BILL ANALYSIS
SB 55
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Date of Hearing: July 6, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES
Nancy Skinner, Chair
SB 55 (Corbett) - As Amended: May 20, 2009
SENATE VOTE : 29-4
SUBJECT : California redemption value containers
SUMMARY : Deletes an obsolete requirement that the Department of
Conservation (DOC) calculate a redemption rate for beverage
containers subject to the California Beverage Container
Recycling and Litter Reduction Act (Bottle Bill). This bill
retains the requirement that DOC calculate the recycling rate
for beverage containers.
EXISTING LAW pursuant to the Bottle Bill:
1)Requires every beverage container, as defined, sold or offered
for sale in this state to have a minimum refund value and
requires a distributor to pay a redemption payment for every
beverage container sold or offered for sale in the state to
DOC, which is required to deposit those amounts in the
California Beverage Container Recycling Fund. The money in
the fund is continuously appropriated to DOC for the payment
of refund values and processing fees.
2)Defines "beverage' to include, among other things, soda, beer
and other malt beverages, wine and distilled spirit coolers,
carbonated mineral and soda waters, noncarbonated fruit
drinks, and vegetable juices, in liquid form that are intended
for human consumption. Excludes from the definition of
'beverage', among other things, vegetable drinks in beverage
containers of more than 16 ounces, milk, medical food, and any
product sold in a container that is not an aluminum beverage
container, a glass container, a plastic beverage container, or
a bimetal container.
3)Requires DOC to establish reporting periods of six months each
for redemption rates and recycling rates for beverage
containers and requires them to determine and report the
redemption rates and recycling rates for those beverage
containers for each reporting period.
SB 55
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FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, this bill has
negligible state costs.
COMMENTS : This bill deletes provisions that require DOC to
calculate and report on redemption rates. DOC is required to
calculate a recycling rate based on 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 Bottle Bill) returned for recycling, in addition
to empty beverage containers (included in the Bottle Bill)
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 Bottle Bill because it includes material that is
outside of its scope.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Sierra Club
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Elizabeth MacMillan / NAT. RES. / (916)
319-2092