Proposed Regulations for the Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Responsibility Act

THE PROPOSED PROGRAM: CalRecycle is proposing to implement regulations for the Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act (Senate Bill (SB) 54, Allen, Chapter 75, Statutes of 2022). CalRecycle proposes to add to the California Code of Regulations, Title 14, Division 7, Chapter 11.1 (commencing with section 18980.1) and Chapter 11.5 (commencing with section 18981) regulations to implement, interpret, and make specific the requirements of the Act and establish various elements of CalRecycle’s oversight and enforcement responsibilities under the Act. The Act requires California to fundamentally change its approach to managing the production and disposal of single-use packaging and plastic single-use food service ware (covered material). The Act applies waste hierarchy strategies to reduce the environmental and health impacts of covered material by focusing on waste reduction and moving to a circular economy. The Act facilitates shifting the burden of managing covered material from local governments and ratepayers to the producers of the covered material. The Proposed Program would implement the statutory requirement for producers of covered materials to source reduce plastic covered material by 25 percent by January 1, 2032; to ensure that all plastic covered material offered for sale, distributed in, or imported in or into the state achieves the recycling rate of 65 percent on and after January 1, 2032; and to ensure that all covered material offered for sale, distributed in, or imported into the state on or after January 1, 2032, is recyclable or eligible for being labeled “compostable.” The Act also requires producers to establish a Producer Responsibility Organization (PRO) for the purpose of developing and implementing an Extended Producer Responsibility program for covered material. The Act prohibits a producer from selling, offering for sale, importing, or distributing covered materials in the state unless the producer is approved to participate in the producer responsibility plan of a PRO or alternatively, complies individually outside of a PRO. The Act imposes requirements on producers, including registration, reporting, recordkeeping, and auditing requirements; remittance of surcharges; and budget and annual report preparation. The Act also requires that local jurisdictions and recycling service providers include all covered material deemed by CalRecycle as recyclable and compostable in their collection and recycling programs, except as specified. It is reasonably foreseeable that meeting the Act’s source reduction and recycling rates will incentivize technological innovation and increased use of reusable and refillable products as well as infrastructure to optimize recycling and disposal waste streams, including collection, sorting, and processing facilities. Potential infrastructure development is presented at a program level and does not include site-specific locations or project-level implementation details (e.g., the location(s) of potential future infrastructure is not known at this time).