(1) The existing California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989, which is administered by the California Integrated Waste Management Board, establishes an integrated waste management program. The act requires every manufacturer that manufactures plastic trash bags of 0.75 mil or greater thickness to ensure that a trash bag intended for sale in this state contains a quantity of recycled plastic postconsumer material equal to at least 10% of the weight of the bag, or that at least 30% of the weight of the material used in all of the manufacturer’s plastic products intended for sale in this state is recycled plastic postconsumer material. The board was required, until January 1, 2001, to credit a manufacturer, for purposes of compliance with those requirements, with having used 1.2 pounds of recycled plastic postconsumer material for each pound of recycled plastic postconsumer material purchased from a source of recycled plastic postconsumer material.
This bill would delete the January 1, 2001, limitation on the use of that credit, thereby reenacting the requirement upon the board to provide that credit with regard to the purchase of recycled plastic postconsumer materials.
(2) The act requires, except as specified, every rigid plastic packaging container, as defined, that is sold or offered for sale in the state to meet on average at least one of 5 criteria, including being made from 25% postconsumer material or having a prescribed recycling rate, based on annual reports published by the board.
Existing law imposes specified criminal fines and civil penalties upon a person who violates these manufacturing criteria, and requires the board to deposit the fines and penalties into the Rigid Container Account in the Integrated Waste Management Fund in the State Treasury. The board is required to use the moneys deposited in the Rigid Container Account, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to assist local governmental agencies to develop and implement collection and processing systems for the recycling of the materials subject to these manufacturing criteria.
This bill would additionally authorize the funds in the Rigid Container Account to be expended for the development of markets for those materials and for the board’s costs of implementing these manufacturing requirements.
(3) The bill would require the board to conduct a study, by January 1, 2003, on the use and disposal of polystyrene in the state and to report to the Governor and the Legislature on the findings and recommendations made by the study.