New Plastic Laws in California

Every year I spend a few days talking to my state leaders about plastics. I work with a coalition of other non-profits to help craft, support, and pass plastic-related legislation. In “Current Plastic Pollution Bills” I talk about the bills we were focusing on this year and I’m happy to say that the majority of them passed! Unless noted otherwise, they will go into effect on January 1, 2020.

SB8 – Smoking Ban at State Beaches

Existing law bans smoking cigarettes, cigars, and other tobacco products within 25 feet of a playground or toddler sandbox area. Breaking this law would result in a $250 fine.

The new law would add a $25 fine for smoking on a state beach.

Cigarette butts are the number one littered item found during beach and street clean-ups. They wash from our streets into our waterways and out into the ocean. Having a smoking ban at state beaches is a great first step in stopping cigarette butt pollution.

This is considered a plastics-related law because cigarettes have a tiny plastic filter. So, it is considered a single-use plastic. Surfrider San Francisco (and many other chapters) have a program targeting cigarette butt pollution called Hold Onto Your Butt. Volunteers install butt cans around the city to make it easier for smokers to dispose of their butts correctly.

AB1162 – Hotel Shampoo Bottle Ban

Starting January 1, 2023 hotels with more than 50 rooms can no longer provide travel-sized shampoo, conditioner, or other personal care plastic bottles. Smaller hotels with less than 50 rooms will have until January 1, 2024.

This can have a large impact on plastic pollution! Think about how many tiny shampoo and conditioner bottles that are used once and then thrown away.

There are many hotels that have already committed to reducing their plastic footprint and have switched to wall-mounted regular-sized bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and body wash.

In my first medical device job, I did a lot of business travel and Marriott was the preferred hotel for my company. Since then, I’ve been a loyal Marriott fan. I’ve seen several eco-friendly initiatives over the years from extra rewards points for refusing room cleaning service, to switching to wall-mounted shampoo bottles. As the largest hotel chain in the world, their actions to move to a more sustainable business model has far-reaching effects and motivates competitors to do the same.

Even with this change, I still bring my own shampoo and conditioner bars when traveling. I’m never sure which hotels have completely switched over, so I like to be prepared. Read more about shampoo bars in “Plastic-Free Showering“.

AB619 – Reusable Containers for Take-Out

AB619 allows you to bring your own container to restaurants or coffee shops to be refilled. The is technically already allowed but there’s a section in the California Retail Food Code that is ambiguous and often interpreted as not allowing people to do this.

Business are still allowed to deny your request but this clarifies the code to say that you can do it.

The existing law requires that returned empty containers be cleaned and sanitized in an approved facility or that the container is refilled in a contamination-free transfer area. This is why Starbucks rinses out your personal cup with hot water before adding your drink.

The new law clarifies that if the customer brings a clean container, it can be filled as long as the food vendor has a process that isolates the container in the filling process. In other words, if someone is sick, accidentally sneezes on their container prior to handing it to the food service working, you don’t want those germs to contaminate the rest of the food. So, it needs to be filled in a separate area with a process that prevents the container from touching surfaces that can transfer germs.

AB827 – Recycling & Compost Bins in Businesses

AB827 requires business who generate more than 4 cubic yards of trash or 8 cubic yards of compost to have recycling and compost containers for their customers. As a reference, a cubic yard is about 200 gallons.

There are a lot of wasted resources that go into our landfills. Separating out compost and recycling are great ways to reuse the resources we already have. This also gets customers used to sorting items correctly. If you have a 3-bin system (trash, recycling, and compost) at work or at a restaurant near you, how many times have you seen people paralyzed in from of the bins, unsure of where to put things? I see this all the time.

While there are a lot of straightforward items, like a banana goes in the compost, others like biodegradable forks are less clear. Like I mentioned in “Why ‘Green’ Plastics Aren’t Any Better“, as a good rule of thumb, if it looks and feels like plastic, just throw it out. Most of these items don’t get recycled or composted anyways and they end up contaminating and decreasing the value of the batch.

AB1583 – Developing a Market for Recycling

AB1583 does a lot of things but the two main points are that it gets rid of the requirement to put the chasing arrow symbol on plastics and it helps build a market for recycled products.

The chasing arrow symbol is confusing because many people believe it means the product is recyclable when it merely dictates the type of plastic the product is made of.

To build a market for recycled materials, the law requires the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery to create a commission that will create policy recommendations to help achieve market and waste goals. In addition, the law provides financial assistance to California-based manufacturing companies that are implementing projects to reduce greenhouse gases or air and water pollution.

Vetos & Extensions

AB792, which would have required a minimum recycled material content in beverage bottles, was vetoed by the Governor. Governor Newsom wrote the law would have been costly and burdensome.

AB1080/SB54 would set a goal to have 75% of our waste be reduced, recycled or composted by 2030. This was pushed to next year and has become a two-year bill. So, I will be back in Sacramento next year helping to get this bill approved. If you are interested in helping, contact me.

So, that’s it for this year. What do you think about these laws? And what do you want to see for next year?

For a related post, check out: “How Lobby Meetings Work“.