BILL NUMBER: AB 2670 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Committee on Natural Resources (Assembly Members
Chesbro (Chair), Brownley, Dickinson, Halderman, Huffman, Monning,
and Skinner)
MARCH 5, 2012
An act to amend Sections 41770, 42301, 42649.1, and 42649.3 of,
and to repeal Section 41751 of, the Public Resources Code, relating
to solid waste.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 2670, as introduced, Committee on Natural Resources. Solid
waste plans: recycling.
(1) The California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989
requires each city, county, city and county, and regional agency, to
develop an integrated waste management plan containing specified
components, including a source reduction and recycling element. The
countywide or regional plan is required to be reviewed, revised, and
submitted to the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery every
5 years. The revision is required to use a waste disposal
characterization method developed by the department. The county plan
is also required to include a summary of certain waste management
problems facing the county.
This bill would repeal these requirements regarding the review,
revision, and submission of the plan, the use of a waste disposal
characterization method, and the inclusion of the summary.
(2) The act requires rigid plastic packaging containers that are
sold or offered for sale in this state to meet, on average, one of
specified criteria and defines terms for purposes of those
requirements. One of those criteria that a rigid plastic packaging
container may meet to satisfy this requirement is that the container
be source reduced. The act provides for the enforcement of these
requirements by the department and provides that an entity making a
false certification pursuant to those requirements is subject to a
violation for fraud.
This bill would revise the definitions of the various terms used
in the those requirements, including revising the definition of the
term "source reduced" to impose new requirements, thereby imposing a
state-mandated local program by changing the definition of a crime.
(3) The act requires a business, which is defined as a commercial
or public entity, that generates more than 4 cubic yards of
commercial solid waste per week or is a multifamily residential
dwelling of 5 units or more, to arrange for recycling services.
Existing law also requires jurisdictions to implement a commercial
solid waste recycling program meeting specified elements. Existing
law defines the term "commercial solid waste" by reference to a
specified regulation.
This bill would instead define commercial solid waste in statute
to include all types of solid waste generated by a store, office, or
other commercial or public entity source, including a business or a
multifamily dwelling of 5 or more units, thereby imposing a
state-mandated local program by imposing new requirements upon local
jurisdictions.
(4) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse
local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this
act for specified reasons.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: yes.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 41751 of the Public Resources Code is repealed.
41751. The countywide integrated waste management plan shall
include a summary of significant waste management problems facing the
county or city and county. The plan shall provide an overview of the
specific steps that will be taken by local agencies, acting
independently and in concert, to achieve the purposes of this
division. The plan shall contain a statement of the goals and
objectives set forth by the countywide task force created pursuant to
Chapter 1 (commencing with Section 40900).
SEC. 2. Section 41770 of the Public Resources Code is amended to
read:
41770. (a) Each countywide or regional agency integrated waste
management plan, and the elements thereof, shall be reviewed,
revised, if necessary, and submitted to the board every five years in
accordance with the schedule set forth under Chapter 7 (commencing
with Section 41800).
(b) Any revisions to a countywide or regional agency integrated
waste management plan, and the elements thereof, shall use a waste
disposal characterization method that the board shall develop for the
use of the city, county, city and county, or regional agency. The
city, county, city and county, or regional agency shall conduct waste
disposal characterization studies, as prescribed by the board, if it
fails to meet the diversion requirements of Section 41780, at the
time of the five-year revision of the source reduction and recycling
element.
(c)
41770. The board may review and revise its regulations governing
the contents of revised source reduction and recycling elements to
reduce duplications in one or more components of these revised
elements.
SEC. 3. Section 42301 of the Public Resources Code is amended to
read:
42301. For purposes of this chapter, the following definitions
apply:
(a) "Container manufacturer" means a company or a successor
company that manufactures and sells any rigid plastic
packaging container subject to this chapter to a manufacturer that
sells or offers for sale in this state any product packaged in that
container.
(b) "Curbside collection program" means a recycling program that
collects materials set out by households for collection at the curb
at intervals not less than every two weeks. "Curbside collection
program" does not include redemption centers, buyback locations,
drop-off programs, material recovery facilities, or plastic recovery
facilities.
(c) "Refillable package" means a rigid plastic packaging container
that the board determines is routinely returned
to and refilled by the product manufacturer or its agen
t at least five times with the original product contained
by the package rigid plastic packaging
containers .
(d) "Reusable package" means a rigid plastic packaging container
that the board determines is routinely reused by
consumers at least five times to store the original product contained
by the package.
(e) "Manufacturer" means the producer or generator of a product
that is sold or offered for sale in the state and that is stored
inside of a rigid plastic packaging container.
(f) "Rigid plastic packaging container" means any
a plastic package
packaging container having a relatively inflexible finite shape
or form, with a minimum capacity of eight fluid ounces or its
equivalent volume and a maximum capacity of five fluid gallons or its
equivalent volume, that is capable of maintaining its shape while
holding other products, including, but not limited to, bottles,
cartons, and other receptacles, for sale or distribution in the
state.
(g) (1) "Postconsumer material" means a
material that would otherwise be destined for solid waste disposal,
having completed its intended end use and product lifecycle.
Postconsumer
(2) Except as provided in paragraph
(3), postconsumer material does not include materials and
byproducts generated from, and commonly reused within, an original
manufacturing and fabrication process.
(3) "Postconsumer material" includes finished plastic packaging
that has been rejected by a container or product manufacturer, and
that would be commonly disposed of, if the department determines the
material is later used in a process that is other than an original
manufacturing and fabrication process.
(h) "Recycled" means a product or material that has been reused in
the production of another product and has been diverted from
disposal in a landfill.
(i) "Recycling rate" means the proportion, as measured by weight,
volume, or number, of a rigid plastic packaging container sold or
offered for sale in the state that is being recycled in a given
calendar year, that is one of the following:
(1) A particular type of rigid plastic packaging container, such
as a milk jug, soft drink container, or detergent bottle.
(2) A product-associated rigid plastic packaging container.
(3) A single resin type, as specified in Section 18015, of rigid
plastic packaging container, notwithstanding the exemption of that
container from this chapter pursuant to subdivision (b), (c), or (d)
of Section 42340.
(j) (1) "Source reduced container" means either of the
following: a rigid plastic container for which the
container weight per unit or number of product uses has been reduced
by 10 percent when compared with one of the following:
(A) A rigid plastic packaging container for which the manufacturer
seeks compliance as of January 1, 1995, whose package weight per
unit or use of product has been reduced by 10 percent when compared
with the packaging used for that product by the manufacturer from
January 1, 1990, to December 31, 1994.
(B) A rigid plastic container for which the manufacturer seeks
compliance after January 1, 1995, whose package weight per unit or
use of product has been reduced by 10 percent when compared with one
of the following:
(i) The
(A) The rigid plastic packaging
container used for the product by the manufacturer on
January 1, 1995.
(ii) The
(B) The rigid plastic packaging
container used for that product by the product
manufacturer over the course of the first full year of commerce in
this state.
(iii) The
(C) A rigid plastic packaging
container used in commerce that in
this state during the same year for similar products in
similar rigid plastic packaging containers by the product
manufacturer whose containers have not been considered source redu
ced, or a particular type of rigid plastic packaging
container that is used to hold a similar product by other product
manufacturers, as determined by the department, whose
containers have not been considered source reduced.
(2) A rigid plastic packaging container is not a source reduced
container for the purposes of this chapter if the packaging
reduction was achieved by any of the following:
(A) Substituting a different material type for a material that
previously constituted the principal material of the container.
(B) Increasing a container's weight per unit or use of
product number of product uses after January 1,
1991.
(C) Packaging changes that adversely affect the potential for the
rigid plastic packaging container to be recycled or to be made of
postconsumer material.
(k) "Product-associated rigid plastic packaging container" means a
brand-specific, rigid plastic packaging container line
that may have one or more sizes, shapes, or designs and that is used
in conjunction with a particular generic product line.
( l ) "PETE" means polyethylene terephthalate as
specified in subdivision (a) of Section 18015.
(m) "HDPE" means high-density polyethylene.
SEC. 4. Section 42649.1 of the Public Resources Code is amended to
read:
42649.1. For purposes of this chapter, the following
terms mean the following shall apply :
(a) "Business" means a commercial or public entity, including, but
not limited to, a firm, partnership, proprietorship, joint stock
company, corporation, or association that is organized as a
for-profit or nonprofit entity, or a multifamily residential
dwelling.
(b) "Commercial solid waste" has the same meaning as
defined in Section 17225.12 of Title 14 of the California Code of
Regulations includes all types of solid waste
generated by a store, office, or other commercial or public entity s
ource, including a business or a multifamily dwelling of
five or more units .
(c) "Commercial waste generator" means a business subject to
subdivision (a) of Section 42649.2.
(d) "Self-hauler" means a business that hauls its own waste rather
than contracting for that service.
SEC. 5. Section 42649.3 of the Public Resources Code is amended to
read:
42649.3. (a) On and after July 1, 2012, each jurisdiction shall
implement a commercial solid waste recycling program appropriate for
that jurisdiction designed to divert commercial solid waste from
businesses subject to Section 426492 42649.2
, whether or not the jurisdiction has met the requirements of
Section 41780.
(b) If a jurisdiction already has a commercial solid waste
recycling program as one of its diversion elements that meets the
requirements of this section, it shall not be required to implement a
new or expanded commercial solid waste recycling program.
(c) The commercial solid waste recycling program shall be directed
at a commercial waste generator, as defined in subdivision
(b) (c) of Section 42649.1, and may include, but
is not limited to, any of the following:
(1) Implementing a mandatory commercial solid waste recycling
policy or ordinance.
(2) Requiring a mandatory commercial solid waste recycling program
through a franchise contract or agreement.
(3) Requiring all commercial solid waste to go through either a
source separated or mixed processing system that diverts material
from disposal.
(d) The commercial solid waste recycling program shall include
education, outreach to, and monitoring of, businesses. A jurisdiction
shall notify a business if the business is not in compliance with
Section 42649.2.
(e) The commercial solid waste recycling program may include
enforcement provisions that are consistent with a jurisdiction's
authority, including a structure for fines and penalties.
(f) The commercial solid waste recycling program may include
certification requirements for self-haulers.
(g) The department shall review a jurisdiction's compliance with
this section as part of the department's review required by Section
41825. Each jurisdiction shall report the progress achieved in
implementing its commercial recycling program, including education,
outreach, identification, and monitoring, and if applicable,
enforcement efforts, by providing updates in the annual report
required by Section 41821.
(h) The department may also review whether a jurisdiction is in
compliance with this section at any time that the department receives
information that a jurisdiction has not implemented, or is not
making a good faith effort to implement, a commercial recycling
program.
(i) During its review pursuant to subdivision (g) or (h), the
department shall determine whether each jurisdiction has made a good
faith effort to implement its selected commercial recycling program.
For purposes of this section, "good faith effort" means all
reasonable and feasible efforts by a jurisdiction to implement its
commercial recycling program. During its review, the department may
include, but is not limited to, the following factors in its
evaluation of a jurisdiction's good faith effort:
(1) The extent to which businesses have complied with Section
42649.2, including information on the amount of disposal that is
being diverted from the businesses, if available, and on the number
of businesses that are subscribing to service.
(2) The recovery rate of the commercial waste from the material
recovery facilities that are utilized by the businesses, all
information, methods, and calculations, and any additional
performance data, as requested by the department from the material
recovery facilities pursuant to Section 18809.4 of Title 14 of the
California Code of Regulations.
(3) The extent to which the jurisdiction is conducting education
and outreach to businesses.
(4) The extent to which the jurisdiction is monitoring businesses,
and notifying those businesses that are out of compliance.
(5) The availability of markets for collected recyclables.
(6) Budgetary constraints.
(7) In the case of a rural jurisdiction, the effects of small
geographic size, low population density, or distance to markets.
SEC. 6. No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to
Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because a
local agency or school district has the authority to levy service
charges, fees, or assessments sufficient to pay for the program or
level of service mandated by this act or because costs that may be
incurred by a local agency or school district will be incurred
because this act creates a new crime or infraction, eliminates a
crime or infraction, or changes the penalty for a crime or
infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government
Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the meaning of
Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution.