On January 1, polystyrene packaging became illegally sold, distributed or imported to California, a landmark waste law signed by Gavin Newsom in 2022 and was signed by lawmakers and Environmentalists declare that as a game changer in the fight against the single against the single – the use of plastic and pollution.
But few people know that if they have been waiting for the state to mention this huge milestone, a particularly harmful plastic polymer, a clear proven strength of the law as environmentalists describe – using plastic almost No recycling available.
This is because the Governor’s Office or Carrecycle releases statements or recognitions about the effective injunction, which is responsible for overseeing and enforcing the law.
Instead, environmental groups and some lawmakers are increasingly concerned that plastic manufacturers, manufacturers and distributors are fighting behind the scenes to make the Plastics Act (called SB 54). Over the past two and a half years, plastics and packaging companies, lawmakers and environmentalists should be done on March 8. If not, stakeholders will have to start the whole process again.
They also fear the silence from the news magazine office suggests that the entire deal may be out of place.
“We need to keep track of SB 54,” said state Sen. Catherine Blakespear (D-encinitas). – A letter was sent to the governor last week urging him to “go forward and meet the time required by the law.” surface”.
“It’s a system-level change. It’s a game-changer when we talk about trying to reduce the amount of plastic waste and microplastics in the environment, the body, the ocean,” Blakespear said in an interview. “So the fact that regulations may be delayed? I just found this to be unacceptable. There is a process that is iterative, so if there is a problem, the situation may change. But you have to start with something.”
Newsom is “very serious about stakeholder input” and is “considering how to continue to successfully implement this ambitious plan,” said Daniel Villaseñor, a spokesman for the governor’s office. He also said the governor is committed to “achieving the SB54 goal to reduce plastic pollution.”
When signing the law, Newsom says Children in California “should have a future without plastic waste and all its hazardous effects” and because of the law, he and state legislators and regulators will put “polluters accountable” and put “plastics into plastic.”
Neither the governor’s office nor calrecycle answered questions about their silence on the polystyrene ban. Villaseñor will not expand the “options” the governor is considering. SB 54 is designed as This year, we will gradually eliminate single-use plastics. The bill provides that the product will be banned if the polystyrene producer, seller or distributor fails to achieve a 25% recovery rate by December 31, 2024. According to data retained by Calrecycle, the industry failed to achieve that goal.
The law aims to trigger a range of escalations of compost and recycling requirements for consumer product packaging – first with the polystyrene target.
By 2032, both companies must reduce single-use plastic packaging by 25%; ensure 65% of the material is recyclable; 100% recyclable or compostable. SB 54 also requires packaging manufacturers to bear the cost of the end life of their products (whether through recycling, compost, landfill or export) and figure out how to achieve this – eliminating consumers and state and state and local governments Expensive burden.
according to A country analysissold in California in 2023, 2.9 million tons of single-use plastic and 171.4 billion monolithic plastic components were sold or distributed.
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.
Although SB 54 was signed in 2022, regulations governing the laws and their work definitions (such as the meaning of the word “producer” or the meaning of an annual report generated by the industry – should be hammered over time over time A group of stakeholders representing plastic manufacturers and manufacturers, packaging companies, environmental groups, and waste transporters.
These regulations will expire on March 8, 2025. If a deadline is missed, experts say it has the potential to not only return the law to be enforced, but it also has the potential to derail the whole thing.
Jennifer Fail said, “The advocacy for delaying the implementation of SB 54 is an effort to stop California’s forward momentum. 2022. She is worried that the plastics industry will use the ambitious goal of delaying the law if the deadline is missed.
December 2, 2024, The final draft of these negotiation regulations is published by Carrecycle – Reviewed over 450 letters and 5,000 comments, attended dozens of days of time workshops, and met with many stakeholders and their lobbyists. While groups such as the Marine Conservancy Association sent letters to Newsom and Carrecycle and congratulated them on their hard work, industry stakeholders quietly sent a very different message: Rejection.
On December 15, Adam Regele, vice president of Advocacy and Strategic Partnerships at the California Chamber of Commerce, represented an industry trade group including the American Chemical Commission and the Western Plastics Association. and flexible packaging association. – Writing to Governor Newsom, urging him to amend the law; he said his members thought it would not work.
He cites consumer fees, which he estimates are as high as $300 a year; he describes the regulations as confusing and “overregulated.” He suggested that certain aspects of the law do not match federal regulations regarding food safety. Additionally, he hopes the regulation allows for “alternative” recycling methods, such as chemical recycling, saying “the existing recycling technology alone cannot successfully implement the program.”
The original language of the law prohibits any form of recycling, including combustion, incineration or most energy generation. Chemical recycling often involves superheating of plastics to convert them into fuel. Some companies, such as Exxonmobil and Eastman Chemical Company, can use these alternatives to create new plastics.
California. General Rob Bonta believes that this claim is unfounded. But other influential players are with Recele, including Rachel Wagoner, who served as director of Carrecycle between 2020 and 2024.
Since leaving the state waste regulator, Wagoner has served as an advisor to Eastman and is now executive director of the Loop Action Alliance, an industry-operated organization that SB 54 requires its members to comply with the law. The organization is established by some of the largest producers and distributors of plastic packaging, including Amazon, Coca-Cola, Conagra, Procter & Gamble and Target.
Wagoner told Times that the Circulation Action Alliance has met with the governor’s office and let officials know that organizations of plastic product manufacturers and retailers “welcome more time to finalize regulations and resolve issues. , and make sure… SB 54 can be implemented successfully.”
A spokesperson for the organization said in an email to the Times that its members were “fully committed to developing and implementing a strong operational plan for SB 54. However, some important challenges must be addressed to ensure its success.”
Back deals and delayed calls caught environmental groups and lawmakers off guard.
“I think now, Shiz is hitting well-known fans, and everyone has a strong opinion on how to do it and what is reasonable and what is not,” said state Sen. Allen, who designed and sponsored the law.
Legislators and environmental groups said there had been no signs of disruptive problems with regulations until December. Indeed, they are considered, although no one likes these regulations – and all parties have compromised – they come together to find a viable agreement.
Anja Brandon, Director of Plastic Policy at Marine Reserve, said that although she hasn’t seen all the comments submitted to Calrecycle, “only in public seminars, it’s clear that everyone from local government to industry All to professionals (producers) responsible organizations provide strong feedback throughout the process.”
She said her organization has worked closely with the industry throughout the process. “We have interacted with them in public feedback…and also contacted them directly and had conversations and tried to align some of our comments. So, it was heard within the 11th hour that they marked these rules as infeasible That’s really disappointing and surprising.”
As an example of a late backtrack, Brandon and others pointed out two letters to the governor: one from the Chamber of Commerce on December 14 and the other from Wagoner’s group on December 15, both of which were Highlights the industry’s attention to the final regulations.
She also pointed to recent lobbying spending around the bill, including $177,500 from Eastman and $18,500 for the Loop Action Alliance In the fourth quarter of 2024and several meetings between representatives of the industry support organization and the governor.
For some in environmental advocacy, these last-minute developments are not surprising.
“As I’ve always said, SB 54 is a distraction strategy,” said Jan Dell of Orange County-based Last Beach Cleanup. Since 2022, she believes the law is fundamentally flawed, so the plastics industry is too powerful.
In 2022, last beach cleaning and many other environmental groups support Statewide ballot initiative Among other provisions, this may require all single-use plastic packaging and food products produced, distributed and sold in California to be recycled in 2030, reusable, refilled or compostable. It will also prohibit the use of polystyrene.
The initiative was withdrawn by environmental groups and supporters Agree with the law of this negotiation, A kind of support that the plastics industry and packaging companies promise.
The future of SB 54 remains uncertain. Meanwhile, some polystyrene manufacturers and distributors have already gotten rid of plastic when they are expected to take effect. For example, a Sysco spokesman said multinational product suppliers “comply with the latest regulations of all local, state and federal laws, including various states that prohibit the use of extended polystyrene (Styrofoam) products.”
Then, there are companies that can earn money from SB 54 but are trapped in Sacramento to make a decision. World-Centered is a compostable, plant-based food and packaging manufacturer located in Rohnert Park, Sonoma County, with demand for its products expected to grow. World Center resource recycling manager Erin Levine said it has been planning to expand its business and hire more workers, but is now postponing its aspirations until it becomes clearer about the next step in the law.
“It’s so bad,” she said, noting that like the world for the growth of California-based companies and producing materials that can be recycled and/or composted — exactly what the law is intended to encourage.
“I think we’ll see what happens,” she said.
