BILL NUMBER: AB 712	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Williams

                        FEBRUARY 17, 2011

   An act to amend Section 14501 of the Public Resources Code,
relating to recycling.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 712, as introduced, Williams. Recycling: beverage containers.
   The California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction
Act requires a distributor to pay a redemption payment for each
beverage container sold or offered for sale to the Department of
Resources Recycling and Recovery.
   This bill would correct an erroneous reference in the legislative
findings of the act.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


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

  SECTION 1.  Section 14501 of the Public Resources Code is amended
to read:
   14501.  The Legislature finds and declares as follows:
   (a) Experience in this state and others demonstrates that
financial incentives and convenient return systems ensure the
efficient and large-scale recycling of beverage containers.
Accordingly, it is the intent of the Legislature to encourage
increased, and more convenient, beverage container redemption
opportunities for all consumers. These redemption opportunities shall
consist of dealer and other shopping center locations, independent
and industry operated recycling centers, curbside programs, and other
recycling systems that assure all consumers, in every region of the
state, the opportunity to return beverage containers conveniently,
efficiently, and economically.
   (b) California grocery, beer, soft drink, container manufacturing,
labor, agricultural, consumer, environmental, government, citizen,
recreational, taxpayer, and recycling groups have joined together in
calling for an innovative program to generate large-scale redemption
and recycling of beverage containers.
   (c) This division establishes a beverage container recycling goal
of 80 percent.
   (d) It is the intent of the Legislature to ensure that every
container type proves its own recyclability.
   (e) It is the intent of the Legislature to make redemption and
recycling convenient to consumers, and the Legislature hereby urges
cities and counties, when exercising their zoning authority, to act
favorably on the siting of multimaterial recycling centers, reverse
vending machines, mobile recycling units, or other types of recycling
opportunities, as necessary for consumer convenience, and the
overall success of litter abatement and beverage container recycling
in the state.
   (f) The purpose of this division is to create and maintain a
marketplace where it is profitable to establish sufficient recycling
centers and locations to provide consumers with convenient recycling
opportunities through the establishment of minimum refund values and
processing fees and, through the proper application of these
elements, to enhance the profitability of recycling centers,
recycling locations, and other beverage container recycling programs.

   (g) The responsibility to provide convenient, efficient, and
economical redemption opportunities rests jointly with manufacturers,
distributors, dealers, recyclers, processors, and the Department of
 Conservation   Resources Recycling and Recovery
 .
   (h) It is the intent of the Legislature, in enacting this
division, that all empty beverage containers redeemed shall be
recycled, and that the responsibilities and regulations of the
department shall be determined and implemented in a manner that
favors the recycling of redeemed containers, as opposed to their
disposal.
   (i) Nothing in this division shall be interpreted as affecting the
current business practices of scrap dealers or recycling centers,
except that, to the extent they function as a recycling center or
processor, they shall do so in accordance with this division.
   (j) The program established by this division will contribute
significantly to the reduction of the beverage container component of
litter in this state.