AB 1290: Product safety: plastic packaging: substances.

Existing law establishes the Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act, which covers certain single-use packaging and plastic single-use food serviceware, as provided. As part of its comprehensive statutory scheme, the act requires the producers, as defined, of these covered materials to source reduce covered plastic material, to ensure that covered material offered for sale, distributed, or imported in or into the state on or after January 1, 2032, is recyclable or compostable, and to ensure that covered plastic material offered for sale, distributed, or imported in or into the state meets specified recycling rates.

Existing law prohibits any person from distributing, selling, or offering for sale in the state any food packaging that contains regulated perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), as defined, and requires a manufacturer to use the least toxic alternative when replacing regulated PFAS in food packaging to comply with this requirement. Existing law similarly prohibits, beginning July 1, 2025, a person from manufacturing, distributing, selling, or offering for sale in the state any new, not previously owned, textile articles that contain regulated PFAS, except as specified.

This bill would prohibit, beginning January 1, 2026, a person from manufacturing, selling, offering for sale, or distributing in the state, (1) opaque or pigmented polyethylene terephthalate plastic bottles, and (2) plastic packaging that contains certain chemicals, pigments, or additives, as specified. The bill would exclude from that prohibition packaging used for certain medical, drug, and federally regulated products. The bill would authorize the imposition of a civil penalty for a violation of that prohibition, as specified.