SB 1341: Beverage containers: wine and distilled spirits: processing fees.

The California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act requires a beverage manufacturer to pay to the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery a processing fee for each beverage container, as defined, sold or transferred in this state. The act requires the department to deposit the fee into the California Beverage Container Recycling Fund, a continuously appropriated fund. The act requires the department to pay processing payments to processors and recycling centers from the fund, as specified. The act requires the processing payment to be at least equal to the difference between the scrap value of the beverage containers and the sum of certain actual operational costs for certified recycling centers and a reasonable financial return for recycling centers, as specified. The act requires the processing fee to be 65% of the processing payment, except as specified.

This bill would limit the processing fee for bag in box beverage containers to not more than $0.12 per container sold or offered for sale. The bill would define bag in box for purposes of the bill to mean a container for certain alcoholic beverages that has an interior flexible bag with a valve to dispense a beverage and a rigid cardboard or corrugated paper box designed to contain the bag, as provided. The bill would, for purposes of the act, specify that the bag is a beverage container and that the box is not. The bill would, commencing January 1, 2027, require the processing fee for the bag to be calculated based on the weight of the bag and its valve. The bill would authorize the department to provide a credit toward the 2027 processing fees to beverage producers who paid the 2026 processing fee, as provided. If the amount needed to make processing payments to recyclers for bag in box beverage containers exceeds the amount of processing fee revenue available, the bill would authorize the department to transfer any necessary amount of redemption payments collected from beverage distributors on bag in box beverage containers since 2024 that were in excess of the amount of funds needed to cover redemption claims for those bag in box containers in order to make the processing payments. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2031. By expanding the purposes for which a continuously appropriated fund may be expended, the bill would make an appropriation.