AB 2921: Expanded Polystyrene Food Service Packaging Recovery and Recycling Act.

The California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989, administered by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, generally regulates the disposal, management, and recycling of solid waste. Existing law requires all rigid plastic bottles and rigid plastic containers sold in the state to be labeled with a code that indicates the resin used to produce the rigid plastic bottle or rigid plastic container, and designates the number 6 as the code number for polystyrene resin.

This bill would enact the Expanded Polystyrene Food Service Packaging Recovery and Recycling Act, which would authorize expanded polystyrene food service packaging (PFP) manufacturers and polystyrene resin producers to form or designate an organization consisting of PFP manufacturers and resin producers, to be known as the Expanded Polystyrene Food Service Packaging Recycling Organization. If the PFP manufacturers and resin producers form or designate a PFP Recycling Organization, the bill would require each PFP manufacturer or resin producer that formed or designated the organization that sells expanded polystyrene food service packaging or polystyrene resin in this state to pay to the PFP Recycling Organization the expanded polystyrene food service packaging assessment fee, which the bill would require to be established in an amount reasonably anticipated to generate an unspecified number of dollars within the first year of the program. fee established by the PFP Recycling Organization. The bill would require the collected fees to be used by the organization to carry out the requirements of the act and for appropriate projects and programs that would further the purposes of the act, including awarding grants to public specified entities for programs designed to increase community access to PFP recycling, to promote efforts to recycle PFP, and to reduce or abate litter from PFP. The bill would impose civil penalties on the PFP manufacturers or resin producers that formed or designated the PFP Recycling Organization that fail to remit the PFP assessment fee, as specified, and would authorize the department to expend the civil penalty moneys to support its duties under the act.