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SB 1625 -PLASTIC BOTTLE RECYCLING AND MARINE DEBRIS POLLUTION PREVENTION Senator Ellen Corbett IN BRIEF SB 1625 aims to significantly reduce the amount of plastic litter pollution entering our marine environment by expanding the scope of California's successful Bottle and Can Recycling Law to include all plastic bottles. Plastic marine debris pollution is a serious and growing problem, the source of which is right here on land. Up to 80% of marine debris pollution consists of plastic from urban litter. Containers under California's Bottle and Can Rerychng Law are littered less than other plastic items because they have a redemption value. However, because plastics are the fastest growing component of the waste stream, only about 50% of plastic bottles are currently covered by California's Bottle and Can Recycling Law. Expanding the program to include all plastic bottles will significantly reduce plastic litter pollution this measure will result in the rerycling of more than 3 billion additional plastic bottles, reducing littered and landfilled plastic waste by 130,000 tons annually. THE ISSUE Municipalities have spent billions trying to prevent urban plastic litter from entering our watersheds. This is an especially pressing issue for Southern Californian communities that are required by US EPA Total Maximum Daily Loads (I'MDL) for Trash to reach 0 trash levels by 2014. This is a serious and costly issue that requires a State solution. The collection and disposal of plastic bottles costs local governments and ratepayers in excess of $32 million annually. The increase in rerycling as a result of SB 1625 will likely cut this disposal cost in half. What little plastic bottle recycling is occurring now is primarily being subsidized by local governments and ratepayers, at a cost more than $16 million annually. SB 1625 will eliminate these existing costs to curbside rerycling programs and instead provide curbside programs with more than $67 million in new recycling program revenue. SB 1625 and the resulting growth in recycling represents a net revenue benefit to local governments and curbside rerycling programs of roughly $100 million annually. EXISTING LAW Marine debris pollution is poisoning our ocean and burdening our $43 billion dollar ocean economy. Plastic bottles are the second most-commonly found plastic litter item on beaches, behind takeout food packaging. Plastic bottle litter does not biodegrade; instead it breaks into smaller pieces as a result of radiation from the sun. These pieces kill millions of sea birds and thousands of marine mammals and endangered sea turtles, as well as countless fish, who mistake them for food. Litter pollution in the Pacific Ocean congregates into a giant "garbage patch" North of Hawaii that is twice the size of Texas. In this "garbage" patch plastic outweighs plankton by a factor of 46! Since its implementation in 1987, California's Bottle and Can Rerycling Law has drastically reduced the presence of regulated containers in the litter stream and has increased container recycling levels to record levels. California generates more than 6.5 billion plastic bottles and approximately 300 million plastic-coated beverage boxes and cartons annually, none of which are covered under existing law. While 95 percent of these containers are technically recyclable, less than 12% are actually rerycled. That means more than 220,000 tons of plastic and plastic-coated paper is littered or landfilled in California annually. Plastic does not biodegrade-so if not recycled, this waste continues to accumulate, year after you. If littered or blown from reciptcles, this accumulating plastics waste can quickly enter our marine environment through storm drains and creeks. California's Bottle and Can Rerycling Law requires that regulated containers by assigned a refund value that is redeemed by consumers when the container is recycled. Alternatively, consumers can donate the container to a nonprofit recycler. Unredeemed funds are used to fund curbside rerycling, litter abatement, market development grants, and other programs. Currently, California's Bottle and Can Recycling Law covers beer and malt beverages, soft drinks, water, sports drinks, and other specified beverages in glass, plastic and aluminum containers. WHAT THE BILL DOES SB 1625 will add all plastic bottles to California's Bottle and Can Rerycling Law, including food product bottles, cosmetic product bottles and cleaning product bottles. SB 16525 ends the exclusion from the program given to certain paperboard and aseptic containers. SB 1625 also ends the confusing practice of calculating an inflated "redemption rate" and will instead rely upon the more accurate "recycling rate" and provides a temporary processing fee fix so that existing program members are not unfairly penalized by the temporary recycling rate fluctuation caused by the inclusion of new containers. SUPPORT Californians Against Waste (Sponsor) May 21, 2008