BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  SB 568
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   August 17, 2011

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Felipe Fuentes, Chair

                   SB 568 (Lowenthal) - As Amended:  July 12, 2011 

          Policy Committee:                             Natural 
          ResourcesVote:6-3

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program: 
          No     Reimbursable:              No

           SUMMARY  

          This bill prohibits a food vendor from dispensing prepared food 
          to a customer in a polystyrene foam food container.  

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          1)Beginning in 2015-16, potential annual costs of an unknown 
            amount, potentially in the tens of thousands of dollars, to 
            state agencies that are food vendors that will purchase food 
            containers made with relatively expensive alternative 
            materials.  Actual costs will depend upon the volume of food 
            containers purchased by food vendors that are state agencies, 
            the price of alternatives at the time of their procurement in 
            excess of the cost of polystyrene food containers at that 
            time, and the ability of the state agency to recover costs 
            from customers who purchase food served in the containers.  
            (Various funds.)

          2)Beginning in 2016-17, potential state mandate costs of an 
            unknown amount resulting from claims filed by school districts 
            that elect to use relatively expensive food containers made 
            from polystyrene alternatives or that choose to adopt a 
            polystyrene recycling program.  (General Fund.)

           SUMMARY (continued)

           Specifically, this bill:

          1)Defines food vendor as an operation that stores, prepares, 
            packages, serves, vends, or otherwise provides food for human 
            consumption at the retail level, but not a correctional 








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            facility.

          2)Prohibits, effective July 1, 2016, a food vendor from 
            dispensing food to a customer in a polystyrene foam food 
            container.

          3)Exempts schools districts from the prohibition until January 
            1, 2017.

          4)Allows a school district to continue to distribute food in a 
            polystyrene foam food container after January 1, 2017, if the 
            district's governing board adopts a policy to implement a 
            recycling program under which at least 60% of the polystyrene 
            foam food containers purchased by the district annually will 
            be recycled.

          5)Limits the effective duration of a school district's 
            polystyrene recycling policy to five years and requires a 
            district seeking to renew such a policy for another five years 
            to demonstrate with the empirical data that the district is 
            recycling at least 60% of the polystyrene foam food containers 
            generated by the district annually.

          6)Allows a local government to permit dispensing of prepared 
            food to a customer in a polystyrene foam food container on and 
            after January 1, 2016, if the local government has adopted an 
            ordinance to establish recycling program under which at least 
            60% of the containers purchased by the district annually will 
            be recycled.

          7)Limits the effective duration of a local government's 
            polystyrene recycling ordinance to five years and requires a 
            local government seeking to renew such a policy for another 
            five years to demonstrate with the empirical data that it is 
            recycling at least 60% of the polystyrene foam food containers 
            generated annually within the jurisdiction.
             
           COMMENTS 

           1)Rationale  .  The author intends this bill to reduce the use of 
            polystyrene.  The author contends there are numerous, costly 
            problems resulting from the use of polystyrene food containers 
            that are not reflected in the price consumers pay to use the 
            products, including:









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             a)   Polystyrene is not cost-effective to recycle because of 
               food contamination and market conditions.

             b)   Polystyrene is a significant component of litter, 
               including stormwater waste, that must be collected, at 
               great cost, by local sanitation agencies.

             c)   Polystyrene, because is light and voluminous, readily 
               enters the water stream where it pollutes the water, breaks 
               into tiny fragments and is consumed by marine organisms, 
               accumulating in biological systems.

             d)   Polystyrene exposes the workers who manufacture it to 
               harmful substances.

             e)   There are affordable alternatives to polystyrene 
               available.

           2)Background.   Polystyrene, often known by the brand name 
            Styrofoam, is a thermoplastic petrochemical material. 
            Lightweight, malleable, strong and cheap, polystyrene is 
            commonly used to distribute food served by restaurants and 
            other food vendors, especially for carry out orders.   

             Because polystyrene food containers tend to be contaminated 
            with food waste, they are difficult to recycle.  And the 
            product is so cheap that recycling it is oftentimes not cost 
            effective.  

            The same characteristics that make polystyrene desirable for 
            use by food vendors make it an especially problematic form of 
            pollution.  Because polystyrene is lightweight, it is 
            scattered easily by the wind.  Because of its light weight, it 
            floats and it carried by waterways where it clogs drain and 
            enters the marine environment, which is increasingly polluted 
            by plastics.  Once in the sea, polystyrene breaks into very 
            small fragments that are consumed by marine animals. 

            Alternatives materials to polystyrene do exist, however, food 
            containers made from such materials are generally more 
            expensive than comparable products made from polystyrene. 

           3)Related Legislation.  
             
              a)   AB 904 (Feuer, 2008)  prohibited a takeout food provider 








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               from distributing single-use food service packaging to a 
               consumer unless the packaging is compostable or recyclable. 
               The bill was held on suspense by Senate Appropriations.

              b)   AB 1358 (Hill, 2009)  prohibited a food vendor from 
               dispensing prepared food in a disposable expanded 
               polystyrene food container, a disposable nonrecyclable 
               plastic food container, or a disposable nonrecycled paper 
               container.  The bill passed this committee 9-5 but was 
               amended on the Assembly floor to address an unrelated 
               matter.

              c)   AB 2138 (Chesbro, 2010)  would have prohibited a food 
               service provider from distributing a disposable food 
               service packaging or a single-use carryout bag unless the 
               packaging or bag met criteria for either compostable 
               packaging or recyclable packaging. The bill was held by 
               this committee.

           Analysis Prepared by  :    Jay Dickenson / APPR. / (916) 319-2081