BILL NUMBER: AB 215 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Chesbro
JANUARY 31, 2013
An act to amend Section 42301 of the Public Resources Code,
relating to solid waste.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 215, as introduced, Chesbro. Solid waste recycling.
The California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989 requires
rigid plastic packaging containers that are sold or offered for sale
in this state to meet, on average, one of specified criteria and
defines terms for purposes of those requirements. One of those
criteria that a rigid plastic packaging container may meet to satisfy
this requirement is that the container be source reduced. The act
provides for the enforcement of these requirements by the Department
of Resources Recycling and Recovery and provides that an entity
making a false certification pursuant to those requirements is
subject to a violation for fraud.
This bill would revise the definitions of the various terms used
in the those requirements, including revising the definition of the
term "source reduced" to impose new requirements, thereby imposing a
state-mandated local program by changing the definition of a crime.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local
agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this
act for a specified reason.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: yes.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 42301 of the Public Resources Code is amended
to read:
42301. For purposes of this chapter, the following definitions
apply:
(a) "Container manufacturer" means a company or a successor
company that manufactures and sells any rigid plastic
packaging container subject to this chapter to a manufacturer that
sells or offers for sale in this state any product packaged in that
container.
(b) "Curbside collection program" means a recycling program that
collects materials set out by households for collection at the curb
at intervals not less than every two weeks. "Curbside collection
program" does not include redemption centers, buyback locations,
drop-off programs, material recovery facilities, or plastic recovery
facilities.
(c) "Refillable package" means a rigid plastic packaging container
that the board determines is routinely returned
to and refilled by the product manufacturer or its agen
t at least five times with the original product contained
by the package rigid plastic packaging
containers .
(d) "Reusable package" means a rigid plastic packaging container
that the board determines is routinely reused by
consumers at least five times to store the original product contained
by the package.
(e) "Manufacturer" means the producer or generator of a product
that is sold or offered for sale in the state and that is stored
inside of a rigid plastic packaging container.
(f) "Rigid plastic packaging container" means any
a plastic package
packaging container having a relatively inflexible finite shape
or form, with a minimum capacity of eight fluid ounces or its
equivalent volume and a maximum capacity of five fluid gallons or its
equivalent volume, that is capable of maintaining its shape while
holding other products, including, but not limited to, bottles,
cartons, and other receptacles, for sale or distribution in the
state.
(g) (1) "Postconsumer material" means a
material that would otherwise be destined for solid waste disposal,
having completed its intended end use and product lifecycle.
Postconsumer material
(2) Except as provided in paragraphs
(3) and (4), "postconsumer material
" does not include materials and byproducts generated from, and
commonly reused within, an original manufacturing and fabrication
process.
(3) "Postconsumer material" includes finished plastic packaging
that has been rejected by a container or product manufacturer, and
that would be commonly disposed of, if the department determines the
material is later used in a process that is other than an original
manufacturing and fabrication process.
(4) "Postconsumer material" includes a rigid plastic packaging
container holding an obsolete or unsold product that is commonly
disposed of, and not commonly reused, within an original
manufacturing process, if the rigid plastic packaging container is
used as feedstock for new rigid plastic packaging containers or under
the alternative compliance method established by Section 42310.3.
(h) "Recycled" means a product or material that has been reused in
the production of another product and has been diverted from
disposal in a landfill.
(i) "Recycling rate" means the proportion, as measured by weight,
volume, or number, of a rigid plastic packaging container sold or
offered for sale in the state that is being recycled in a given
calendar year, that is one of the following:
(1) A particular type of rigid plastic packaging container, such
as a milk jug, soft drink container, or detergent bottle.
(2) A product-associated rigid plastic packaging container.
(3) A single resin type, as specified in Section 18015, of rigid
plastic packaging container, notwithstanding the exemption of that
container from this chapter pursuant to subdivision (b), (c), or (d)
of Section 42340.
(j) (1) "Source reduced container" means either of the
following: a rigid plastic container for which the
container weight per unit or number of product uses has been reduced
by 10 percent when compared with one of the following:
(A) A rigid plastic packaging container for which the manufacturer
seeks compliance as of January 1, 1995, whose package weight per
unit or use of product has been reduced by 10 percent when compared
with the packaging used for that product by the manufacturer from
January 1, 1990, to December 31, 1994.
(B) A rigid plastic container for which the manufacturer seeks
compliance after January 1, 1995, whose package weight per unit or
use of product has been reduced by 10 percent when compared with one
of the following:
(i) The
(A) The rigid plastic packaging
container used for the product by the manufacturer on
January 1, 1995.
(ii) The
(B) The rigid plastic packaging
container used for that product by the product
manufacturer over the course of the first full year of commerce in
this state.
(iii) The
(C) A rigid plastic packaging
container used in commerce that in
this state during the same year for similar products in
similar rigid plastic packaging containers by the product
manufacturer whose containers have not been considered source
reduced, or a particular type of rigid plastic packaging container
that is used to hold a similar product by other product
manufacturers, as determined by the department, whose
containers have not been considered source reduced.
(2) A rigid plastic packaging container is not a source reduced
container for the purposes of this chapter if the packaging
reduction was achieved by any of the following:
(A) Substituting a different material type for a material that
previously constituted the principal material of the container.
(B) Increasing a container's weight per unit or use of
product number of product uses after January 1,
1991.
(C) Packaging changes that adversely affect the potential for the
rigid plastic packaging container to be recycled or to be made of
postconsumer material.
(k) "Product-associated rigid plastic packaging container" means a
brand-specific, rigid plastic packaging container line
that may have one or more sizes, shapes, or designs and that is used
in conjunction with a particular generic product line.
( l ) "PETE" means polyethylene terephthalate as
specified in subdivision (a) of Section 18015.
(m) "HDPE" means high-density polyethylene.
SEC. 2. No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to
Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because a
local agency or school district has the authority to levy service
charges, fees, or assessments sufficient to pay for the program or
level of service mandated by this act, within the meaning of Section
17556 of the Government Code.