BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 712|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 712
Author: Williams (D), et al.
Amended: 7/11/11 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY COMMITTEE : 5-0, 6/20/11
AYES: Simitian, Strickland, Hancock, Kehoe, Lowenthal
NO VOTE RECORDED: Blakeslee, Pavley
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 72-0, 5/5/11 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Recycling: beverage containers
SOURCE : California Grocers Association
DIGEST : This bill prohibits, on and after July 1, 2012,
the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery from
providing the Beverage Container Recycling and Litter
Reduction Act funds to a city, county, or city and county
that prevents the siting or operation of a certified
recycling center at a supermarket site.
ANALYSIS : Existing law, the Beverage Container Recycling
and Litter Reduction Act (Bottle Bill):
1. Establishes refund value and redemption payments for
beverage containers.
2. Requires a distributor to pay a redemption payment for
every beverage container sold or offered for sale in the
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state to Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery
(CalRecycle), which is required to deposit those amounts
in the California Beverage Container Recycling Fund
(Fund). The money in the Fund is continuously
appropriated for the payment of refund values and
processing fees.
3. Specifies that every convenience zone must be served by
at least one certified recycling center, with specified
operating hours. If a zone is "unserved" by a certified
recycling center, existing law requires that the dealer
(store) redeem beverage containers from consumers.
4. Authorizes funding for specified purposes to increase
beverage container recycling, including payments to
cities and counties.
Comments
The Bottle Bill is designed to provide consumers with a
financial incentive for recycling and to make recycling
convenient to consumers so that the beverage container
component of the solid waste stream will decrease. The
centerpiece of the Bottle Bill is the California Redemption
Value (CRV). Consumers pay a deposit, the CRV, on each
beverage container they purchase. Retailers collect the
CRV from consumers when they buy beverages. The dealer
retains a small percentage of the deposit for
administration and remits the remainder to the distributor,
who also retains a small portion for administration before
remitting the balance to CalRecycle. When consumers return
their empty beverage containers to a recycler (or donate
them to a curbside or other program), the deposit is paid
back as a refund.
To provide convenient recycling opportunities to consumers,
certified recycling centers are located on the site of a
supermarket (dealer) and accept beverage containers for
recycling and remit the CRV refund to consumers. There
must be one certified recycling center in each convenience
zone, which is typically a half-mile radius circle around a
dealer. In order to assist these centers cover their
operating costs, the Bottle Bill allocates handling fees.
If there is no certified recycler in a convenience zone,
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the dealer is responsible for taking back containers.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 7/8/11)
California Grocers Association (source)
California Retailers Association
OPPOSITION : (Verified 7/8/11)
Los Angeles County Solid Waste Management
Committee/Integrated Waste Management Task Force
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office,
there are eight cities that prohibit manned recycling
facilities: Newport Beach, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel,
Ladera Ranch, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Tustin and
Vista. The California Grocers Association provided two
specific examples. The City of Tustin only allows bulk
reverse vending or reverse vending machines on retail and
commercial lots. Tustin does not allow a manned facility
on a grocers' parking lot. The City of Hermosa Beach only
allows recycling facilities in its heavy commercial zones.
Hermosa Beach does not allow recycling centers in retail
and commercial, where all of its grocery stores are
located.
According to the author:
"All supermarkets in California are required to have a
recycling center within a specified area around the store
(called a 'convenience zone'). If a recycling
opportunity does not exist in this zone, the supermarket
must take all containers back instore. It is the case,
however, that some local governments have passed or are
enforcing policies which prohibit placement of 'manned
recycling facilities' largely for aesthetic reasons. This
results in forcing a supermarket to take containers back
in the store. As the recycler of last resort, grocers
face significant challenges in taking back containers
while protecting their customers and employees. First, a
lack of physical space within the grocery store for
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processing containers is a significant hurdle for many
grocers. Second, and most importantly, there are
substantial health and safety concerns. Because grocery
stores have extremely limited in-store and storage areas,
the little space that does exist is generally reserved
for food products. If stores have to process returned
containers in-store, they would have nowhere to put
containers other than right next to food products.
Returned containers have contaminants and pathogens, and
food residue in the 'empty' containers tends to attract
rodents and pests. The close proximity of California
Redemption Value (CRV) returns to food products causes
reasonable concern for food safety both in the customer
area of the store as well as the storage area. If
grocers attempted to solve the storage issue by storing
the product outside on the loading dock or similar
location, the challenge becomes securing the CRV returns
from theft so they would not be re-returned. Even in an
outside storage location, the containers continue to have
health issues because they still attract rodents and
pests while in extremely close proximity to the store.
"This bill, appropriately, doesn't change a supermarket's
responsibility to take containers back in the store if
there is no take-back center. But, local governments
shouldn't directly interfere with a supermarket's ability
to comply with the law by locating a take-back center on
site, outside the store. To that effect, AB 712 prevents
any local government from receiving state grants and
recycling funding if they enforce policies that prevent
the citing or operation of a recycling center at a
supermarket site. The provisions of AB 712 don't become
operative until July 1, 2012."
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : The Los Angeles County Solid
Waste Management Committee/Integrated Waste Management Task
Force states:
"AB 712, if enacted, would prohibit CalRecycle from
providing any Beverage Container Recycling and Litter
Reduction Act (Bottle Bill) funds to a city, county, or
city and county that prevents the siting or operation of
a certified recycling center at a supermarket site. The
Bottle Bill specifies that there must be one certified
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recycling center in each 'convenience zone,' which is
typically a half-mile radius around a 'dealer,' e.g.
supermarket, which accepts beverage containers for
recycling and remits the CRV refund to consumers. If
there is no certified recycler in a convenience zone, the
'dealer' is responsible for taking back containers.
"This bill proposes to infringe upon local land-use
autonomy without any provisions for local conditions and
circumstance that may prevent the siting of a recycling
center at a supermarket. Rather than retain funds
collected from local residents at the State level that
are intended to encourage the collection of additional
recyclable beverage containers, the State should be
ramping up efforts to develop additional markets for
these collected recyclable materials within the State.
Additionally, the State should consider the establishment
of minimum siting criteria for recycling facilities so
that they do not become a nuisance or blight on the
community. Take back recycling facilities currently have
very minimal oversight and are not required to report the
end markets where the collected materials are sent or the
total volume of materials processed, and too often
reports have emerged regarding fraud and other violations
of existing reporting requirements for these facilities."
While the Task Force supports the expansion of convenient
recycling opportunities for consumers, they are opposed to
legislation that infringes upon local land use
decision-making authority.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 72-0, 5/5/11
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Beall,
Bill Berryhill, Block, Blumenfield, Bonilla, Bradford,
Brownley, Buchanan, Butler, Charles Calderon, Campos,
Carter, Cedillo, Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Davis, Dickinson,
Donnelly, Eng, Feuer, Fletcher, Fong, Fuentes, Galgiani,
Gatto, Gordon, Grove, Hagman, Halderman, Hall, Harkey,
Hayashi, Roger Hernández, Hill, Huber, Hueso, Huffman,
Jeffries, Knight, Lara, Logue, Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma,
Mendoza, Miller, Mitchell, Monning, Morrell, Nestande,
Norby, Olsen, Pan, Perea, V. Manuel Pérez, Portantino,
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Silva, Skinner, Smyth, Solorio, Swanson, Valadao, Wagner,
Wieckowski, Williams, Yamada, John A. Pérez
NO VOTE RECORDED: Furutani, Garrick, Gorell, Jones,
Mansoor, Nielsen, Torres, Vacancy
DLW:kc 7/12/11 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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