Allows recycling pilot projects in unserved areas

Existing law, the California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act, requires that every beverage container sold or offered for sale in this state have a minimum refund value. A beverage distributor is required to pay a redemption payment to the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery for every beverage container sold or offered for sale in the state to a dealer, and the department is required to deposit those amounts in the California Beverage Container Recycling Fund. The money in the fund is continuously appropriated to the department to, among other things, pay handling fees to certified recycling centers. The act requires processors to pay refund values, administrative costs, and processing payments to certified recycling centers, dropoff or collection programs, and curbside programs.

The act requires the department to annually designate convenience zones, as defined, statewide and requires at least one certified recycling center or location within every convenience zone that accepts all types of empty beverage containers and pays the refund value, if any, at one location, and that is open for business 30 hours per week.

This bill would, until January 1, 2020, authorize up to 5 limited-term recycling pilot projects, subject to department approval, that are designed to improve redemption opportunities in unserved convenience zones. The bill would subject the pilot projects to certain requirements, including, among others, that the pilot project is served by a pilot project recycler meeting certain requirements. The bill would require dealers within the jurisdiction of a pilot project to post certain information relating to pilot project locations, as specified, and a department-established toll-free number for information relating to beverage container recycling opportunities. The bill would authorize the department to issue a probationary certificate of operation to a pilot project recycler, to be valid for no more than 3 years, and would make that pilot project recycler eligible to apply for handling fees from the department and to receive refund values, administrative costs, and processing payments from processors. By authorizing the use of moneys in a continuously appropriated fund for a new purpose, this bill would make an appropriation. The bill would require dealers in a convenience zone served by a pilot project to comply with general act requirements if a pilot project ceases to operate or if the pilot project’s certification is revoked.

This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.