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. The act prohibits certain stores from providing a single-use carryout bag to a customer at the point of sale and prohibits full-service restaurants from providing single-use plastic straws to consumers unless requested by the consumer.

This bill, commencing January 1, 2023, for lodging establishments with more than 50 rooms, and January 1, 2024, for lodging establishments with 50 rooms or less, would prohibit a lodging establishment, as defined, from providing a small plastic bottle containing a personal care product to a person staying in a sleeping room accommodation, in any space within the sleeping room accommodation, or within a bathroom shared by the public or guests. The bill would authorize a local agency with authority to inspect sleeping accommodations in a lodging establishment to enforce these requirements by issuing a citation, provided that the local agency be required to issue a written warning upon a first violation of the above requirement, and to impose a penalty in the amount of $500 for a 2nd or subsequent violation, not to exceed $2,000 annually. The bill would provide that a lodging establishment that is in violation of the above requirement is liable for a civil penalty in the amount of $500 for a first violation and $2,000 for a 2nd or subsequent violation and would authorize the Attorney General or a district attorney, county counsel, or city attorney to bring an action to impose the civil penalty.

The bill would prohibit, on and after January 1, 2020, a city, county, or city and county from passing or enforcing an ordinance, resolution, regulation, or rule relating to personal care products in plastic bottles provided at lodging establishments, except as provided.