BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 1118
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Date of Hearing: August 16, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
SB 1118 (Hancock) - As Amended: August 13, 2012
Policy Committee: Natural
ResourcesVote:6-1
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill creates a product stewardship recycling program for
the collection and recycling of used mattresses. Specifically,
this bill:
1)Requires, by April 1, 2013, every manufacturer of mattresses
sold in the state to submit, individually, collectively or
through a stewardship organization, an initial mattress
recovery and recycling plan, in an electronic format, to the
Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (Calrecycle)
that describes how the manufacturer will ensure recovery and
recycling of waste mattress generated by consumers who
purchase new mattresses, and, by April 1, 2014, to submit a
final mattress recovery plan to the department that ensures
the collection and recycling of specified percentages of waste
mattress by certain dates.
2)Requires Calrecycle to post the initial plan on its website.
3)Requires a manufacturer of mattresses sold in the state as of
July 1, 2013 to implement the initial plan.
4)Requires Calrecycle to review a final mattress plan and,
within 90 days of receipt, approve, disapprove or
conditionally approve the plan according to the requirements
of this bill.
5)Prohibits, as of August 1, 2014, a mattress manufacturer from
selling a mattress in the state if the manufacturer is not
covered by a plan approved or conditionally approved by
Calrecycle.
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6)Requires, as of July 1, 2013, Calrecycle to post on its
website a list of manufacturers in compliance with the
requirements of this bill.
7)Requires a manufacturer submitting a mattress plan to pay
Calrecycle an administrative fee sufficient to cover the costs
of plan review, audits, enforcement and other related
administrative activities.
8)Authorizes Calrecycle to impose an administrative civil
penalty for violations of the requirements of this bill, not
to exceed $1,000 per day, unless the violation is intentional,
knowing and negligent, in which case the penalty may not
exceed $10,000 per day.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)One-time costs of approximately $100,000 to develop and adopt
the administrative fee amount, develop a database of mattress
manufacturers and retailers, and establish other
implementation procedures and systems (special fund).
2)Ongoing costs of approximately $300,000 to $400,000 to
Calrecycle to review plans and determine their compliance with
the bill's requirements, and to enforce the requirements of
this bill, including audits, inspections and notifications
(special fund).
3)Fee revenue to Calyrecylce roughly equivalent to the
department's one-time and ongoing costs to implement this bill
(special fund).
4)Penalty revenue of an unknown amount (special fund).
COMMENTS
1)Rationale. The author notes that mattresses, because of their
size and bulk, are inherently difficult to dispose of properly
and are hard to manage in landfills. Mattress material,
however, mostly can be reused or recycled. The author
describes an increasing number of mattresses being discarded
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illegally. Such illegally disposed of mattresses, the author
adds, pose health and safety problem on communities and impose
costs on local governments who must collect the mattresses.
For example, the author cites numbers from the City of
Oakland, where city officials collect more than a dozen
discarded mattresses every day, with even greater numbers
reported by San Francisco and Los Angeles. The author intends
this bill to result in a manufacturer-devised program of
mattress recovery and recycling that prevents mattresses from
ending up on our streets, vacant lots and open spaces.
2)Background. California has numerous programs to minimize and
manage the waste that results from the many products we
consume. For example, state law requires local governments to
divert 50% of solid waste generated from landfill disposal
through source reduction, reuse, and recycling. In addition,
legislatively established state programs levy fees on waste
motor oil and electronic goods to facilitate their collection
and recycling; require retailers of cell phones and
rechargeable batteries to accept them from consumers for
reuse, recycling or disposal; and compel producers of
home-generated medical sharps to develop a plan for the safe
collection and proper disposal of them.
Rather than seeking to manage waste after it has been
produced, programs such as the mattress recovery and recycling
program envisioned by this bill seek to implement extended
producer responsibility (EPR), which addresses waste
generation at the point of product design. Typically,
producers do not consider recycling possibilities, disposal
costs, and environmental impacts when designing products
because public agencies and other entities, not the producers,
bear those costs, which each year amount to hundreds of
millions of dollars. By placing responsibility for product
disposal on the producer, EPR provides the producer a
financial incentive to reduce the generation of waste.
EPR was the adopted policy of the now-defunct Integrated Waste
Management Board and was supported by the League of California
Cities, California State Association of Counties, and the
Regional Council of Rural Counties. Currently, California has
several statutorily required EPR programs, including the used
carpet recovery program (Chapter 681, statutes of 2010, (J.
Perez, AB 2398) and the used paint recovery program (Chapter
420, Statutes of 2010 (Huffman, AB 1343).)
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3)Support. This bill is supported by the cities of Oakland and
San Francisco and several waste management organizations.
4)Opposition. This bill is opposed by the California Chamber of
Commerce, the International Sleep Products Association and
other industry organizations who generally object to EPR
programs, describing them as costly and inefficient.
Analysis Prepared by : Jay Dickenson / APPR. / (916) 319-2081