Bill Text: CA AB2511 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Enrolled

California Assembly Bill 2511

Bill Title: Beverage container recycling: market development payments.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Enrolled) 2024-08-28 - In Assembly. Ordered to Engrossing and Enrolling. [AB2511 Detail]

Download: California-2023-AB2511-Enrolled.html

Enrolled August 31, 2024

Passed IN Senate August 28, 2024

Passed IN Assembly May 21, 2024

Amended IN Assembly May 16, 2024

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill

No. 2511

Introduced by Assembly Member Berman

February 13, 2024

An act to amend Section 14549.2 of the Public Resources Code, relating to recycling, and making an appropriation therefor.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 2511, Berman. Beverage container recycling: market development payments.

The California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act, which is administered by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, is established to promote beverage container recycling. The act authorizes the department, subject to the availability of funds, to pay a market development payment to a reclaimer for empty plastic beverage containers that have been collected for recycling in the state, and that the reclaimer washes and processes into flake, pellet, sheet, or any other form that is then usable as input for the manufacture of new plastic products by product manufacturers in the state. The act also authorizes the department, subject to the availability of funds, to pay a market development payment to a product manufacturer for plastic flake, pellet, sheet, or any other form of plastic purchased from a reclaimer and used by that product manufacturer to manufacture a plastic product in the state. The act makes this market development payment program inoperative on July 1, 2025. The act continuously appropriates redemption payments by distributors and other revenues received into the California Beverage Container Recycling Fund for market development program payments, among other purposes.

This bill would extend the inoperative date of the market development payment program to July 1, 2027, subject to the availability of funds, and would repeal the program as of January 1, 2028.

By authorizing the expenditure of continuously appropriated moneys for these purposes beyond July 1, 2025, the bill would make an appropriation.

Vote: 2/3 Appropriation: YES Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NO

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

Section 14549.2 of the Public Resources Code is amended to read:

14549.2.

(a) For purposes of this section, the following definitions shall apply:

(1) “Certified entity” means a recycling center, processor, or dropoff or collection program certified pursuant to this division.

(2) “Plastic product” means a finished plastic product that requires no further thermoforming, shaping, or processing before being sold for its specified use. “Plastic product” does not include plastic flake, pellet, sheet, or any other form that is an output from a reclaimer’s processing of empty plastic beverage containers.

(3) “Product manufacturer” means a person who manufactures a plastic product in this state.

(4) “Reclaimer” means a certified entity that purchases empty plastic beverage containers that have been collected for recycling in the state, and that washes and processes, in the state, those empty plastic beverage containers into flake, pellet, sheet, or any other form that is then usable as input for the manufacture of new plastic products by product manufacturers in the state.

(b) In order to develop California markets for empty plastic beverage containers collected for recycling in the state, the department may, consistent with Section 14581 and subject to the availability of funds, pay a market development payment to a reclaimer for empty plastic beverage containers collected and managed pursuant to this section and to a product manufacturer for plastic flake, pellet, sheet, or any other form of plastic purchased from a reclaimer pursuant to this section.

(c) The department shall make a market development payment to a reclaimer or product manufacturer in accordance with this section only if the plastic beverage container is collected, washed, and processed into flake, pellet, sheet, or any other form, and is used in manufacturing, in the state, as follows:

(1) The department shall make a market development payment to a reclaimer for empty plastic beverage containers that are collected, washed, and processed as specified in paragraph (4) of subdivision (a), including to a reclaimer that uses the services of a third party to process the empty plastic beverage containers into a form usable for the manufacture of new plastic products.

(2) The department shall make a market development payment to a product manufacturer for plastic flake, pellet, sheet, or any other form of plastic purchased from a reclaimer and used by that product manufacturer to manufacture a plastic product in the state, including to a product manufacturer that uses the services of a third party to process the plastic purchased from a reclaimer in manufacturing the plastic product.

(3) The department shall determine the amount of the market development payment, which may be set at a different level for a reclaimer and a product manufacturer, but shall not exceed one hundred fifty dollars ($150) per ton. In setting the amount of the market development payment for both reclaimers and product manufacturers, the department shall consider all of the following:

(A) The minimum funding level needed to encourage in-state washing and processing of empty plastic beverage containers collected for recycling in this state.

(B) The minimum funding level needed to encourage in-state manufacturing that utilizes flake, pellet, sheet, or any other form processed from empty plastic beverage containers collected for recycling in this state.

(C) The total amount of funds projected to be available for plastic market development payments, and the desire to maintain the minimum funding level needed throughout the year.

(4) The department may make a market development payment to both a reclaimer and a product manufacturer for both the empty plastic beverage container and for the flake, pellet, sheet, or any other form processed by the reclaimer from that same empty plastic beverage container.

(d) This section shall become inoperative on July 1, 2027, and, as of January 1, 2028, is repealed.