Apr 17 - CAW Priority Bills Pass Out of Policy Committee Today

Several of CAW’s priority bills passed out of policy committees this week and are on their way to fiscal committees.

Three bills passed out of Senate Environmental Quality Committee today:

SB 405 (Padilla) would ban plastic bags in grocery stores and drug stores statewide and allow stores to sell paper and reusable bags. Read about Monday’s press conference.

SB 529 (Leno) would require fast food restaurants to use food packaging material that is compatible with local recycling and composting infrastructure. CAW Executive Director Mark Murray testified that the materials may look deceptively similar even though some are recyclable/compostable and others are not.

SB 254 (Hancock and Correa) will require mattress manufacturers to develop and implement a statewide recycling program for used mattresses. This would be the first comprehensive mattress recycling legislation in the nation. Read Senator Hancock’s press release here.

You can watch the recorded Senate EQ testimony here.

Discussion of SB 405 begins at 59:39.
SB 529 begins at 2:14:27.
SB 254 begins at 2:35:49.

All three of these bills will now move on to Senate Appropriations Committee.

AB 513 (Frazier) which expands the market for using recycled tires in road paving projects, and AB 1022 (Eggman), which expands the market for CRT glass, both passed out of Assembly Natural Resources Committee on Monday with bipartisan support. Next stop is the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

The remainder of CAW’s priority recycling bills are coming up in Assembly Natural Resources Committee on Monday, April 29 at 1:30 p.m.:

AB 1001 (Gordon) will expand California’s hugely successful Beverage Container Recycling Law (the Bottle Bill) by increasing the recycling of all beverages regardless of container type. It will close loopholes and inconsistencies, while increasing clarity and enforcement of current rules to support California businesses, jobs, and recycling.

AB 323 (Chesbro) requires businesses that generate a lot of food scraps or yard debris to sign up for recycling of this material. In addition, the bill will finally eliminate state policies that have become perverse incentives for landfilling organic waste that should be returned to the soil.

You can watch the hearings online.

There’s more good news for recycling!

• The California Air Resources Board just released its Three Year Investment Plan for using money raised pursuant to AB 32. The plan clearly identifies the importance of investing in recycling to meet the state’s greenhouse gas targets and suggests allocating funding to composting and anaerobic digestion in the coming year.

• According to an analysis by CalRecycle, the state can generate upwards of 100,000 new jobs from implementing CAW-sponsored AB 341, which sets a 75% recycling target.

Lanh Nguyen