BILL NUMBER: SB 204	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN SENATE  MARCH 20, 2003

INTRODUCED BY   Senators Perata, Alpert, Kuehl, and Romero
    (Coauthor: Assembly Member Harman) 
    (Coauthors: Assembly Members Hancock, Harman, Longville, and
Steinberg) 

                        FEBRUARY 13, 2003

   An act to add Chapter 11 (commencing with Section 42580) to Part 3
of Division 30 of the Public Resources Code, relating to solid
waste, and making an appropriation therefor.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SB 204, as amended, Perata.  Solid waste:  personal care products:
recycling.
   Existing law requires the California Integrated Waste Management
Board to administer state programs to recycle plastic trash bags,
plastic packaging containers, waste tires, newsprint, and other
specified materials.
   This bill would require the board to provide grants to local
agencies, as defined, for the purposes of funding programs for the
recycling and diversion from landfill disposal of personal care
products.  The bill would define a "personal care product" to mean a
disposable product composed of plastic and paper materials that is
worn by a person of any age for the purpose of capturing human waste.

   The bill would require every person who purchases a personal care
product from a retail seller to pay the seller a diversion and
recycling fee of $0.0025 per personal care product.  The bill would
require the retail seller to charge the purchaser the amount of the
diversion and recycling fee at the time of sale and to remit to the
board on a quarterly schedule the collected fees, for deposit in the
Personal Care Product Recycling Account.
   The bill would establish the Personal Care Product Recycling
Account in the Integrated Waste Management Fund and would
continuously appropriate the funds in the account to the board for
expenditure by the board to provide to eligible local agencies grants
for the recycling and diversion from landfill disposal of personal
care products.
   Vote:  majority.  Appropriation:  yes.  Fiscal committee:  yes.
State-mandated local program:  no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:


  SECTION 1.  Chapter 11 (commencing with Section 42580) is added to
Part 3 of Division 30 of the Public Resources Code, to read:

      CHAPTER 11.  PERSONAL CARE PRODUCT RECYCLING

   42580.  The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
   (a) Local agencies have made great strides in recent years in
their efforts to meet the requirement of a 50 percent rate of
diversion from the waste stream.  However, many are still working to
meet this requirement and some are seeking to reach a 75 percent rate
of diversion.
   (b) Local agencies continue to face difficulty in funding their
responsibilities, including their responsibility to divert materials
from the waste stream.  The current downturn in the economy and the
state budget crisis has increased these difficulties.
   (c) Personal care products represent a substantial portion of the
materials that still are disposed of in landfills without a
significant effort to divert the materials.  It is estimated that
personal care products represent somewhere between one and one-half
and 3 percent of the materials disposed of in landfills in
California.  This means that personal care products are among the
largest single product disposed of in landfills in California.  Some
components of personal care products can take up to 500 years to
degrade.  According to the United States Environmental Protection
Agency, nearly 20 billion disposable personal care products
containing 5 million tons of untreated human waste are disposed of in
United States landfills each year.
   42581.  For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms have
the following meanings, unless the context clearly requires
otherwise:
   (a) "Account" means the Personal Care Product Recycling Account
established under subdivision (a) of Section 42582 in the Integrated
Waste Management Fund.
   (b) "Diversion and recycling fee" means the fee imposed upon the
sale of a personal care product pursuant to subdivision (b) of
Section  42852   42582  .
   (c) "Local agency" means any city, county, city and county,
district, regional agency as defined in Section 40181, or other
agency of local government that provides or regulates solid waste
handling services.
   (d) "Personal care product" means a disposable product composed of
plastic and paper materials that is worn by a person of any age for
the purpose of capturing human waste.  "Personal care product" does
not include a feminine hygiene product.
   (e) "Retail seller" means a retail establishment that offers the
sale of personal care products to consumers, including, but not
limited to, for household or institutional use.
   42582.  (a) The Personal Care Product Recycling Account is hereby
established in the Integrated Waste Management Fund.  Notwithstanding
Section 13340 of the Government Code, all funds in the account are
hereby continuously appropriated to the board, without regard to
fiscal years, for expenditure by the board to implement Sections
42585 and 42584.
   (b) (1) Every person who purchases from a retail seller a personal
care product shall pay to that seller a diversion and recycling fee
of one-fourth cent ($0.0025) per personal care product.
   (2) The retail seller shall charge the purchaser the amount of the
diversion and recycling fee as a charge that is separate from, and
not included in, any other fee, charge, or other amount paid by the
purchaser.
   (3) The retail seller shall collect the diversion and recycling
fee from the purchaser at the time of sale and shall remit the
diversion and recycling fees collected to the board on a quarterly
schedule for deposit in the Personal Care Product Recycling Account.

   42583.  The board shall expend the money in the account to provide
grants to eligible local agencies for the purpose of funding
programs for the recycling and diversion from landfill disposal of
personal care products.  A recycling and diversion program that
receives a grant shall meet all of the following conditions:

   (a) Require the collection and separation of personal care
products from the waste stream in the following amounts:
   (1) Thirty percent or more during the first year of operation.
   (2) Fifty percent or more during the second year of operation.
   (3) Eighty percent or more during the third and any subsequent
year of operation.  
   (a) Meet eligibility requirements adopted by the board in
consultation with local agencies and waste haulers. 
   (b) Require the separation of personal care products from the
waste stream at either the point of waste collection or at a facility
established for the purpose of sorting and separating materials that
would otherwise be disposed of in a landfill.  
   (c) Provide for collection at residences and institutions.
   (d)  
   (c)  Require the materials collected and separated to be
processed so that human waste is in a condition that allows treatment
by the local entity's sewage treatment facilities or allows
marketing to businesses that can use the byproduct in the course of
their business in conformity with all laws and regulations covering
the use of human waste byproducts.  
   (e)  
   (d)  Require the materials collected and separated to be
processed so that the plastic and paper will be of a quality and type
that may be used in the manufacturing of new products and that meets
all applicable laws relating to the use of recycled plastic and
paper.
   42584.  (a) The board shall set the amount of a grant provided to
a local agency as a percentage of the actual cost of implementing a
local agency's recycling and diversion program  , so that all
qualified applicants receive an equitable share of the total funds
available in the account.   . 
   (b) Before awarding a grant to a local agency pursuant to this
chapter, the board shall require the local agency to certify that
both of the following are true:  
   (1) In each of the immediately preceding three years, the local
agency has met, or has been within 5 percentage points of meeting,
the 50 percent solid waste diversion requirement in Section 41780.
 
   (1) The local agency is in compliance with the diversion
requirements of Section 41780, as determined by the board. 
   (2) The local agency has in operation a program for diversion and
recycling of personal care products that meets the requirements of
Section 42583, or  demonstrates it  will have that program
in operation within  three   six  months of
the date that the board approves the issuance of the grant.
   42585.  The Legislature finds and declares that the imposition of
the fee pursuant to Section  42852   42582 
would not result in the imposition of a tax within the meaning of
Article XIII A of the California Constitution, because the amount and
nature of the fee has a fair and reasonable relationship to the
adverse environmental burdens imposed by the disposal of those
products and there is a sufficient nexus between the fees imposed and
the use of those fees to support the diversion of these products
from landfills.