California SB-54: Plastic Pollution Producer Responsibility Act

A journalistic article discussing a landmark recycling bill that is predicted to be a turning point in California's environmental impact.

A journalism piece written by Natasha Avalos for Professional Writing of Science Communication course.

March 2023

A Turning Point for Plastic Pollution Responsibility and Recycling in California

After nearly three years of rejections and amendments, Governor Gavin Newsom finally signed Senate Bill 54 (SB-54) into law. The primary author of the bill is Ben Allen, a Democratic senator of the Santa Monica area of California, who worked alongside many other state representatives in the process of getting the bill through legislation.

Titled “Solid waste: reporting, packaging, and plastic food service ware”, the bill requires single-use packaging producers to register as part of a “Producer Responsibility Organization” (PRO) in which their products must reduce plastic material, ensure their materials are recyclable or compostable by 2032, as well as meet updated and specified recycling standards set by the Law’s Advisory Board in conjunction with CalRecycle in order to conduct business in California.

CalRecycle’s role in this transition is to supervise, advise feedback, research and regulate the new recycling standards and progress of recycling rates. With SB-54, CalRecycle emphasizes the new extended producer responsibility (EPR) program as a means to increase recycling and reduce trash pollution in vulnerable communities.

While it was no easy feat, the Senator persevered and made necessary changes to pass the bill to go into immediate effect. In order to meet each of the recommended changes that would allow the bill to pass, Allen implemented more detailed goals and incorporated disadvantaged neighborhoods into benefiting from the new program.

In 2019, Allen was inspired to write the first draft of the bill after a 2017 study was published revealing that 91% of plastics are not recycled. The original draft did not make it to the Assembly floor as its language was considered too vague for a proper plan of action.

In late 2020, the revised bill was introduced to the Senate and rejected again for its lack of consideration towards vulnerable populations who would be most impacted by the current state of pollution and possible changes.

Finally, in the summer of 2022 the bill was passed in a ruling of 67-2 before it was officially signed into law by the Governor. The revised 57-page bill now addressed vulnerable populations and made a clear plan of action and timeline in partnership with CalRecycle.

The original 2017 study that inspired the bill, was co-written by Ronald Geyer. Geyer is a professor of industrial ecology at the Bren School of UCSB with a heavy research focus on recycling. In the study, Geyer and colleagues analyzed waste management rates across the US and other developed nations. Their findings concluded that more plastic was being produced and used only once rather than being properly discarded every year, thus leading to the increased environmental impact from microplastic pollution.

SB-54 addresses this issue by committing to cut plastic production as well as increase recycling rates in California, with hopes of the rest of the nation to follow. By 2032, CalRecycle and SB-54 aim to reduce plastic packaging by 25%, recycle 65% of single-use packaging, as well as have 100% of packaging in California be recyclable.

In another 2018 study Geyer conducted with Trevor Zink of Loyola Marymount, they emphasize how recycling is only a delay to disposal, rather than a solution of eliminating waste. Their study found that the only way to eliminate end-of-life disposal is “to reduce the amount we produce in the first place” and “the only way recycling can reduce disposal is by displacing primary production”.

SB-54 is a step in the right direction as these scientific findings support the demand for producers to be the gateway to eliminating waste. The law “shifts the plastic pollution burden from consumers to the plastics industry by raising $5 billion from industry members over 10 years”.

While the bill focuses on recycling as a mitigation technique, scientists beg for more. Geyer and Zink suggest that “policy efforts may be better directed at discouraging use of single-use products (e.g., recent movements against disposable drinking straws) rather than encouraging their collection for recycling”.

They add on noting that, “The primary environmental goal should be reducing environmental impacts by reducing primary production; the ability of recycling to accomplish that goal is uncertain at best; policy efforts will likely be more effective addressing the problem upstream rather than downstream”.

SB-54 is addressing the issue of recycling upstream by calling out plastic producers and making internal changes with CalRecycle rather than having California consumers make changes. Allen recognizes that the problem of plastic starts at production but also has the most impact on the most downstream population.

A clause written in the bill addresses the vulnerable communities of California by promising to appoint the taxes the production companies would pay over 10 years to these communities as a way to “monitor and reduce the historical and current environmental justice and public health impacts” made by plastics.

The United Nations finds plastic pollution to be “an environmental injustice to vulnerable communities”, as supported in a 2021 report on the negative impacts placed on disadvantaged communities by plastic throughout its entire lifecycle. They report that these communities are most impacted as waterways are polluted, deforestation occurs to build factories to produce the plastics, as well as the factories being oil sites that further pollute the atmosphere and thus the health of the community members.

“There’s more plastic being used now than ever,” Allen points out in reference to the COVID-19 pandemic’s reliance on single-use products, “and as a result, we should be doubling down on our efforts to ensure that the plastic and non-plastic packaging that we’re using will actually end up being recycled or reused,”.

As the co-chair of the California Environmental Legislative Caucus, it was no surprise that Allen wanted to spearhead the Bill, in which it became known as a landmark environmental law that would set the precedent for many more regions to follow.

Allen’s intention of minimizing and eliminating plastic pollution to protect environmental, human, and animal health was greatly supported by Newsom who signed the bill into California law on the same day the US Supreme Court limited the ability for the federal government to “reduce pollution and tackle climate change”.

“California continues its tradition of global environmental leadership,” Allen states, “tackling a major problem in a way that will grow markets in sustainable innovations, create incentives for investment, and set the stage for partnership,”.

As intriguing and promising SB-54 sounds, it’s important to consider the implications it has with the scientific community. Allen is a passionate environmentalist at his core, but his position is in the government, thus leading the public to question his motives and his efforts to pass this bill.

The science highlights the recycling efforts California, and the rest of the world, lack and the ways in which this impacts our environment and the people in it. Scientists also recognize that this problem is caused by producers, not just consumers. Allen attempts to address this issue and make policy changes to better it.

Environmental skeptics raise concerns about the language of parts of the bill. One section’s language would allow “chemical recycling of plastics, which environmentalists don’t consider to be recycling” while another is broadly written to exempt producers who face “unique challenges” to follow the provisions.

A former US Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Judith Enck, fears that the messiness of these wordings will be an out for producers to find loopholes in which they can continue their normal operations as well as suing the state if denied this opportunity.

This position challenges the idea of the marriage between the good of science and government and business regulation to which Allen sits in the middle as an environmental advocate for the California government.

While this law is a pivotal moment in the development of California’s attempt at combating climate change, the scientific community has some reservations about the extent to which the law will be effective and raises the question if science and government can truly work together.

In a tough spot, Allen is still confident in the bill and will consider “this whole effort to be a failure if we are not able to scale this model” to encourage other states to develop rigorous enforcement to combat climate change. Senior Attorney of the Natural Resource Defense Council, Avi Kar, agrees with Enck’s concerns and he adds that the outcome of the ambiguity in the language will depend on the implementation of the new standards.

In opposition to Enck, however, Kar argues that SB-54 adequately addresses chemical recycling to be limited and still within a positive approach as “a step in the right direction in ensuring plastics are reduced and regulated to the extent possible”.

SB-54 is not only a landmark bill that will hold the proper people accountable for the terrible environmental impacts we are facing, but it is also an attempt to prove that policy and regulation can be of help to these issues. With the climate change clock ticking, these next ten years will be critical in determining the role and impact production companies play in environmental destruction as SB-54 threatens their business in the fourth largest economy in the world.

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References

Allen, B. (2022, July 1). SB-54 Solid waste: reporting, packaging, and plastic food service ware. Bill Text - SB-54 Solid waste: reporting, packaging, and plastic food service ware. Retrieved March 19, 2023, from https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/ billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB54

Becker, R. (2019, September 14). California lawmakers stall on landmark legislation to curb plastic trash. CalMatters. Retrieved March 17, 2023, from https://calmatters.org/environment/2019/09/california-recycling-bills-legislature-single-us e-plastic-waste-crisis/

Becker, R. (2020, September 1). Legislature narrowly rejects nation's toughest restrictions on plastics. CalMatters. Retrieved March 17, 2023, from https://calmatters.org/environment/ 2020/09/california-legislature-plastics/

CalRecycle. (n.d.). SB 54: Plastic pollution prevention and packaging producer responsibility act. CalRecycle. Retrieved March 17, 2023, from https://calrecycle.ca.gov/packaging/ packaging-epr/

Geyer, R., Jambeck, J. R., Law, K. L. (2017) Production, use, and fate of all plastics ever made. Sci. Adv. 3, e1700782. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1700782.

Office of Governor Gavin Newsom. (2022, July 1). Governor Newsom signs legislation cutting harmful plastic pollution to protect communities, oceans and Animals. California Governor. Retrieved March 19, 2023, from https://www.gov.ca.gov/2022/06/30/governor-newsom-signs-legislation-cutting-harmful-plastic-pollution-to-protect-communi ties-oceans-and-animals/

Office of Governor Gavin Newsom. (2022, October 24). ICYMI: California poised to become World's 4th biggest economy. California Governor. Retrieved March 19, 2023, from https://www.gov.ca.gov/2022/10/24/icymi-california-poised-to-become-worlds-4th-bigge st-economy/

Parker, L. (2022, May 19). A whopping 91 percent of plastic isn't recycled. Education. Retrieved March 17, 2023, from https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/ whopping-91-percent-plastic-isnt-recycled/

United Nations Environment Programme (2021). Neglected: Environmental Justice Impacts of Marine Litter and Plastic Pollution. Nairobi

United Nations Environment Programme. (2021, March 30). Plastic pollution is an environmental injustice to vulnerable communities – new report. UN Environment. Retrieved March 19, 2023, from https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/ plastic-pollution-environmental-injustice-vulnerable-communities-new

Weisbrod, K. (2022, October 12). California passed a landmark law about plastic pollution. why are some environmentalists still concerned? Inside Climate News. Retrieved March 17, 2023, from https://insideclimatenews.org/news/12102022/california-plastics-pollutionbill/

Zink T, Geyer R (2018) Recycling and the Myth of Landfill Diversion, Journal of Industrial Ecology, https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.12808.