BILL ANALYSIS ------------------------------------------------------------ |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 55| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |1020 N Street, Suite 524 | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ------------------------------------------------------------ THIRD READING Bill No: SB 55 Author: Corbett (D) Amended: 5/20/09 Vote: 21 SENATE ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY COMMITTEE : 5-2, 4/20/09 AYES: Simitian, Corbett, Hancock, Lowenthal, Pavley NOES: Runner, Ashburn SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8 SUBJECT : Recycling: California redemption value containers SOURCE : Author DIGEST : This bill deletes the provisions of existing law that require the Department of Conservation (DOC) to establish reporting periods for redemption rates that require DOC to determine redemption rates for specified types of beverage containers. This bill also deletes the definition of redemption rate. Senate Floor Amendments of 5/20/09 delete the contents of the bill and replace it with the provisions related to the deletion of the obsolete requirement to calculate a redemption rate for beverage containers subject to the California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act. The DOC must still calculate a recycling rate. These provisions were heard by the Senate CONTINUED SB 55 Page 2 Environmental Committee on 4/20/09. ANALYSIS : Under existing law, DOC is required to establish reporting periods of six months each for redemption rates and recycling rates for specified types of beverage containers. Existing law also requires the DOC to determine the redemption and recycling rates for those beverage containers for each reporting period and to issue a report on those determinations. Existing law also contains various definitions for those purposes, including redemption rate. Comments According to the Senate Environmental Quality Committee analysis, DOC is required to calculate a recycling rate the commonly used ratio of materials recycled divided by materials sold, which is a true indicator of program activities. The redemption rate calculation considers postfilled food or drink containers (not included in the Act) returned for recycling, in addition to empty beverage containers (included in the Act) returned for recycling. The recycling rate calculation only considers empty beverage containers returned for recycling. In this respect, the redemption rate does not actually depict the success of the Act because it includes material that is outside of its scope. The author's office notes that when the law was first enacted, glass and PET beverage container manufacturers operated monopoly programs for the processing of their containers. The law contained an automatic trigger that would result in an increase in refund value if a specified return rate was not achieved. In order to ensure that the beverage containers continued to promote the recycling of all glass and PET (crv and non-crv), the redemption rate formula was developed in order to provide a modest incentive to support all containers recycling. The initial trigger used a 65 percent redemption rate. Today, the triggers have been eliminated and the beverage container manufacturers no longer have an exclusive monopoly on processing. There is no longer any legal or practical justification for DOC to calculate a redemption CONTINUED SB 55 Page 3 rate. The continued existence of the calculation only causes confusion among the public and other program observers as to what the correct return rate is. FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: Yes Fiscal Com.: Yes Local: Yes SUPPORT : (Verified 5/12/09) Allan Company Californians Against Waste Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Tomra Pacific, Inc. TSM:cm 5/22/09 Senate Floor Analyses SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE **** END **** CONTINUED