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2021 CALIFORNIA LEGISLATION

2021

SB 289, Recycling: batteries and battery-embedded products. Senator Newman (D- Brea). CO-SPONSORED BY CPSC. DIED ON 5/20/2021.

This bill would make the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Act of 2006 and the Cell Phone Recycling Act of 2004 inoperative as of June 30, 2025, and would repeal those acts as of January 1, 2026. The bill would enact the Battery and Battery-Embedded Product Recycling and Fire Risk Reduction Act of 2021, which would require producers, as defined, either individually or through the creation of one or more stewardship organizations, to establish a stewardship program for batteries and battery-embedded products. The bill would require a stewardship organization or producer, on or before June 30, 2025, to submit to CalRecycle a stewardship plan for the collection, transportation, and recycling, and the safe and proper management, of batteries or battery-embedded products in the state. The bill would require the plan to include specified elements, including a collection system for batteries and battery-embedded products with a specified minimum distribution of collection sites and a funding mechanism to provide sufficient funding for implementation of the plan.

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AB 1, Hazardous Waste. Assembly Member Garcia (D- Downey).

This bill would create the Board of Environmental Safety in the California Environmental Protection Agency and require the board to conduct no less than 6 public meetings per year. The bill would provide for the duties of the board, which would include, among others, reviewing specified policies, processes, and programs within the hazardous waste control laws; proposing statutory, regulatory, and policy changes; and hearing and deciding appeals of hazardous waste facility permit decisions and establish an office of ombudsperson to receive complaints and suggestions from the public. This bill would require the department to review, at least once every 5 years, the financial assurances required to operate a hazardous waste facility and the cost estimates used to establish the amount of financial assurances required. The bill would require the department, no later than 90 days after receiving an application for a hazardous waste facilities permit, to post on its internet website a timeline with the estimated dates of key milestones in the application review process. This bill would repeal the provision making implementation of the act contingent upon, and limited to, the availability of funding on January 1, 2023.

  • Current Status:

    • Referred to Senate Committees on Environmental Quality and Judiciary to be heard TBD.

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AB 100, Drinking water: pipes and fittings: lead content. Assembly Member Holden (D-Pasadena). SUPPORT. PASSED. SIGNED INTO LAW 10/8/2021.

This bill would, commencing January 1, 2023, prohibit a person from manufacturing, and offering for sale in the state, an endpoint device, as defined, that does not meet a certain lead leaching standard. The bill would, commencing July 1, 2023, prohibit a person from introducing into commerce or offering for sale in the state an endpoint device that does not meet that lead leaching standard. The bill would require the consumer-facing product packaging or product labeling of an endpoint device to bear specified lettering if the endpoint device meets that lead leaching standard and the above-described definition of “lead free.”

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AB 246, Contractor Disciplinary Actions for Illegal Dumping. Assembly Member Quirk (D- Hayward). SUPPORT. SIGNED INTO LAW 8/31/2021.

Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of contractors by the Contractors’ State License Board (board). Under existing law, a willful or deliberate disregard by a licensed contractor of various state building, labor, and safety laws constitutes a cause for disciplinary action by the board. This bill would reorganize these provisions and would add illegal dumping to the list of violations that constitute a cause for disciplinary action against a contractor by the board.

 

AB 332, Treated Wood Waste. Assembly Member Quirk (D- Hayward). SUPPORT. SIGNED INTO LAW 8/31/2021.

This bill would require a person managing treated wood waste to comply with the hazardous waste control laws or the management standards established in the bill, including standards for the reuse, storage, treatment, transportation, tracking, identification, and disposal of treated wood waste, as provided. The bill would limit those standards to treated wood waste that is hazardous only because of a preservative present in or on the wood, and that is not subject to the existing exemption for certain wood waste or to regulation as a hazardous waste under federal law. The bill would require the department to update the Legislature, upon request, regarding those management standards and changes to the treated wood waste program. The bill would make inoperative all variances granted by the department before the enactment of the bill. The bill would require the department, no later than July 1, 2028, to provide notification to the Legislature if the department is prepared, as determined by the Director of Toxic Substances Control, to ensure the safe management of treated wood waste in accordance with the hazardous waste control laws if the provisions of the bill are repealed. If, as of July 1, 2028, the department has provided that notification, the bill would repeal its provisions as of January 1, 2030. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

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AB 478, Thermoform plastic containers: minimum recycled content. Assembly Member Ting (D- Torrance). OPPOSE UNLESS AMENDED. DIED ON 8/26/21.

This bill would declare the intent of the Legislature to enact subsequent legislation relating to the minimum recycled content of thermoform containers.

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AB 652, Product safety: juvenile products: chemicals: perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances. Assembly Member Friedman (D- Burbank). SUPPORT. PASSED. SIGNED INTO LAW 10/5/2021.

This bill would, on and after July 1, 2023, prohibit a person, including a manufacturer, from selling or distributing in commerce in this state any new, not previously owned, juvenile product, as defined, that contains intentionally added perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), as defined. The bill would require a manufacturers to use the least toxic alternative when replacing PFAS chemicals in a juvenile product.

 

AB 659, Dumping. Assembly Member Mathis (D- Visalia). SUPPORT.

This bill would make dumping waste matter on private property, including on any private road or highways, without the consent of the owner, punishable by a fine between $250 and $1,000 for a first conviction, between $500 and $1,500 for a 2nd conviction, and between $750 and $3,000 for a 3rd conviction. The bill would make a 4th or subsequent conviction a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for not more than 30 days and by a fine of not less than $750 nor more than $3,000. The bill would also require the fine to be doubled for the 4th or subsequent violation if the prosecuting attorney pleads and proves, or, in an infraction case, if the court finds, that the waste placed, deposited, or dumped includes used tires. By changing the definition of a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. 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.

  • Current Status:

    • Referred to Committees on Public Safety to be heard TBD.

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AB 661, Recycling: materials. Assembly Member Bennett (D-Santa Barbara). SUPPORT.

This bill would require a state agency, if fitness and quality are equal, to purchase recycled products instead of nonrecycled products, without regard to cost. The bill would substantially revise product categories. The bill would require the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, in consultation with the DGS, to update a list of products and minimum recycled content percentages, as determined to be appropriate, commencing January 1, 2025, and every 3 years thereafter. The bill would require the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery to maintain an internet website with current SABRC products and minimum recycled content requirements. The bill would establish product categories and minimum content and recyclability requirements, effective January 1, 2022, until updated by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery. The bill would delete the DGS review and recommendation process for unmet requirements and, instead, would require the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery to report a state agency that does not meet SABRC purchasing requirements in each product category to the DGS. This bill would provide that the University of California is not subject to the SABRC procurement requirements, but would require the University of California to report on purchases of products reportable under SABRC and what percentage of those purchases meet the associated minimum recycled content requirements.

 

AB 707, Mercury Thermostats EPR. Assembly Member Quirk. (Hayward). SUPPORT. SIGNED INTO LAW 10/8/2021.
This bill would repeal the Mercury Thermostat Collection Act of 2008 and recast the program, as part of the state’s hazardous waste control laws, as the Mercury Thermostat Collection Act of 2021. The bill would require each manufacturer of mercury-added thermostats, or group of manufacturers, on or before March 1, 2022, to contract with or retain a qualified third party, as defined, to develop and implement a convenient, cost-effective, and efficient program for the collection, transportation, recycling, and disposal of out-of-service mercury-added thermostats.

  • CPSC Letter of Support

  • Current Status:

    • SIGNED INTO LAW 10/8/2021​

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AB 818, Solid waste: premoistened nonwoven disposable wipes. Assembly Member Bloom (D-Santa Monica). SUPPORT. PASSED. SIGNED INTO LAW 10/6/2021.

This bill would require, except as provided, certain premoistened nonwoven disposable wipes manufactured on or after July 1, 2022, to be labeled clearly and conspicuously with the phrase “Do Not Flush” and a related symbol, as specified. The bill would prohibit a covered entity from making a representation about the flushable attributes, benefits, performance, or efficacy. The bill would establish, until January 1, 2027, the California Consumer Education and Outreach Program, under which covered entities would be required, among other things, to participate in a collection study conducted in collaboration with wastewater agencies for the purpose of gaining understanding of consumer behavior regarding the flushing of premoistened nonwoven disposable wipes and to conduct a comprehensive multimedia education and outreach program in the state. The bill would require covered entities to annually report to specified legislative committees and the State Water Resources Control Board on their activities under the program and would require the state board to post the reports on its internet website.

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AB 842,California Circular Economy and Plastic Pollution Reduction Act. Assembly Member Garcia (D- Downey).

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 charge and 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.

  • Current Status:

    • Referred to Committee on Natural Resources to be heard TBD.

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AB 881, Plastic waste: diversion: recycling: export. Assembly Member Gonzalez (D- Oceanside). SUPPORT. PASSED. SIGNED INTO LAW 10/5/2021. 

This bill would make the export out of the country of a mixture of plastic wastes "disposal" for purposes of the act, unless the mixture includes only certain plastics destined for separate recycling and satisfies other specified requirements, in which case that export would constitute diversion through recycling. Until January 1, 2024, or the expiration of a relevant trade agreement or arrangement with Canada or Mexico, whichever is later, these provisions would not apply to exports to Canada or Mexico. To the extent the bill would require local agencies to revise the source reduction and recycling elements of their integrated waste management plans, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.

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AB 962, California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act: reusable beverage containers. Assembly Member Kamlager (D- Culver City). SUPPORT. SIGNED INTO LAW 10/5/2021.

This bill would authorize, for a returnable beverage container, a processor approved by the department to handle returnable beverage containers to satisfy those operation requirements by transferring the returnable beverage container to a washer approved by the department. By creating crimes relating to returnable beverage containers, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would define “returnable beverage container” for purposes of the act to mean a beverage container that has been used to contain a beverage, for which the applicable redemption payment has been paid, and that is returned whole and intact to a recycler or other certified entity designated by the department and capable of reuse as a beverage container. The bill would provide that an empty returnable beverage container for which the applicable redemption payment has been paid and that is collected and processed unbroken for reuse as a beverage container shall continue to be eligible for all applicable payments and incentives provided in the act.

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AB 1200, Plant-based food packaging: cookware: hazardous chemicals. Assembly Member Ting (D-San Francisco). SUPPORT. SIGNED INTO LAW 10/5/2021.

This bill would require, beginning January 1, 2024, a manufacturer, as defined, of cookware sold in the state that contains one or more intentionally added chemicals, as defined, present on a designated list, as defined, in the handle of the product or in any product surface that comes into contact with food, foodstuffs, or beverages to list the presence of those chemicals on the product label, as defined, and include a statement on the product label and on the product listing for online sales, in both English and Spanish, regarding how a consumer can obtain more information about the chemicals in the cookware, as provided. The bill would exclude cookware that meets specified conditions from the product label requirement, but would still require a manufacturer of exempt cookware to include the required information on the product listing for online sales. The bill would require, beginning January 1, 2023, a manufacturer of this cookware to post on an internet website for the cookware a list of chemicals in the cookware that are present on the designated list, among other information. The bill would prohibit a manufacturer from making a claim, either on the cookware package commencing January 1, 2024, or on the internet website for the cookware commencing January 1, 2023, that the cookware is free of any specific chemical if the chemical belongs to a chemical group or class identified on the designated list, unless no individual chemical from that chemical group or class is intentionally added to the cookware. The bill would prohibit a person from selling, offering for sale, or distributing in California cookware that does not comply with these provisions.

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AB 1201, Solid waste: plastic products: labeling: compostability and biodegradability. Assembly Member Ting (D-San Francisco). SUPPORT. SIGNED INTO LAW 10/6/2021.

This bill would repeal that definition of “plastic product” and replace certain references to “plastic product” in those and related provisions with “product,” which includes, but is not limited to, a consumer product, as defined, a package or packaging component, and a food or beverage container. This bill would prohibit a person from selling a plastic product that is labeled with the term “compostable,” “home compostable,” or “soil biodegradable” unless the product meets specified standards and satisfies specified criteria. The bill would authorize the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery to adopt regulations for plastic product labeling to ensure that plastic products labeled “compostable” or “home compostable” are clearly distinguishable from noncompostable products upon quick inspection by consumers and solid waste processing facilities. This bill contains other existing laws.

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AB 1276, Single-use food accessories and service ware. Assembly Member Carillo. (D-Los Angeles). SUPPORT. SIGNED INTO LAW 10/5/2021.

This bill would prohibit a food facility or a third-party food delivery platform, as defined, from providing any single-use food accessories, as defined, to a consumer unless requested by the consumer, as provided. The bill would authorize a food facility to ask a drive-through consumer if the consumer wants a single-use food accessory in specified circumstances. The bill would require a third-party food delivery platform to provide each of its ready-to-eat food vendors with the option to customize the vendor’s menu, on the online food-ordering platform, regarding the availability of single-use food accessories, as provided. The bill would exclude from these requirements correctional institutions, health care facilities, residential care facilities, and public and private school cafeterias. This bill would require a city, county, or city and county, on or before June 1, 2022, to authorize an enforcement agency to enforce these requirements.

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AB 1311, Recycling: beverage containers. Assembly Member Wood (D-Mendocino). SUPPORT. SIGNED INTO LAW 10/5/2021.

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. This bill would apply the above-specified provisions applicable to reverse vending machines to bag drop recycling centers, defined to mean a recycling location operated by a recycling center at which consumers can drop off bagged empty beverage containers for redemption. The bill would require a bag drop recycling center to pay the refund value for beverage containers within a reasonable period of time, not to exceed 3 business days. Because a violation of this requirement would be a crime under the act, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require, on or before July 1, 2022, the department to develop and implement a process pursuant to which a certified recycling center can annually apply to the department for authorization to operate on an alternative schedule, as specified. The bill would provide that, until July 1, 2022, a certified recycling center or location that is not a reverse vending machine or a bag drop recycling center is additionally “open for business” if the certified recycling center or location receives written authorization from the department to operate pursuant to an appointment system during the hours of operation and the certified recycling center or location meets specified requirements.​

  • Current Status:

    • SIGNED INTO LAW 10/5/2021.

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AB 1371, Recycling: plastic: packaging and carryout bags. Assembly Member Friedman (D-Burbank). SUPPORT. DIED on 6/3/2021.

This bill would prohibit an online retailer that sells or offers for sale and delivers purchased products in or into the state from using single-use plastic packaging that consists of shipping envelopes, cushioning, or void fill to package or transport the products, on and after January 1, 2023, for large online retailers, as defined, and on and after January 1, 2025, for small online retailers, as defined. The bill would prohibit a manufacturer, retailer, producer, or other distributer that sells or offers for sale and delivers purchased products in or into the state from using expanded polystyrene packaging to package or transport the products. The bill would require an online retailer that has at least one physical location in the state with in-person sales to provide at all physical locations in the state with in-person sales a take back container for plastic film and expanded polystyrene packaging that provides an opportunity for a customer to return to the location clean plastic film and expanded polystyrene packaging. This bill would establish the At-Store Recycling Program. The bill would require an operator of a store, as defined, to establish an at-store recycling program that provides persons the opportunity to return clean plastic carryout bags and clean durable plastic bags to the store. The bill would require a plastic carryout bag or a durable plastic bag provided by a store to have specified information printed or displayed on the bag, and would require the placement of a collection bin in each store that is visible and easily accessible to the consumer.

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AB 1454, The California Beverage Container and Litter Reduction Act. Assembly Member Bloom (D-Santa Monica). SUPPORT.

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 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 1/2 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 unserved supermarket-based zones based on specified factors. This bill would require a certified bottle drop recycling program 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. Because a violation of this requirement would be a crime under the act, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

  • Current Status:

    • Referred to Senate Committee on Environmental Quality to be heard TBD.

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AJR-4, Basel Convention: ratification. Assembly Member Garcia (D-Downey). SUPPORT. SIGNED INTO LAW 7/15/2021

The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal (1989) was signed but never ratified by the United States. Since China banned the import of plastic waste, much of the plastic waste collected for recycling in the United States is sent to mismanaged, highly polluting recycling operations in south and southeast Asia, where it is often dumped and burned rather than recycled safely. The Basel Convention has recently sought to address this problem and has become a vital instrument in the war against global plastic waste pollution when, in May 2019, it was amended to include mixed and contaminated plastic waste shipments within its control procedure. This measure would declare California to be in favor of the United States’ ratification of the Basel Convention at the earliest opportunity and would request the Biden Administration to accomplish this ratification as a matter of urgency.

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SB 38, Beverage Containers. Senator Wieckowski (D-Fremont). 

Require distributors of beverage containers to form a stewardship organization to develop and submit a plan and budget for the recovery and recycling of empty beverage containers similar to that described in the Used Mattress Recovery and Recycling Act, and would require a stewardship fee be paid by distributor members of the organization, to assist in covering the costs of implementing the program, reimburse the department for the department’s costs of enforcement, and face administrative civil penalties for a violation. The bill would require the organization to establish no less than 10,000 points of redemption in the state by July 1, 2026.

  • Current status:

    • Referred to Assembly Committee on Natural Resources to be heard TBD.

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SB 54, Plastic Pollution Producer Responsibility Act. Senator Allen (D-Los Angeles). 

This bill would establish the Plastic Pollution Producer Responsibility Act, which would prohibit producers of single-use, disposable packaging or single-use, disposable food service ware products from offering for sale, selling, distributing, or importing in or into the state such packaging or products that are manufactured on or after January 1, 2032, unless they are recyclable or compostable.

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SB 244, Lithium-ion batteries: illegal disposal: fire prevention. Senator Archuleta (D- Los Angeles). SUPPORT. VETOED BY GOV ON 10/7/2021.

This bill would prohibit a person from knowingly disposing of a lithium-ion battery in a container or receptacle that is intended for the collection of solid waste or recyclable materials, unless the container or receptacle is designated for the collection of batteries for recycling pursuant to specified laws. The bill would require CalRecycle, on or before July 1, 2024, and in consultation with DTSC, to develop a guidance document relating to the proper handling and disposal of lithium-ion batteries and products that contain lithium-ion batteries. The bill would require a solid waste enterprise, as defined, before July 1, 2023, after consulting with the county fire marshal of every county in which the solid waste enterprise conducts solid waste collection operations, to adopt, or update if necessary, a protocol and arrange any necessary training for relevant employees that identifies procedures to follow under those same circumstances. By imposing new duties on county fire marshals, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

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SB 343, Environmental advertising: recycling symbol. Senator Allen (D-Los Angeles). SUPPORT. SIGNED INTO LAW 10/5/2021.

This bill would further declare that it is the public policy of the state that claims related to the recyclability of a product or packaging be truthful and that consumers deserve accurate and useful information related to how to properly handle the end of life of a product or packaging. This bill would require the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, on or before January 1, 2024, in order to provide information to the public to evaluate whether a product or packaging is recyclable in the state and is of material types and forms that routinely become feedstock used in the production of new products and packaging, to update specified regulations to require disposal facility operators, among other operations and facilities, to provide information to the department regarding how material processed by the operations and facilities was collected and what material types and forms are actively recovered, and not considered contaminants, by the operation or facility. This bill would prohibit a person from offering for sale, selling, distributing, or importing into the state any product or packaging for which a deceptive or misleading claim about the recyclability of the product or packaging is made. The bill would provide that a product or packaging that displays a chasing arrows symbol, among other symbols, statements, or directions, except as specified, is deemed to be a deceptive or misleading claim unless the product or packaging is considered recyclable pursuant to statewide recyclability criteria and is of a material type and form that routinely becomes feedstock used in the production of new products or packaging, as provided.

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SB 451, Beverage container recycling: pilot projects. Senator Dodd (D- Napa). 

This bill would authorize the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery to establish a recycling pilot program for the collection and recycling of beverage containers. The bill would define the terms “beverage” and “beverage containers” for purposes of the pilot program to include certain beverage containers that are otherwise excluded for other purposes. The bill would make an appropriation by changing the terms and conditions under which the department is authorized to make payments from a continuously appropriated fund. The bill would require the recycling pilot program to include a requirement for a pilot project operator to submit to the department a pilot project plan with specified goals and elements, including that the pilot project operator provide the department with annual updates and a final report on or before April 1, 2026. The bill would require the department to review and approve, disapprove, or conditionally approve a pilot project operator plan within a reasonable timeframe. The bill would require the department to annually include an update on the recycling pilot program in a specified report to the Legislature. The bill would make these provisions inoperative on July 1, 2026, and would repeal them on January 1, 2027. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

  • Current status:

    • Urgency clause adopted and passed from Senate Floor with a 39-0 Vote. Ordered to the Assembly pending referral.

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General Info

GENERAL INFO

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