BILL NUMBER: SB 204	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN SENATE  APRIL 24, 2003
	AMENDED IN SENATE  MARCH 20, 2003

INTRODUCED BY   Senators Perata, Alpert, Kuehl, and Romero
   (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   declare that personal care products represent
a substantial portion of the materials that are still disposed of in
landfills without a significant effort to divert the materials 
.  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 person that manufacturers personal care products to
pay the board  a diversion and recycling fee of $0.0025 per
personal care product  manufactured by that person and sold or
distributed in the state  .   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  require the board to deposit those
fees in the account.  The bill would  continuously appropriate
the funds in the account to the board for expenditure by the board to
provide to eligible local agencies  and waste haulers 
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 42582.
   (c) "Local agency" means  any   a  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   42583  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.
 
   (b) A person that manufacturers personal care products shall pay
to the Integrated Waste Management Board a diversion and recycling
fee of one-fourth of one cent ($0.0025) per personal care product
manufactured by that person and sold or otherwise distributed in the
state.  A fee may not be assessed on the separate plastic and paper
components used in manufacturing a personal care product.  The board
shall deposit those fees in the Personal Care Product Recycling
Account. 
   42583.  The board shall expend the money in the account to provide
grants to eligible local agencies  and waste haulers  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) 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.   The eligibility
requirements adopted pursuant to subdivision (a) may allow for
phased-in programs and for programs in which part of the personal
care products in a local entity's waste stream is diverted and
recycled. 
   (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 
 a sewage treatment facility  or allows marketing to
businesses that can use the  byproduct   human
  waste  in the course of their business in conformity
with all laws and regulations covering the use of human waste
 byproducts  .
   (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.
   (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) 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 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 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.