BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1846
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CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 1846 (Gordon)
As Amended June 24, 2014
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |74-0 |(May 5, 2014) |SENATE: |36-0 |(August 11, |
| | | | | |2014) |
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Original Committee Reference: NAT. RES.
SUMMARY : Clarifies and strengthens the enforcement provisions
under the California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter
Reduction Act (Bottle Bill).
The Senate amendments specify that the act of labeling a
beverage container subject to the Bottle Bill shall not, in and
of itself, be deemed to aid in the redemption of ineligible
beverage containers.
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill:
1)Specified that a certified recycling center or processor shall
not pay or claim any refund value, processing payment, or
administrative fee on beverage containers if the center knew,
or should have known, that the containers are ineligible for
redemption.
2)Added the authority for the Department of Resources Recycling
and Recovery (CalRecycle) to suspend or permanently revoke
eligibility of a certified recycling center to receive
handling fees at one or more recycling centers as one of the
disciplinary actions available under the Bottle Bill.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, negligible state costs.
COMMENTS :
1)Bottle Bill background. The Bottle Bill is designed to
provide consumers with a financial incentive for recycling and
to make recycling convenient to consumers. The centerpiece of
the Bottle Bill is the California Refund Value (CRV).
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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.
California's Bottle Bill has achieved an overall recycling rate
over 80% higher than any other bottle bill program North
America. According to Californians Against Waste, since its
inception 25 years ago, the program has resulted in the
recycling over more than 11.9 million tons of glass; three
million tons of aluminum; and, more than two million tons of
plastic. In addition to the diversion from landfill disposal,
this recycling has avoided an estimated two million metric
tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent greenhouse gas
emissions over the last four years.
Recycling in California also results in economic benefits to the
state. The Bottle Bill program has resulted in more than
10,000 jobs and over $100 million in reduced landfill disposal
fees.
2)Finding fraud. In some ways, the Bottle Bill program is a
victim of its own success. According to CalRecycle, the
Bottle Bill is currently operating under an approximately $100
million annual structural deficit, mainly caused by
historically high recycling rates, along with mandated program
payments and outstanding General Fund loans. The structural
deficit means that program expenditures exceed program
revenues under the current mandated expenditure and revenue
structure. When the Bottle Bill does not have adequate
funding, CalRecycle is required to "proportionally reduce"
many of the program's expenditures evenly among program
participants, with the exception of CRV redemption for
consumers.
Fraud also contributes to the structural deficit. In the summer
of 2011, CalRecycle, in coordination with the California
Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), initiated a
"no-cost" pilot program to survey and document vehicles
importing out-of-state beverage container material into
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California through all 16 CDFA Border Protection Stations.
During the first 60 calendar days of the pilot program, the
information gathered indicated that over 2,500 vehicles,
including 378 rental trucks filled to capacity, imported
out-of-state beverage container material through these
stations.
In April of this year, the Department of Justice (DOJ) arrested
six people in two different cases for importing beverage
containers into California and illegally redeeming them for
CRV. The total amount of the fraud for both cases was
approximately $425,000. DOJ estimates fraud in the program
to be around $40 million annually.
3)This bill. According to the author, this bill seeks to
strengthen CalRecycle's enforcement authority by clarifying
that it is unlawful to redeem out-of-state material or any
other ineligible material for CRV.
Analysis Prepared by : Elizabeth MacMillan / NAT. RES. / (916)
319-2092
FN: 0004102