BILL NUMBER: AB 712	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  MARCH 31, 2011

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Williams

                        FEBRUARY 17, 2011

   An act to  amend Section 14501 of   add
Section 14583 to  the Public Resources Code, relating to
recycling.



	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 712, as amended, Williams. Recycling: beverage containers.
   The California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction
Act requires a distributor to pay a redemption payment for each
beverage container sold or offered for sale to the Department of
Resources Recycling and Recovery.  The act requires the Division
of Recycling in the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery,
subject to the availability of funds, to expend specified moneys set
aside in the California Beverage Container Recycling Fund, for
specified purposes relating to the recycling of beverage containers.

   This bill would  correct an erroneous reference in the
legislative findings of the act.   , notwithstanding the
above expenditure   requirement, prohibit the department
from making any payments, grants, or loans, as provided, to a city,
county, or city and county, if the city, county, or city and county
has adopted or is enforcing a land-use restriction that prevents the
siting or operation of a certified recycling center at a supermarket
site, as defined, as may be required pursuant to a specified law.

   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

   SECTION 1.    Section 14583 is added to the 
 Public Resources Code   , to read:  
   14583.  Notwithstanding Section 14581, the department shall not
make any payments, grants, or loans, as provided in that section, to
a city, county, or city and county, if the city, county, or city and
county has adopted or is enforcing a land-use restriction that
prevents the siting or operation of a certified recycling center at a
supermarket site, as defined in Section 14526.6, as may be required
pursuant to Section 14571.  
  SECTION 1.    Section 14501 of the Public
Resources Code is amended to read:
   14501.  The Legislature finds and declares as follows:
   (a) Experience in this state and others demonstrates that
financial incentives and convenient return systems ensure the
efficient and large-scale recycling of beverage containers.
Accordingly, it is the intent of the Legislature to encourage
increased, and more convenient, beverage container redemption
opportunities for all consumers. These redemption opportunities shall
consist of dealer and other shopping center locations, independent
and industry operated recycling centers, curbside programs, and other
recycling systems that assure all consumers, in every region of the
state, the opportunity to return beverage containers conveniently,
efficiently, and economically.
   (b) California grocery, beer, soft drink, container manufacturing,
labor, agricultural, consumer, environmental, government, citizen,
recreational, taxpayer, and recycling groups have joined together in
calling for an innovative program to generate large-scale redemption
and recycling of beverage containers.
   (c) This division establishes a beverage container recycling goal
of 80 percent.
   (d) It is the intent of the Legislature to ensure that every
container type proves its own recyclability.
   (e) It is the intent of the Legislature to make redemption and
recycling convenient to consumers, and the Legislature hereby urges
cities and counties, when exercising their zoning authority, to act
favorably on the siting of multimaterial recycling centers, reverse
vending machines, mobile recycling units, or other types of recycling
opportunities, as necessary for consumer convenience, and the
overall success of litter abatement and beverage container recycling
in the state.
   (f) The purpose of this division is to create and maintain a
marketplace where it is profitable to establish sufficient recycling
centers and locations to provide consumers with convenient recycling
opportunities through the establishment of minimum refund values and
processing fees and, through the proper application of these
elements, to enhance the profitability of recycling centers,
recycling locations, and other beverage container recycling programs.

   (g) The responsibility to provide convenient, efficient, and
economical redemption opportunities rests jointly with manufacturers,
distributors, dealers, recyclers, processors, and the Department of
Resources Recycling and Recovery.
   (h) It is the intent of the Legislature, in enacting this
division, that all empty beverage containers redeemed shall be
recycled, and that the responsibilities and regulations of the
department shall be determined and implemented in a manner that
favors the recycling of redeemed containers, as opposed to their
disposal.
   (i) Nothing in this division shall be interpreted as affecting the
current business practices of scrap dealers or recycling centers,
except that, to the extent they function as a recycling center or
processor, they shall do so in accordance with this division.
   (j) The program established by this division will contribute
significantly to the reduction of the beverage container component of
litter in this state.