Aug 12 - Legislative Update
• AB 1998 by Assemblymember Brownley, which will ban plastic bags at supermarkets and similar stores, was referred to the Senate Rules committee for consideration of further amendments before a floor vote, which could come as early as next week.
The following bills passed the Senate Fiscal Committee and now head to the Senate Floor:
• AB 737 by Assemblymember Chesbro will move California forward from landfilling to waste reduction, recycling, and composting, by establishing a statewide diversion goal of 75% and requiring all commercial waste generators to establish recycling programs. Despite the incredible success of California's landmark waste reduction and recycling law, AB 939, many readily recyclable materials continue to be disposed, resulting in a drag on California’s economy, a significant waste of energy, and contributing to Global Warming.
• AB 2398 by Assemblymember John Perez is a product stewardship bill for carpet. It requires producer of carpet to collect the covered product pursuant to their product stewardship plan and to meet the performance goals included in the product stewardship plan. This measure will create increased demand for recycled carpet products in California by increasing the state’s recycled content requirement for carpet bought by the state (from 10% post-consumer recycled content to 25% post-consumer carpet content).
Unfortunately, the following bills were held in committee and are dead for the year:
• AB 1343 by Assemblymember Huffman is a producer stewardship bill for paint that would have resulted in significant savings to local governments and taxpayers by requiring paint manufacturers to develop and implement a program to collect, transport, and process postconsumer paint.
• SB 1100 by Senator Corbett is another producer stewardship bill that would have reduced financial burden on local governments and taxpayers for the safe disposal of used household batteries. It would also have created green jobs recycling and collecting batteries.