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A potentially important law in California, which would require single-use plastics and packaging to achieve a 75 percent recycling rate for sale in that state, died in the early morning of the state legislature.
The majority leader of the Assembly, Ian Calderon, said in an early tweet of September 14 that the legislation did not have enough support to be passed on the last day of the session . It will be reintroduced when lawmakers meet in January.
"We could not get the necessary votes at this late hour for # SB54," he wrote using his Senate bill number. "But rest assured, we'll be back in January to bring this bill to the governor's office."
Calderon's observation was commented by one of the main proponents of the proposal, Assembly member Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego. Under the rules of the legislature, the bills were to be passed by both houses at the end of the vote on September 13, which lasted until the early morning of September 14.
Legislation on single-use packaging was the subject of vigorous last-minute negotiations, with changing positions of industry groups as changes took place.
When introduced at the beginning of the year, the bill focused on single-use plastics, but was expanded on September 6 to all types of single-use packaging.
The legislation, which would have been the most comprehensive in the United States, would have started with a 30% recycling rate requirement in 2026.
He almost passed, going through several preliminary votes. But the plan also met stiff opposition from some corporate groups, such as the Food Manufacturers Association.
GMA CEO Geoff Freeman said in a September 10 editorial Orange County Registry that it would "create a dysfunctional regulatory monster".
Freeman wrote that while the US and the world "are facing a growing plastic waste crisis" and GMA consumer products companies are committed to more sustainable packaging, he urged legislators States to abandon their plan and start again.
He added that the state's recycling system is already under heavy financial pressure, with more than 50% of bottle recycling centers closed since 2013, before the plan was put in place. According to GMA, 80% of consumer goods companies are committed to making all their packaging recyclable by 2030.
However, the CEO of a major state recycling and waste management company, Recology Inc., said the bill would have helped the recycling system stressed. In his own editorial published in the California media a few days before the final vote, he said that the plastics and consumer goods industries had only "lent their voice to anything".
"While the plastics and packaging industry continues to avoid the pioneering reforms that deal with their single-use packaging and products, a coalition of local governments, conservationists and recyclers mobilized to promote [California] legislation, "said Michael Sangiacomo, CEO of San Francisco-based Recology, which provides waste management to about one million homes and businesses.
Although the bill was defeated at this year's sessions, it appears that similar proposals will continue to attract particular attention in California politics.
Earlier this year, Sangiacomo wrote to plastic industry leaders, claiming that his company would spend a million dollars for a California referendum on creating a plastic packaging-style regulation European in the state, claiming that much of the plastic waste was not economical to manage.
The rejected legislation would have asked California state agency CalRecycle to write detailed regulations over the next four years.
The law – which would also force the packaging industry to reduce its waste by 75% by 2030 through source reduction, recycling and composting – divides the groups in the company. 39; industry.
After the September 6 changes that made the bill neutral, the US Chemicals Council and its plastics division lifted the opposition and adopted a neutral stance on the bill, along with large property companies. Consumers, Procter & Gamble Co. and SC Johnson. Dow Inc. has officially supported the bill, along with many environmental groups and local state governments.
In a statement on 14 September, ACC urged legislators to continue working on the issue and noted the industry's commitment that all plastic packaging be recyclable, recoverable or reusable. here 2040, as well as the Alliance to eliminate plastic waste, endowed with a budget of 1.5 billion dollars.
But other groups in the industry remained opposed. The Plastics Industry Association said the plan did not solve the current infrastructure problems. A new group, Californians for Recycling and the Environment, including plastic bag and flexible packaging companies, also objected to the law, as are some waste transportation companies .
Gonzalez, one of the lead proponents of the proposal, said at a hearing on 10 September that legislators understood that the recycling infrastructure needed more support, but considered the proposal for single-use packaging as a first step towards broader goals.
"We know that to create the kind of environment we invest in this infrastructure, we need to create goals," she said.
In another plastics recycling bill, California lawmakers passed a mandatory minimum content law for PET drink bottles in the September 14 vote early in the morning.
The measure, Bill 792, is progressively combining requirements for the recycled content of PET bottles. The most recent versions of the bill would start at 10% in 2021 and reach 50% recycled content by 2030.
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