BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de León, Chair
SB 405 (Padilla) - Solid waste: single-use carryout bags.
Amended: April 2, 2013 Policy Vote: EQ 5-3
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: April 29, 2013 Consultant:
Marie Liu
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: SB 405 would prohibit grocery stores and large
retailers from providing single-use bags to customers beginning
January 1, 2015. The ban on single-use bags would expand to
convenience food stores and foodmarts on July 1, 2016.
Fiscal Impact:
One-time costs of about $150,000 from the Integrated Waste
Management Fund (special fund) to develop regulations
pertaining to oversight of reusable bag standards.
Ongoing costs of approximately $100,000 from the Integrated
Waste Management Fund for enforcement of reusable bag
standards.
One-time costs of $500,000 from the Integrated Waste
Management Fund for reporting requirements.
Background: In response to littler and plastic marine debris,
approximately 70 local governments throughout California have
adopted ordinances banning plastic bags. Most of these local
ordinances also require stores to charge a fee for paper
carryout bags.
The At-Store Recycling Program (PRC §42250 et seq.) requires
supermarkets and stores over 10,000 square feet that includes a
pharmacy to provide a clearly labeled and easily accessible
recycling bills for plastic bags, have reusable bags available
to customers, and to only provide bags that are labeled to
encourage recycling. This program sunsets on January 1, 2020.
Proposed Law: This bill would prohibit grocery stores and large
retailers, as defined, from providing single-use bags to
customers beginning January 1, 2015. The ban would be expanded
on July 1, 2016 to also include convenience food stores and
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foodmarts, as defined. Stores would be required to have reusable
bags available for purchase. Stores would be permitted to offer
recycled paper bags or a compostable bags, which meet specific
criteria, at the point of sale for purchase.
The Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle)
would be authorized to inspect and audit a reusable grocery bag
producer and order a laboratory test of the bag to ensure
compliance with this bill's requirements. The cost of the audit
would be borne by the bag producer.
CalRecycle would be required under this bill to report to the
Legislature by January 1, 2017 regarding the effectiveness of
the single-use bag ban on pollution reduction and other measures
of implementation including an evaluation of pollution reduction
based on state cleanup data, the distribution of paper bags, and
the number and type of violations.
Violations of this bill's provisions would be a civil penalty
and may be enforced by a city, county, or the state. Penalties
collected would be paid to the office that brought the action.
Related Legislation:
SB 700 (Wolk) of this session would require grocery stores
and restaurants to charge five cents for each single-use
carryout bag provided. Revenues would be used to fund grants
to reduce and cleanup litter in local parks. SB 700 is set
to be heard by the Environmental Quality Committee on May 1.
AB 158 (Levine) of this session would generally prohibit
grocery stores from providing single-use plastic bags and
would require stores to make reusable grocery bags available
for purchase. AB 158 is in the Assembly Appropriations
Committee.
SB 1219 (Wolk) Chapter 384/2012 extended the sunset of the
At-store Recycling Program requirements until January 1,
2020 and repealed the provisions preempting related local
regulatory action.
AB 298 (Brownley, 2012) would have generally prohibited
stores from providing single-use plastic bags to customers.
AB 298 also required reusable bags to be certified by
CalRecycle as meeting specified specifications.
AB 1998 (Brownley, 2010) would have prohibited stores from
providing single-use plastic bags and required stores to
provide reusable plastic bag for purchase or recycled paper
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bags for a fee. AB 1998 failed passage on the Senate Floor.
AB 1834 (Brownley, 2012) would define reusable bags for the
purposes of the At-Store Recycling Program Law. AB 1834 died
on the Senate Floor.
SB 915 (Calderon, 2012) would set plastic bag reduction and
recycled content goals. SB 915 was never heard in a policy
committee.
SB 1106 (Strickland, 2012) would prohibit the manufacture
of reusable plastic bags without specified warning labels
about disinfection between uses. SB 1106 failed passage in
the Senate Environmental Quality Committee.
Staff Comments: This bill would allow CalRecycle to inspect and
audit reusable grocery bag producers for compliance with
reusable bag standards. CalRecycle would also be authorized
under this bill to test reusable bags for compliance and to
request a bag producer to submit laboratory test results
illustrating their compliance with reusable bag requirements.
While this bill does not explicitly require a certification
program for reusable bags (as was required in AB 298), the
language suggests that it is intended for CalRecycle to
establish an enforcement procedure for reusable bag standards.
Staff believes that such procedures would likely necessitate the
development of appropriate regulations at an estimated cost of
$150,000. There would also be ongoing enforcement costs, some of
which would be borne by the bag producer, as the bill requires
that the audits be paid for by the bag producer, but not all
costs. Staff estimates that at least one PY at approximately
$100,000, which would likely be contracted out, would be needed
to oversee reusable bag enforcement given the large number of
reusable bag manufactures.
This bill does not specifically require CalRecycle to enforce
the bill's prohibition on single-use carry out bags. However, if
CalRecycle receives complaints from the public or local
agencies, there could be some costs to investigate such
violations. These costs are likely to be minor based on the
number of complaints CalRecycle receives regarding the existing
statutory requirement that large retailers operate plastic bag
recycling programs.
This bill allows stores to offer for sale recycled paper bags.
The bill is silent on the amount which stores may charge
(minimum or maximum) and what stores may do with the proceeds.
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This bill requires CalRecycle to submit a report to the
Legislature by January 1, 2017 regarding the effectiveness of
this bill and recommendations for statutory changes to increase
the effectiveness. It is unclear whether the bill's requirement
for the report to evaluate pollution reduction based on cleanup
data is limited to just existing data or whether CalRecycle is
expected to generate supplemental original data. It is also
unclear whether the existing data can be appropriately used to
reflect whether the proposed plastic bag ban has an effect on
pollution reduction. CalRecycle estimates that this report would
cost $500,000, although they note that this estimate could
change depending on the interpretation of the study
requirements.
The penalties assessed for violations of this bill would be
placed in the Reusable Bag Account within the Integrated Waste
Management Fund where it would be available to fund CalRecycle's
implementation costs. Staff notes that allowing program
implementation to be paid for by fines and penalties can be a
perverse incentive, or create the illusion of a perverse
incentive, for CalRecycle to be overly aggressive in enforcing
these provisions. However, requiring the Legislature to
appropriate these monies does create some separation between
penalty revenues and program funding.