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. Existing law prohibits certain stores from providing a single-use carryout bag to a customer and prohibits those stores from selling or distributing a reusable grocery bag or a recycled paper bag at the point of sale unless the store makes that bag available for purchase for not less than $0.10. Existing law requires a store to retain those collected moneys to be used only for costs associated with complying with those provisions, actual costs of providing recycled paper bags or reusable grocery bags, and costs associated with a store’s educational materials or educational campaign encouraging the use of reusable grocery bags. Existing law authorizes a city, county, city and county, or the state to impose civil penalties on a person or entity that knows or reasonably should have known it is in violation of those requirements.

This bill would require a store to retain the collected moneys to also be used for costs associated with providing consumers with an opportunity for returning reusable grocery bags to the store for recycling, and any other costs associated with ensuring that collected bags are recycled.

The bill would require stores to submit an annual report to the department with specified information related to the total costs associated with complying with the act, as specified, and the balance, if any, of remaining funds, in the year. The bill would authorize a chain that owns more than one store to report aggregated data for all of the stores operated under that chain. The bill would authorize an authorized representative of a store with a collective bargaining agreement to review and make copies of those annual reports. The bill would require that these provisions apply only to certain stores, as described.