BILL NUMBER: AB 1103 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 6, 2016
AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 1, 2016
AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 11, 2016
AMENDED IN SENATE JULY 16, 2015
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 19, 2015
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Dodd
FEBRUARY 27, 2015
An act to amend Sections 41821.5 and 41953 of, to amend
and renumber Section 41952 of, and to add Section 41952 to,
Section 41821.5 of the Public Resources Code, relating to
solid waste.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1103, as amended, Dodd. Solid waste: disposal.
waste disposal: self- haulers.
The California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989,
administered by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery,
generally regulates the disposal, management, and recycling of solid
waste. Existing law requires exporters, brokers, and transporters of
recyclables or compost to submit periodic information to the
department on the types, quantities, and destinations of materials
that are disposed of, sold, or transferred.
This bill would additionally require a self-hauler, as
specified, self-hauler to submit that
information to the department. department and
would require the department to develop regulations that define
"self-hauler" to include specified persons and entities.
Existing law prohibits a person, other than an authorized
recycling agent, from removing specified materials that have been
segregated from solid waste materials and placed at a designated
recycling collection location for residential curbside collection
programs authorized by a city, county, or local agency for the
purposes of collection and recycling or at a designated recycling
collection location by any commercial or industrial entity. Existing
law authorizes a court, in a civil action by a recycling agent
against a person alleged to have violated these laws, to either allow
treble damages or award a civil penalty, as specified, against the
unauthorized person removing the recyclable material, and to allow
treble damages or award a higher civil penalty, as specified, against
a person for a second violation and subsequent violations.
This bill would prohibit a person, subject to these same penalties
and damages, from collecting, removing, or transporting solid waste
generated by another person on residential, commercial, or industrial
premises located within a city, county, or local governmental
jurisdiction, except in compliance with applicable law, as defined.
The bill would apply those same penalties and damages in any civil
action against a person alleged to have violated, or to have
knowingly participated in the violation of, the segregated recycling
laws specified above. The bill would require a court, if a plaintiff
prevails in a civil action brought pursuant to these and related
provisions, to award to the plaintiff reasonable attorneys' fees,
expert witness fees, and costs incurred in the course of the
litigation.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 41821.5 of the Public Resources Code is amended
to read:
41821.5. (a) Disposal facility operators shall submit information
on the disposal tonnages by jurisdiction or region of origin that
are disposed of at each disposal facility to the department, and to
counties that request the information, in a form prescribed by the
department. To enable disposal facility operators to provide that
information, solid waste handlers and transfer station operators
shall provide information to disposal facility operators on the
origin of the solid waste that they deliver to the disposal facility.
(b) (1) Recycling and composting operations and facilities shall
submit periodic information to the department on the types and
quantities of materials that are disposed of, sold, or transferred to
other recycling or composting facilities, end users inside of the
state or outside of the state, or exporters, brokers, or transporters
for sale inside of the state or outside of the state.
(2) Exporters, brokers, self-haulers, and transporters of
recyclables or compost shall submit periodic information to the
department on the types, quantities, and destinations of materials
that are disposed of, sold, or transferred. The department shall
develop regulations implementing this section that define
"self-hauler" to include, at a minimum, a person or entity that
generates and transports, utilizing its own employees and equipment,
more than one cubic yard per week of its own food waste to a location
or facility that is not owned and operated by that person or entity.
(3) The information in the reports submitted pursuant to this
subdivision may be provided to the department on an aggregated
facility-wide basis and may exclude financial data, such as contract
terms and conditions (including information on pricing, credit terms,
volume discounts and other proprietary business terms), the
jurisdiction of the origin of the materials, or information on the
entities from which the materials are received. The department may
provide this information to jurisdictions, aggregated by company,
upon request. The aggregated information, other than that aggregated
by company, is public information.
(c) The department shall adopt regulations pursuant to this
section requiring practices and procedures that are reasonable and
necessary to implement this section, and that provide a
representative accounting of solid wastes and recyclable materials
that are handled, processed, or disposed. Those regulations approved
by the department shall not impose an unreasonable burden on waste
and recycling handling, processing, or disposal operations or
otherwise interfere with the safe handling, processing, and disposal
of solid waste and recyclables. The department shall include in those
regulations both of the following:
(1) Procedures to ensure that an opportunity to comply is provided
prior to initiation of enforcement authorized by Section 41821.7.
(2) Factors to be considered in determining penalty amounts that
are similar to those provided in Section 45016.
(d) Any person who refuses or fails to submit information required
by regulations adopted pursuant to this section is liable for a
civil penalty of not less than five hundred dollars ($500) and not
more than five thousand dollars ($5,000) for each violation of a
separate provision or, for continuing violations, for each day that
the violation continues.
(e) Any person who knowingly or willfully files a false report, or
any person who refuses to permit the department or any of its
representatives to make inspection or examination of records, or who
fails to keep any records for the inspection of the department, or
who alters, cancels, or obliterates entries in the records for the
purpose of falsifying the records as required by regulations adopted
pursuant to this section, is liable for a civil penalty of not less
than five hundred dollars ($500) and not more than ten thousand
dollars ($10,000) for each violation of a separate provision or, for
continuing violations, for each day that the violation continues.
(f) Liability under this section may be imposed in a civil action,
or liability may be imposed administratively pursuant to this
article.
(g) (1) Notwithstanding Title 5 (commencing with Section 3426) of
Part 1 of Division 4 of the Civil Code and Article 11 (commencing
with Section 1060) of Chapter 4 of Division 8 of the Evidence Code,
all records that the facility or operator is reasonably required to
keep to allow the department to verify information in, or
verification of, the reports required pursuant to subdivisions (a)
and (b) and implementing regulations shall be subject to inspection
and copying by the department, but shall be confidential and shall
not be subject to disclosure under the California Public Records Act
(Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 6250) of Division 7 of Title 1
of the Government Code).
(2) Notwithstanding Title 5 (commencing with Section 3426) of Part
1 of Division 4 of the Civil Code and Article 11 (commencing with
Section 1060) of Chapter 4 of Division 8 of the Evidence Code, an
employee of a government entity may, at the disposal facility,
inspect and copy records related to tonnage received at the facility
on or after July 1, 2015, and originating within the government
entity's geographic jurisdiction. Those records shall be limited to
weight tags that identify the hauler, vehicle, quantity, date, type,
and origin of waste received at a disposal facility. Those records
shall be available to those government entities for the purposes of
subdivision (a) and as necessary to enforce the collection of local
fees, but those records shall be confidential and shall not be
subject to disclosure under the California Public Records Act
(Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 6250) of Division 7 of Title 1
of the Government Code). Names of haulers using specific landfills
shall not be disclosed by a government entity unless necessary as
part of an administrative or judicial enforcement proceeding to fund
local programs or enforce local franchises.
(3) A government entity may petition the superior court for
injunctive or declaratory relief to enforce its authority under
paragraph (2). The times for responsive pleadings and hearings in
these proceedings shall be set by the judge of the court with the
object of securing a decision as to these matters at the earliest
possible time.
(4) For purposes of this section, a government entity is an entity
identified in Section 40145 or an entity formed pursuant to Section
40976.
(5) For purposes of this subdivision, "disposal" and "disposal
facility" have the same meanings as prescribed by Sections 40120.1
and 40121, respectively.
(6) Nothing in this subdivision shall be construed to limit or
expand the authority of a government entity that may have been
provided by this section and implementing regulations as they read on
December 31, 2015.
(7) The records subject to inspection and copying by the
department pursuant to paragraph (1) or by an employee of a
government entity pursuant to paragraph (2) may be redacted by the
operator before inspection to exclude confidential pricing
information contained in the records, such as contract terms and
conditions (including information on pricing, credit terms, volume
discounts, and other proprietary business terms), if the redacted
information is not information that is otherwise required to be
reported to the department.
(h) Notwithstanding the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (Title
2.5 (commencing with Section 1633.1) of Part 2 of Division 3 of the
Civil Code), reports required by this section shall be submitted
electronically, using an electronic reporting format system
established by the department.
(i) All records provided in accordance with this section shall be
subject to Section 40062.
SEC. 2. Section 41952 of the Public Resources
Code is amended and renumbered to read:
41957. Nothing in this chapter limits the right of any person to
donate, sell, or otherwise dispose of his or her recyclable
materials.
SEC. 3. Section 41952 is added to the Public
Resources Code, to read:
41952. No person shall collect, remove, or transport solid waste
generated by another person on residential, commercial, or industrial
premises located within a city, county, or local governmental
jurisdiction, except in compliance with applicable law. For purposes
of this section, "applicable law" includes, but is not limited to, a
municipal ordinance regulating the handling of solid waste.
SEC. 4. Section 41953 of the Public Resources
Code is amended to read:
41953. (a) In any civil action by a person, including, but not
limited to, a local governmental agency or its recycling agent,
against a person alleged to have violated Section 41950 or 41951, or
by a person, including, but not limited to, a local governmental
agency or a solid waste enterprise authorized by the local
governmental agency to handle solid waste, against a person alleged
to have violated, or to have knowingly participated in the violation
of, Section 41952, the court may either allow treble damages, as
measured by the market value of the recyclable material removed, or
award a civil penalty of not more than two thousand dollars ($2,000),
whichever is greater, for each unauthorized removal, against the
unauthorized person removing the recyclable material or solid waste.
(b) In any civil action by a person, including, but not limited
to, a local governmental agency or its recycling agent, against a
person alleged to have violated Section 41950 or 41951, or by a
person, including, but not limited to, a local governmental agency or
a solid waste enterprise authorized by the local governmental agency
to handle solid waste, against a person alleged to have violated, or
to have knowingly participated in the violation of, Section 41952,
for a second, or subsequent, time in any 12-month period, the court
may either allow treble damages, as measured by the market value of
the recyclable material removed, or award a civil penalty of not more
than five thousand dollars ($5,000), whichever is greater, for each
unauthorized removal against the unauthorized person removing the
recyclable material or solid waste.
(c) If a plaintiff prevails in a civil action brought pursuant to
this chapter, the court shall award to the plaintiff reasonable
attorneys' fees, expert witness fees, and costs incurred in the
course of the litigation.