BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1108
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB
1108 (Low)
As Amended May 5, 2015
Majority vote
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|Committee |Votes |Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+------+-----------------------+------------------|
|Natural |9-0 |Williams, Dahle, | |
|Resources | |Cristina Garcia, | |
| | |Hadley, Harper, | |
| | |McCarty, Rendon, Mark | |
| | |Stone, Wood | |
| | | | |
|----------------+------+-----------------------+------------------|
|Appropriations |17-0 |Gomez, Bigelow, Bloom, | |
| | |Bonta, Calderon, | |
| | |Chang, Daly, Eggman, | |
| | |Gallagher, Eduardo | |
| | |Garcia, Holden, Jones, | |
| | |Quirk, Rendon, Wagner, | |
| | |Weber, Wood | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY: Prohibits certified recycling centers from paying the
California Refund Value (CRV) to a consumer for more than 50
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pounds of aluminum beverage containers or plastic beverage
containers, or 500 pounds of glass beverage containers during a
24-hour period.
EXISTING LAW, pursuant to the California Beverage Container
Recycling and Litter Reduction Act (Bottle Bill):
1)Requires beverage containers sold in this state to have a CRV of
$0.05 for containers that hold fewer than 24 ounces and $0.10
for containers that hold 24 ounces or more and requires a
distributor to pay a redemption payment to the California
Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle).
Continuously appropriates these funds to CalRecycle for the
payment of refund values and processing fees.
2)Requires CalRecycle to:
a) Establish reporting periods of six months each for
redemption rates and recycling rates for beverage containers
and requires them to determine and report the redemption
rates and recycling rates for those beverage containers for
each reporting period.
b) Certify recycling centers and promulgate regulations
establishing a procedure for certification of recycling
centers. Specifies that these regulations shall include, as
a condition for certification, that if one or more certified
entities have operated at the same location within the past
five years, the recycling center must demonstrate to
CalRecycle that its operations exhibit a pattern of
compliance with the Bottle Bill and its related regulations.
c) Pay handling fees to supermarket sites, nonprofit
convenience zone recyclers, or rural region recyclers to
provide an incentive for the redemption of empty beverage
containers in convenience zones, and adopt guidelines and
methods specifying a procedure for the payment of these fees.
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d) After deducting refund values, administrative fees, and a
reserve for contingencies, appropriate remaining Fund monies
to designated programs, grants, and fee payments (Public
Resources Code Section 14581).
3)Requires certified recycling centers to comply with the
requirements of the Bottle Bill and:
a) Operate during specified business hours;
b) Post signage that is at least two feet by two feet, which
includes the types of containers that can be redeemed and the
price paid by weight or per container;
c) Notify CalRecycle of any material change in the nature of
the operation;
d) Complete a precertification training program;
e) Accept and pay CRV for all Bottle Bill containers, and not
pay CRV for any container that is not included in the Bottle
Bill or any container that the center knows, or should have
known, is from out of state;
f) Prepare and maintain specified documentation; and,
g) Comply with all regulations adopted by CalRecycle.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, unknown, annual costs savings, potentially in the
hundreds of thousands to of dollars, resulting from fraud
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deterrence (Beverage Recycling Fund).
COMMENTS: 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 CRV.
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.
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 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. Based on the survey data
referenced above, CalRecycle states that a conservative estimate
of fraud exposure to the Bottle Bill Fund is $7 million annually.
In recent years, CalRecycle and the Department of Justice (DOJ)
have increased Bottle Bill fraud enforcement efforts, which have
resulted in several high profile prosecutions. Most recently,
last November, five people were arrested in the Turlock area on
charges of conspiracy, grand theft, and recycling fraud after
investigators found 250,000 pounds of beverage containers (22
truckloads) unauthorized beverage containers and $125,000 cash.
In 2014, DOJ arrested a Los Angeles recycling center owner for
defrauding the state of more than $500,000. In 2010, DOJ and
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CalRecycle participated in a multi-state fraud investigation that
resulted in the arrest of 31 individuals for Bottle Bill fraud
rings that took in over $3.5 million.
CalRecycle has made administrative changes to combat fraud. In
January, 2014, CalRecycle reduced the number of containers an
individual can bring to recycling centers for CRV in a single day
from 500 pounds of aluminum or plastic to 100 pounds, and from
2,500 pounds of glass to 1,000 pounds and required that anyone
transporting 25 pounds or more of aluminum beverage containers or
250 pounds of glass beverage containers into the state must pass
through a CDFA quarantine inspection station and obtain and carry
a proof of inspection
This bill expands on CalRecycle's ongoing efforts to eliminate
fraud in the program by making it more difficult for individuals
to fraudulently redeem large quantities of out-of-state beverage
containers.
Analysis Prepared by:
Elizabeth MacMillan / NAT. RES. / (916) 319-2092
FN:
0000514
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