Bill Text: CA AB2493 | 2017-2018 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Beverage container recycling: recycling centers and payments.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Passed) 2018-09-23 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 715, Statutes of 2018. [AB2493 Detail]
Download: California-2017-AB2493-Amended.html
Amended
IN
Senate
June 27, 2018 |
Amended
IN
Assembly
April 17, 2018 |
Amended
IN
Assembly
March 22, 2018 |
Assembly Bill | No. 2493 |
Introduced by Assembly Member Bloom |
February 14, 2018 |
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
This bill, on or before December 1, 2020, would require the department to adopt regulations to redefine “convenience zone,” as specified. The bill would provide that recycling centers that received a handling fee immediately before the adoption of those regulations would remain eligible to receive handling fee payments if they meet all requirements that were applicable to eligible recycling centers in convenience zones immediately before the adoption of those regulations.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NOBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
(a)“Convenience zone” means either of the following:
(1)The area within a one-half mile radius of a supermarket.
(2)The area designated by the department pursuant to Section 14571.5.
(b)This section shall become inoperative on the operative date of the regulations adopted pursuant to Section 14536.2 and as of that date is repealed.
(a)“Convenience zone” means an area designated by the department pursuant to regulations adopted pursuant to Section 14536.2.
(b)This section shall become operative on the operative date of the regulations adopted pursuant to Section 14536.2.
SEC. 3.SECTION 1.
Section 14531 is added to the Public Resources Code, to read:14531.
A payment made pursuant to this division, including, but not limited to, a handling fee payment, refund value payment, processing fee payment, or processing payment, may be made electronically.(a)On or before December 1, 2020, the department shall adopt regulations to define “convenience zone.”
(b)In developing regulations pursuant to this section, the department shall do both of the following:
(1)Seek to increase redemption opportunities for consumers.
(2)Not adopt a definition for “convenience zone” that will result in the elimination or potential elimination of any existing consumer redemption opportunities.
(c)For convenience zones that were unserved immediately before the adoption of regulations pursuant to this section, the department may define “convenience zone” in a manner that makes possible, notwithstanding the requirements of Section 14571, increased consumer opportunities for redemption, if the redemption opportunities accept all types of empty beverage containers.
SEC. 5.SEC. 2.
Section 14571 of the Public Resources Code is amended to read:14571.
(a) Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, there shall be at least one certified recycling center or location within every convenience zone that accepts and pays the refund value, if any, at one location for all types of empty beverage containers and is open for business during at least 30 hours per week with a minimum of five hours of operation occurring during periods other than from Monday to Friday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.SEC. 6.SEC. 3.
Section 14572 of the Public Resources Code is amended to read:14572.
(a) (1) Except as provided in subdivision (b), a certified recycling center shall accept from any consumer or dropoff or collection program any empty beverage container, and shall pay to the consumer or dropoff or collection program the refund value of the beverage container.(a)The department shall adopt guidelines and methods for paying handling fees to supermarket sites, nonprofit convenience zone recyclers, or rural region recyclers to provide an incentive for the redemption of empty beverage containers in convenience zones. The guidelines shall include, but not be limited to, all of the following:
(1)Handling fees shall be paid on a monthly basis, in the form and manner adopted by the department. The department shall require that claims for the handling fee be filed with the department not later than the first day of the second month following the month for which the handling fee is claimed as a condition of receiving any handling fee.
(2)The department shall determine the number of eligible containers per site for which a handling fee will be paid in the following manner:
(A)Each eligible site’s combined monthly volume of glass and plastic beverage containers shall be divided by the site’s total monthly volume of all empty beverage container types.
(B)If the quotient determined pursuant to subparagraph (A) is equal to, or more than, 10 percent, the total monthly volume of the site shall be the maximum volume which is eligible for a handling fee for that month.
(C)If the quotient determined pursuant to subparagraph (A) is less than 10 percent, the department shall divide the volume of glass
and plastic beverage containers by 10 percent. That quotient shall be the maximum volume that is eligible for a handling fee for that month.
(3)The department shall pay a handling fee per eligible container in the amount determined pursuant to subdivision (f).
(4)If the eligible volume in any given month would result in handling fee payments that exceed the allocation of funds for that month, as provided in subdivision (b), sites with higher eligible monthly volumes shall receive handling fees for their entire eligible monthly volume before sites with lower eligible monthly volumes receive any handling fees.
(5)(A)If a dealer where a supermarket site, nonprofit convenience zone recycler, or
rural region recycler is located ceases operation for remodeling or for a change of ownership, the operator of that supermarket site, nonprofit convenience zone recycler, or rural region recycler shall be eligible to apply for handling fees for that site for a period of three months following the date of the closure of the dealer.
(B)Every supermarket site operator, nonprofit convenience zone recycler, or rural region recycler shall promptly notify the department of the closure of the dealer where the supermarket site, nonprofit convenience zone recycler, or rural region recycler is located.
(C)Notwithstanding subparagraph (A), any operator who fails to provide notification to the department pursuant to subparagraph (B) shall not be eligible to apply for handling fees.
(b)The department may allocate the amount authorized for expenditure for the payment of handling fees pursuant to paragraph (1) of subdivision (a) of Section 14581 on a monthly basis and may carry over any unexpended monthly allocation to a subsequent month or months. However, unexpended monthly allocations shall not be carried over to a subsequent fiscal year for the purpose of paying handling fees but may be carried over for any other purpose pursuant to Section 14581.
(c)(1)The department shall not make handling fee payments to more than one certified recycling center in a convenience zone. If a dealer is located in more than one convenience zone, the department shall offer a single handling fee payment to a supermarket site located at that dealer. This
handling fee payment shall not be split between the affected zones. The department shall stop making handling fee payments if another recycling center certifies to operate within the convenience zone without receiving payments pursuant to this section, if the department monitors the performance of the other recycling center for 60 days and determines that the recycling center is in compliance with this division. Any recycling center that locates in a convenience zone, thereby causing a preexisting recycling center to become ineligible to receive handling fee payments, is ineligible to receive any handling fee payments in that convenience zone.
(2)The department shall offer a single handling fee payment to a rural region recycler located anywhere inside a convenience zone, if that convenience zone is not served by another certified recycling
center and the rural region recycler does either of the following:
(A)Operates a minimum of 30 hours per week in one convenience zone.
(B)Serves two or more convenience zones, and meets all of the following criteria:
(i)Is the only certified recycler within each convenience zone.
(ii)Is open and operating at least eight hours per week in each convenience zone and is certified at each location.
(iii)Operates at least 30 hours per week in total for all convenience zones served.
(d)The department may require the operator of a supermarket
site, or the operator of a rural region recycler, receiving handling fees to maintain records for each location where beverage containers are redeemed, and may require the supermarket site or rural region recycler to take any other action necessary for the department to determine that the supermarket site or rural region recycler does not receive an excessive handling fee.
(e)The department may determine and utilize a standard container per pound rate, for each material type, for the purpose of calculating volumes and making handling fee payments.
(f)(1)On or before January 1, 2008, and every two years thereafter, the department shall conduct a survey pursuant to this subdivision of a statistically significant sample of certified recycling
centers that receive handling fee payments to determine the actual cost incurred for the redemption of empty beverage containers by those certified recycling centers. The department shall conduct these cost surveys in conjunction with the cost surveys performed by the department pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 14575 to determine processing payments and processing fees. The department shall include, in determining the actual costs, only those allowable costs contained in the regulations adopted pursuant to this division that are used by the department to conduct cost surveys pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 14575.
(2)Using the information obtained pursuant to paragraph (1), the department shall then determine the statewide weighted average cost incurred for the redemption of empty beverage containers, per empty beverage
container, at recycling centers that receive handling fees.
(3)The department shall determine the amount of the handling fee to be paid for each empty beverage container by subtracting the amount of the statewide weighted average cost per container to redeem empty beverage containers by recycling centers that do not receive handling fees from the amount of the statewide weighted average cost per container determined pursuant to paragraph (2).
(4)The department shall adjust the statewide average cost determined pursuant to paragraph (2) for each beverage container annually to reflect changes in the cost of living, as measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the United States Department of Labor or a successor agency of the United States government.
(5)The cost information collected pursuant to this section at recycling centers that receive handling fees shall not be used in the calculation of the processing payments determined pursuant to Section 14575.
(g)The department may update the methodology and scrap values used for calculating the handling fee from the most recent cost survey if it finds that the handling fee resulting from the most recent cost survey does not accurately represent the actual cost incurred for the redemption of empty beverage containers by those certified recycling centers.
(h)Notwithstanding the regulations adopted pursuant to Section 14536.2 defining convenience zone, a recycling center that received a handling fee for the reporting
period immediately before the adoption of those regulations shall remain eligible to receive handling fee payments pursuant to this section if it meets all of the requirements that were applicable to eligible recycling centers in convenience zones immediately before the adoption of those regulations.