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National Waste officials have been inspired by regulations implementing the groundbreaking Plastic Waste Act more than two months after Gavin Gavin Newsom torpedoed its initial proposal.
Calrecycle, a state agency that oversees waste management, recently proposed a new set of regulations to implement SB 54, a 2022 law designed to reduce single-use plastic waste in California. The law was designed to turn the financial responsibility for reducing waste from people, towns and cities in the state into businesses and businesses that make contaminated products. It was also intended to reduce the amount of one-legged plastic that ends in the California waste stream.
The draft regulations proposed last week mainly reflects those introduced earlier this year, setting program rules, guidelines and parameters, but with some minors, there are major adjustments.
The new ones clarify producers’ obligations and reporting timelines, according to organizations representing packaging and plastics companies, such as the Circular Action Alliance and the California Chamber of Commerce.
However, they also include a wide range of exemptions from a variety of single-use plastics, including products that have jurisdiction over the US Food and Drug Administration and the US Department of Agriculture.
According to people representing environmental, recycling and waste transport companies and organizations, the regulations reveal the possibility of using chemicals or alternative recycling as a way to address plastics that cannot be recycled by mechanical means.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit against ExxonMobil last year.
Critics say the introduction of these exemptions and the initiation to contaminate recycling technology would be a Newsom office called “leading the nation” three years ago, “the most important overhaul of the nation’s plastic and packaging policies in history,” would kneel down the law.
Heidi Sanborn, director of the National Stewardship Action Council, will puncture the bill with a hole in the “new exemptions have been blown away” and counter its original purpose of being practical and virtually inbearable, reducing plastic waste.
Last March, after nearly three years of negotiations between various businesses, environmental, waste, recycling and health stakeholders, CalRecycle drafted a series of final regulations designed to implement a single-use plastic producer responsibility program under SB 54.
But as the implementation deadline approaches, regulations-affected industries, including plastic producers and packaging companies, such as the California Chamber of Commerce and the Circulating Action Alliance, could begin lobbying the governor, and be developed poorly and ultimately increase the costs of California taxpayers.
Newsom has allowed regulations to expire and told Calrecycle that the process should be started.
Daniel Villazenor, a spokesman for the governor, said Newsom is concerned about the potential costs of the program for small businesses and families, where the state’s analysis could potentially add $300 a year per household.
He said the new draft regulations are “a step in the right direction,” and “ensures that California’s bold recycling laws can achieve its goal of cutting plastic pollution,” Villaseñor said in a statement.
John Myers, a spokesman for the California Chamber of Commerce. Its members include the American Council on Chemistry and Western Plastics Asun. And Flexible Packaging Asun said the chamber is still checking the changes.
Calrecycle will hold a workshop next Tuesday to discuss the draft regulations. Once Calrecycle decides to finalise the regulations, if experts say that it can occur at any time, they will move to a 45-day official rule creation period where the regulations are reviewed by the Administrative Law Bureau. If it is considered legally sound and the governor is happy, it becomes official.
Written by Senator Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica) and signed by Newsom in 2022, the law requires that by 2032 100% of single-use packages and plastic foods produced or sold in the state be recyclable or compostable, with 65% of that being recycled or recycled, reducing the total volume by 25%.
The law was written to address the increasing number of studies showing the ubiquitous issues of plastic pollution in the environment, as well as the ubiquitous nature of microplastic contamination in the human body, including the brain, blood, heart tissue, testes, lungs and various other organs.
According to an analysis by one state, 2.9 million tons of single-use plastic and 171.4 billion single-use plastic components were sold and offered for sale or distributed in California in 2023.
Most of these disposable plastic packaging products are not recycled and do not completely break down as they decompose in the environment, but contribute to the burden of microplastics in the air that breathes, drinking water, and the soil that nourishes crops.
The law falls into the category of the Extended Producer Liability Act, which regulates the handling of California paints, carpets, batteries and textiles. Producers require that they view the product throughout their lifetime and are financially responsible for the end of the product.
In theory, such programs, adopted in other states, including Washington, Oregon and Colorado, will promote innovation and potentially create a circular economy.
Sanborn said the new exemption could not only turn the law into a “joking” but would also drain the funds of the program and instead place a financial burden on the small number of packaging and disposable plastic manufacturers not included in the exemption.
“If you want to cut costs, you have to have a fair and level playing field where all businesses pay and operate the program. The more exemptions you have, the less funds, and not fair,” she said.
Furthermore, due to the method of collecting residential and commercial packaging waste, the same amount of waste can be addressed by saying, “It’s all thrown away together, so now there’s less funding,” but only a few companies are responsible for organizing the material and ensuring that it’s properly disposed of.
Others, including Allen, the author of the bill, said there are some improvements to the new regulations, but there are “several provisions that appear to be inconsistent with the law.”
“If the purpose of the law is to reduce single-use plastics and plastic pollution,” said Anja Brandon of Ocean Conservancy. These new regulations are not going to do that. They “contradict the law and completely undermine its purpose and goal.”
Nick Lapis said California’s Waste Abu Waste and his organization “is really disappointing to see the administration cave into industry at some core parts of this program,” and that his reading suggests many changes are not compliant with the law.
Next Tuesday, the public will have the opportunity to raise concerns at the Sacramento Rules Creation Workshop.
However, Sunborn fears that he will have little time or appetite from the agency or the governor’s office in order to significantly change the new regulations.
“They are basically already cooked,” Sanborn said.
“California should be the leader who holds the bar in this space,” she said. “I’m worried that this has dropped the bar very low.”
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