California Circular Economy and Plastic Pollution Reduction Act.

(1) The California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989, administered by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, generally regulates the disposal, management, and recycling of solid waste, including, among other solid waste, single-use plastic straws. The Sustainable Packaging for the State of California Act of 2018 prohibits a food service facility located in a state-owned facility, operating on or acting as a concessionaire on state property, or under contract to provide food service to a state agency from dispensing prepared food using a type of food service packaging unless the type of food service packaging is on a list that the department publishes and maintains on its internet website that contains types of approved food service packaging that are reusable, recyclable, or compostable. Existing law makes a legislative declaration that it is the policy goal of the state that not less than 75% of solid waste generated be source reduced, recycled, or composted by 2020. This bill would enact the California Circular Economy and Plastic Pollution Reduction Act, which would establish a comprehensive regulatory scheme for producers, retailers, and wholesalers of single-use packaging, as defined, and single-use products, as defined, made partially or entirely of plastic, to be administered by the department. The bill would require producers, within 6 months of the department's adoption of regulations to implement the act, to individually, or to collectively form or join a stewardship organization that will, develop, finance, and implement a convenient and cost-effective program to source reduce, recover, and recycle single-use packaging and single-use products discarded in the state, and develop and submit to the department a stewardship plan, annual report, and budget, as prescribed. The bill would require the stewardship plan to include funding to support, among other things, mechanisms necessary to achieve a 75% recycling rate of single-use packaging and single-use products by 2032 and annually thereafter. The bill would require, starting in 2025, a stewardship organization to collect from its member producers funding for the purposes of paying the administrative and operational costs of the stewardship program. The bill would require, on or before the end of the 2022–23 fiscal year, and once every 3 months thereafter, a stewardship organization to pay to the department an administrative fee to cover the department's full costs of administering and enforcing the act, not to exceed the department's actual and reasonable regulatory costs. This bill would authorize the department to impose an administrative civil penalty, except as specified, not to exceed $50,000 per day per violation on an entity that is not in compliance with the act's requirements. The bill would require the department to deposit those administrative civil penalties into the Circular Economy Penalty Account, which the bill would create. The bill would provide that the moneys in the account shall be available to the department, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for purposes that further the act. This bill would require the department, no later than July 1, 2022, to post a list of packaging categories, as defined, and product categories, as defined, for single-use packaging and single-use products that are easily recyclable or easily compostable, hard to recycle or hard to compost, or nonrecyclable or noncompostable, and specifies the types of plastics to be included on the initial list posted by the department. The bill would require the department to develop criteria to determine if single-use packaging and single-use products are easily recyclable or easily compostable, hard to recycle or hard to compost, or nonrecyclable or noncompostable, as provided. The bill would, beginning January 1, 2023, require all single-use packaging and single-use products sold, offered for sale, distributed, or imported in or into the state to be easily recyclable or easily compostable in the state. The bill would, beginning January 1, 2035, require all single-use packaging and single-use products sold, offered for sale, distributed, or imported in or into the state to include 75% postconsumer recycled content. The bill would require the department, beginning in 2023, to impose an administrative civil penalty on producers per unit sold, offered for sale, imported, or distributed in or into the state of $0.01 for hard to recycle or hard to compost single-use packaging and single-use products, $0.02 for nonrecyclable or noncompostable single-use packaging and single-use products, and, additionally, beginning in 2035, of $0.01 for single-use packaging and single-use products that do not include 75% postconsumer recycled content. The bill would require the department to deposit those administrative civil penalties into the Single-Use Plastic Packaging and Products Penalty Account, which the bill would create. The bill would provide that the moneys in the account shall be available to the department, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for projects with demonstrated environmental or environmental health benefits, and that prioritize projects within the state. The bill would impose on producers, among other requirements, registration, reporting, and recordkeeping requirements. The bill would require reports and data provided by producers to the department to be accurate and attested to under penalty of perjury, thereby imposing a state-mandated local program by expanding the crime of perjury. (2) 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. (3) Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.