Bill Text: CA AB1149 | 2025-2026 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Recycling: market development payments: polyethylene terephthalate plastic.
Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1)
Status: (Engrossed) 2026-06-29 - In committee: Referred to APPR. suspense file. [AB1149 Detail]
Download: California-2025-AB1149-Amended.html
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Amended
IN
Senate
June 18, 2026 |
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Amended
IN
Senate
April 29, 2026 |
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Amended
IN
Senate
May 22, 2025 |
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Amended
IN
Assembly
April 01, 2025 |
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION
Assembly Bill
No. 1149
| Introduced by Assembly Member Jackson |
February 20, 2025 |
An act to amend Section 14549.2 of the Public Resources Code, relating to recycling, making an appropriation therefor, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1149, as amended, Jackson.
Recycling: market development payments: polyethylene terephthalate plastic.
The California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act requires a distributor of beverage containers to pay to the department a redemption payment for every beverage container sold or offered for sale, as provided. The act requires the department to deposit those amounts into the California Beverage Container Recycling Fund. The act requires the fund to be continuously appropriated to the department for specified purposes, including, among other things, to pay refund values, administrative fees, and processing payments associated with the collection and recycling of empty beverage containers. Until July, 1, 2027, the act authorizes the department to pay a market development payment to a reclaimer for empty plastic beverage containers and to a product manufacturer for plastic flake, pellet, sheet, or other form of plastic purchased from a reclaimer, as provided. Through
the 2025–26 fiscal year, the act continuously appropriates money from the fund to the department for market development payments to reclaimers and product manufacturers for empty plastic beverage containers, as provided.
This bill would extend the department’s authorization to make these market development payments until July 1, 2029, and would require the department to establish a singular market development payment for empty polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic beverage containers collected for recycling and a singular market development payment for PET plastic collected and processed into flake or pellet, as specified. By authorizing a new use for continuously appropriated funds, this bill would make an appropriation. The bill would authorize the department to expend up to $35,000,000 annually for market development payments to reclaimers and product
manufacturers. The bill would extend the department’s authority to pay a market development payment from July 1, 2027, to July 1, 2029, inclusive.
This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Digest Key
Vote: 2/3 Appropriation: YES Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NOBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
Section 14549.2 of the Public Resources Code is amended to read:14549.2.
(a) For purposes of this section, the following definitions shall apply:(1) “Certified entity” means a recycling center, processor, or dropoff or collection program certified pursuant to this division.
(2) “Plastic product” means a finished plastic product that requires no further thermoforming, shaping, or processing before being sold for its specified use. “Plastic product” does not include plastic flake, pellet, sheet, or any other form that is an output from a reclaimer’s processing of empty plastic beverage containers.
(3) “Product manufacturer” means a person who
manufactures a plastic product in this state.
(4) “Reclaimer” means a certified entity that purchases empty plastic beverage containers that have been collected for recycling in the state, and that washes and processes, in the state, those empty plastic beverage containers into flake, pellet, sheet, or any other form that is then usable as input for the manufacture of new plastic products by product manufacturers in the state.
(b) In order to develop California markets for empty plastic beverage containers collected for recycling in the state, the department may, consistent with Section 14581 and subject to the availability of funds, pay a market development payment to a reclaimer for empty plastic beverage containers collected and managed pursuant to this section and to a
product manufacturer for plastic flake, pellet, sheet, or any other form of plastic purchased from a reclaimer pursuant to this section.
(c) The department shall make a market development payment to a reclaimer or product manufacturer in accordance with this section only if the plastic beverage container is collected, washed, and processed into flake, pellet, sheet, or any other form, and is used in manufacturing, in the state, as follows:
(1) The department shall make a market development payment to a reclaimer for empty plastic beverage containers that are collected, washed, and processed as specified in paragraph (4) of subdivision (a), including to a reclaimer that uses the services of a third party to process the empty plastic beverage containers into a form usable for the
manufacture of new plastic products.
(2) The department shall make a market development payment to a product manufacturer for plastic flake, pellet, sheet, or any other form of plastic purchased from a reclaimer and used by that product manufacturer to manufacture a plastic product in the state, including to a product manufacturer that uses the services of a third party to process the plastic purchased from a reclaimer in manufacturing the plastic product.
(3) The department shall determine the amount of the market development payment, which may be set at a different level for a reclaimer and a product manufacturer, but, except as provided in subdivision (d), shall not exceed one hundred fifty dollars ($150) per ton. In setting the amount of the market development payment for both
reclaimers and product manufacturers, the department shall consider all of the following:
(A) The minimum funding level needed to encourage in-state washing and processing of empty plastic beverage containers collected for recycling in this state.
(B) The minimum funding level needed to encourage in-state manufacturing that utilizes flake, pellet, sheet, or any other form processed from empty plastic beverage containers collected for recycling in this state.
(C) The total amount of funds projected to be available for plastic market development payments, and the desire to maintain the minimum funding level needed throughout the year.
(4) The department may
make a market development payment to both a reclaimer and a product manufacturer for both the empty plastic beverage container and for the flake, pellet, sheet, or any other form processed by the reclaimer from that same empty plastic beverage container.
(d) (1) Notwithstanding subdivision (c), for polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic collected for recycling on and after October 1, 2025, the department shall establish a singular market development payment for California reclaimers of empty PET beverage containers of not more than three hundred dollars ($300) per ton and make a payment to a California reclaimer of empty PET beverage containers that meet all of the following:
(A) Have been collected for recycling in the state.
(B) Have been washed and processed into flake, pellet, sheet, or similar form in the state.
(C) Have been made available for manufacturing in the state.
(2) The department may reduce the payment level in paragraph (1) only as necessary based on the availability of funds. (1).
(e) The department may expend up to thirty-five million dollars ($35,000,000) annually for market development payments to reclaimers and product manufacturers.
(f) The department may recommend to the Legislature future funding levels necessary to sustain and expand in-state processing and manufacturing capacity for plastic bottles. These recommendations shall be based on market conditions, infrastructure needs, and the goal of promoting a circular economy within the state.
(g) This section shall become inoperative on July 1, 2029, and, as of January 1, 2030, is repealed.
SEC. 2.
This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the meaning of Article IV of the California Constitution and shall go into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:In order to preserve the remaining plastic reclaiming infrastructure, and support a closed loop recycling system, it is necessary that this act take effect immediately.
