For lawmakers and lobbyists who ensure California’s landmark plastic waste laws, Rachel Wagoner’s sudden career turn is simply coveted.
Former Director of Calrecycle – responsible, authored and promoted disposable plastic legislation called SB 54 – is now the Executive Director of the Coalition of Circular Action, Alliance of plastics and packaging companies decides to delay (if not derail) law.
It is not clear that her pivot is legal.
On February 19, an anonymous whistleblower filed a formal complaint with the California Committee on Fair Political Practice, asking the agency to investigate Wagoner on the grounds that she violated a “convert one party” ban that prevented former regulators from getting compensation for the state on matters they once supervised.
“It’s really shocking,” said Sean McMorris, manager of transparency, ethics and accountability programs at Common Priad, California, a political oversight group. “I don’t know how to say that, whether there is any law breakdown or not, the public will look at it and say, ‘What’s going on here? It’s suspicious.'”
Others say Wagner played a role in pushing out what she now calls the issue.
“It certainly attracted a lot of attention,” said Senator Ben Allen, who wrote and sponsored the original legislation.
Wagoner did not answer the Times questions, but in an email exchange on February 12, she said she was proud of her time in the state and felt honored to be asked to advise the company and provide “information about SB 54 and California’s environmental and regulatory laws and regulatory laws and procedures.”
She said she does not advocate for companies she represents in her new position, which includes some of the producers and distributors of some of the world’s plastic packaging, including Amazon, Coca-Cola, Conagra, Conagra, Procter & Gamble and Target. She said she was just providing information for them.
The coalition spokesman Larine Urbina said the state’s political practice committee had no contact with her organization, so “I’m not suitable for me to comment at this time.”
SB 54 (Plastic Waste Wagoner) helps to make SB 54 designed to reduce single-use plastics and packaging and transfer the responsibility for plastic waste to manufacturers, companies that sell or sell these products, and away from consumers and local jurisdictions. It can be done by reducing the amount of single-use plastics created and sold by these companies, or by making products that can be recycled or composted.
according to A country analysisIn 2023, 2.9 million tons of single-use plastic and 171.4 billion monolithic plastic components were sold, sold or distributed in California.
Single utilization of plastics and plastic waste is more widely considered a growing environmental and health problem. In recent decades, accumulation Plastic waste At a loss Waterways and oceansdisgusting marine life and threats Human health.
The bill was signed into law in 2022 but aims to rule that the bill has not yet been terminated.
Over the past two years, stakeholders representing plastic manufacturers and producers, packaging companies, environmental groups and waste transporters have conducted topics and negotiated proposed regulations – debated on definitions such as “producer” or on locations of words such as “reusable” or “refilled” on catering services.
During this period, Calrecycle, led by Wagoner, helped guide the discussion and incorporate feedback into several proposed drafts of these rules.
For example, in early June 2022, as stakeholders are slamming the first set of regulations, it is clear that someone (the country or industry) will need to regularly evaluate the state’s waste infrastructure to ensure that the material reaches where it needs to be and handled correctly under the law. The industry is responsible for achieving these goals – including among other requirements, where 65% of the state’s simple plastic packaging is recycled by 2032.
Stakeholders have initially agreed to the expensive, time- and personnel-intensive assessments the industry should conduct. This will enable the industry to evaluate the assessment when it is conducted and responsible for it. But according to sources, Vogner (who was a director of a state agency) should have the responsibility to decide. Several drafts of proposed rules and changes are shared with the times.
Now, Wagoner and her industry alliance complain that it took too long for the state to conduct the assessment – expected to be completed in January 2026 – so, she said, it hurts her ability to organize a plan to meet its goals, which they need to complete by April 2026.
“Even under ideal conditions, this timeline is challenging,” she said in an email on February 12. “The planning process must begin without this required data and will be difficult to complete because of this delay.”
Additionally, Wagoner critics say she oversees changes in regulations that some experts say could open the door to certain types of chemical recycling technologies that are ultra-thermal plastics and turn them into fuel or other types of plastics, including from Eastman Chemical. Since then, changes in the regulations, including wording about hazardous materials, have been corrected and resolved.
Eastman Chemical predicts the benefits of recycling technology in a sponsored ad for Sacramento Bee on February 7. They also lobbied Calrecycle for $177,500 on the SB 54 regulations in the fourth quarter.
Since mid-December, the Circular Action Alliance and other industry-friendly groups such as the California Chamber of Commerce have also been actively lobbying the governor’s office to urge Newsom to postpone finalization.
In a letter to Newsom on December 15, the chamber claimed that the new law would cost California consumers more than $300 a year, a figure he said came from the state’s own economic analysis. However, the sub-comments to this analysis are exactly the opposite.
Economists in the state said they expect personal income to increase – starting with the $3 bump in 2024 and climbing to $131 by 2032.
In 2020, Wagoner was selected by Newsom to run calrecycle. Prior to that, she worked as a senior legislative strategist with Ann Patterson in the Governor’s office and was Newsom’s cabinet secretary until Friday. Patterson resigned soon after Patterson’s husband Nathan Barankin became the governor’s chief of staff.
Wagoner resigned until March 2024 for personal reasons. After several months of consultation with Eastman Chemical, she became executive director of the Circular Action Alliance on December 4.
The Fair Political Practice Committee has not yet determined whether they will investigate. According to a letter to Wagoner on February 25, the former Calrecycle director must provide information to the agency to support her case by March 11, at which point the agency will decide how to proceed.
“What happened may not be illegal, I’m not an attorney, but I don’t think the public thinks it’s how California works,” said Heidi Sanborn, founding director of the California Product Management Committee.
