BILL NUMBER: AB 997	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Travis Allen

                        FEBRUARY 26, 2015

   An act to amend Section 41780.01 of, and to add Section 41780.03
to, the Public Resources Code, relating to solid waste.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 997, as introduced, Travis Allen. Recycling: plastic material.
   Existing law requires the Department of Resources Recycling and
Recovery to administer state programs to recycle solid waste, plastic
trash bags, plastic packaging containers, waste tires, newsprint,
and other specified materials.
   The existing California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989
requires each city, county, city and county, and regional agency, if
any, to develop a source reduction and recycling element of an
integrated waste management plan containing specified components. The
element is required to divert 50% of the solid waste subject to the
element, except as specified, through source reduction, recycling,
and composting activities. The act also declares that it is the
policy goal of the state that not less than 75% of solid waste
generated be source reduced, recycled, or composted by the year 2020,
and annually thereafter.
   This bill would restate the policy goal of the state to provide
that the goal is for not less than 75% of solid waste generated to be
source reduced, recycled, used for power generation in dedicated
anaerobic digesters as well as in modern landfills capturing methane
gas, or composted by the year 2020, and annually thereafter. The bill
would also require the department to investigate emerging
technologies that convert used plastic, textile, and fiber products
into new plastic feedstock and monomers, adopt regulations and
protocols by January 1, 2017, that encourage waste-to-energy and
waste-to-fuel pyrolysis projects that address the various types and
grades of plastic, textile, and fiber products that are disposed of
in landfills, and, beginning January 1, 2017, and each year
thereafter, examine and report to the Legislature on possible
incentives for locating in-state those businesses and organizations
that practice state-of-the-art, cost-effective material separation
and recovery techniques as well as those organizations that are now
commercially developing the most cost-effective conversion of mixed
plastic, textile, and fiber wastes to fuels.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
   (a) California's goal of diverting not less than 75 percent of
solid waste, including plastic products, from landfills has proven
difficult to meet with current practices. In November of 2014, the
California State Auditor reported, in regard to the beverage
container recycling program alone, that in each of the last four
fiscal years it operated at a deficit, and that the gap between
expenditures and revenues exceeded $100 million in three of those
four fiscal years.
   (b) California's goal of diverting not less than 75 percent of
solid waste, including plastic products, from landfills does not take
into account that landfills will continue for the foreseeable future
to be the only disposal alternative for many plastic products.
   (c) Existing law and current policies do not recognize new
technologies that are available both to maximize the reusable
lifespan of plastic products as well as to recover the latter's
energy and fuel potential, and that are integral to meeting the state'
s diversion goals. These new technologies and changed policies could
address several obstacles that the state currently faces primarily
with regard to the recycling of plastic products, including, but not
limited to, all of the following:
   (1) The multicomponent construction of many plastic products such
as plastic containers with integral caps and valves.
   (2) The usage history of plastic products, such as nonhazardous
used hospital coverings.
   (3) Varying contamination levels of plastic products, such as food
service wastes and plastic products used for floor cleaning.
   (4) The diversity of plastic grades, or types of plastic, within
each plastic material class.
   (d) According to the federal Environmental Protection Agency, in
2011, 13.1 million tons of textiles ended up in landfills, an
increase of 44 percent from 1999, while only 2 million tons were
diverted from landfills. The low diversion percentage is largely due
to the multicomponent nature of many textiles that are in the
landfills. Further, 60 percent of textiles that end up in landfills
are PET polyester, the same material from which plastic beverage
containers are made.
   (e) Existing law and current policies do not recognize the
existence of a new process that converts mixed plastic, textile, and
fiber wastes in a closed loop directly to high-grade gasoline,
kerosene, and diesel fuel with zero gaseous, liquid, or solid
emissions, or that this process also consumes currently stockpiled
refinery wastes, or is already being commercially developed by a
major global oil corporation that has expressed interest in locating
several such facilities in California.
  SEC. 2.  Section 41780.01 of the Public Resources Code is amended
to read:
   41780.01.  (a) The Legislature hereby declares that it is the
policy goal of the state that not less than 75 percent of solid waste
generated be source reduced, recycled,  used for power
generation in dedicated anaerobic digesters as well as in modern
landfills capturing methane gas,  or composted by the year 2020,
and annually thereafter.
   (b) Notwithstanding subdivision (a), the department shall not
establish or enforce a diversion rate on a city or county that is
greater than the 50 percent diversion rate established pursuant to
Section 41780.
  SEC. 3.  Section 41780.03 is added to the Public Resources Code, to
read:
   41780.03.  The department shall do all of the following:
   (a) Investigate emerging technologies that convert used plastic,
textile, and fiber products into useful feedstocks and monomers.
   (b) Adopt regulations and protocols by January 1, 2017, that
encourage the further development of waste-to-energy and
waste-to-fuel pyrolysis projects that address the various types and
grades of plastic, textile, and fiber products, that at the time of
the adoption of the regulations and protocols, are disposed of in
landfills.
   (c) Beginning January 1, 2017, and each January 1 thereafter,
examine and report to the Legislature on possible incentives for
locating in-state, those businesses and organizations that practice
state-of-the-art, cost-effective material separation and recovery
techniques, as well as those organizations that are now commercially
developing the most cost-effective conversion of mixed plastic,
textile, and fiber wastes to fuels.
   (d) (1) The requirement for submitting a report to the Legislature
under subdivision (c) is inoperative on January 1, 2020, pursuant to
Section 10231.5 of the Government Code.
   (2) A report to be submitted pursuant to subdivision (c) shall be
submitted in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code.