authorize the department to expend up to $15,000,000 for those purposes, thereby making an appropriation. The bill also would authorize the department to expend up to $10,000,000 each fiscal year from the fund to provide plastic quality incentive payments, as provided, thereby making an appropriation. The bill would require, commencing with the 2021–22 fiscal year, the department to expend an additional $5,000,000 each fiscal year from the fund for community conservation corps staffing and transportation services, as specified, thereby making an appropriation. (4) A violation of the act is an infraction. Because a violation of certain requirements of this bill would be a crime under the act, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (5) 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. (6) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.