Notable waste and recycling bills are headed to California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk now that the state legislative session has ended.
If these bills are signed, California will become the latest state to pass right-to-repair legislation for consumer electronics, and the state will also expand its bottle bill to include juice containers and update its recycling center payment model. The state is also poised to adopt a new law that would affect waste hauler franchise agreements when there’s an ongoing labor dispute.
It wasn’t as busy of a year for recycling-related legislation compared to 2022, when the legislature passed SB 54, a landmark paper and packaging extended producer responsibility law that also sets statewide plastic reduction and recycling goals. However, several bills that passed this year aim to help California jump-start its efforts to comply with SB 54 by banning most plastic gift cards, establishing a working group to identify alternatives to single-use plastic and cleaning up some ambiguous language from the original SB 54 bill text.
Read on for more highlights from this year’s session:
| Bill Number | Highlights | Bill Status |
| SB 244 | Creates a right-to-repair program for consumer electronics | Passed |
| SB 353 | Expands container redemption program to include fruit and vegetable juices | Passed |
| SB 665 | Creates a working group for “single-use plastic alternatives” | Passed |
| SB 728 | Phases out plastic gift cards starting in 2027 | Passed |
| SB 751 | Prohibits franchise agreements from containing force majeure provision related to labor disputes | Passed |
| SB 303 | Cleans up provisions and revises definitions in SB 54, California’s EPR for packaging law | Passed |
SB 244: Right-to-repair
California is set to become the latest state to pass a right-to-repair law this year. Sources expect Gov. Newsom to sign the high-profile bill, which saw support not just from longtime repair advocates but from Apple, which historically opposed such legislation but now says the bill has the right balance that allows customer repair options without causing data security and intellectual property problems. HP also recently announced its support.
The bill would require manufacturers of consumer electronics and some appliances to provide replacement parts, diagnostic information and service manuals to consumers and third-party repair businesses. It would also impose fines on manufacturers that don’t comply. Supporters say the bill will help reduce the amount of electronics that enter the waste stream.
Right-to-repair is gaining traction around the country. In 2023, about 30 states introduced some kind of right-to-repair legislation. New York passed its right-to-repair law last year, followed by Minnesota and Colorado this year.
Californians Against Waste, CalPIRG and iFixIt co-sponsored the bill. “Consumer groups, environmentalists, repair shop owners and more have been calling for the right to repair for 6 years, and we're finally on the verge of fixing Californians’ laws so we can fix our stuff,” said Jenn Engstrom, state director of CALPIRG, in an email.
A coalition of opposing groups, such as the California Chamber of Commerce, Consumer Technology Association, Internet Coalition and TechNet, said the bill doesn’t do enough to protect original equipment manufacturers and “undermines” businesses that are part of OEM-authorized networks.
SB 353: Adding juice containers to the bottle bill and adjusting recycling center payments
California continues to expand its bottle bill, this time by adding most fruit and vegetable juice containers starting Jan. 1. If signed, the bill will be the latest update to the program since last year, when state lawmakers approved an expansion that adds wine containers to the program in 2024.
The Container Recycling Institute, a bill supporter, estimates the juice container update could add another 188 million containers to the program and help raise deposit return rates.
The bill would also update the payment formula that funds recycling centers, a move meant to prevent more recycling centers from closing, especially during times when scrap prices are volatile. The bill “will make the system more responsive to market forces,” said Sally Houghton, executive director of Plastic Recycling Corporation of California, in a statement. “This will help get more containers recycled and turned back into bottles in a cost-effective manner.”
Republic Services, along with the West Coast chapter of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries and numerous recycling and deposit centers throughout the state support the bill.
SB 751: Hauler franchise agreements and labor disputes
The bill would prohibit a city or county from entering into or updating a solid waste hauling agreement if a labor dispute would excuse the hauler from carrying out its duties. Labor disputes are sometimes included in haulers’ “force majeure” clauses that exempt haulers from fulfilling certain obligations during extraordinary events such as floods or fires.
If signed, haulers with ongoing labor disputes in the state will need to provide advance notice to customers of any service disruptions, and they would have to provide customers with refunds or credits if service is impacted. Haulers also would have to allow customers to file a complaint if they do not receive services. This would take effect Jan. 1.
The bill was prompted by a 2021 labor dispute between Teamsters Local 542 and Republic Services in Chula Vista. Republic Services halted some waste collection because the franchise agreement included a force majeure provision that covered work stoppages, according to a bill analysis.
WM, Waste Connections, Athens Services, and three state trade groups opposed the bill, saying it does not provide enough flexibility and could raise costs both for local agencies and for customers. Supporters such as the California League of Cities say the bill would help protect municipalities from liability.
SB 665: Plastics working group
California is in the midst of making plans for how it will enact the many provisions of SB 54, passed last year, including a requirement that producers reduce the amount of single-use plastic they use by 25% by 2032. SB 665 is meant to help chip away at this goal by establishing a working group to evaluate “novel” materials that could be used as alternatives to plastic in single-use products. Sen. Ben Allen, who sponsored SB 54, also backed SB 665 and a related cleanup bill.
The working group would have to start by Jan. 1, 2025. The framework, due by July 1, 2026, would contain recommendations on how to certify new materials by using “scientific testing standards,” how proposed materials would be treated at end of life and how such materials would be marketed or labeled. The group would include members of CalRecycle, the State Water Resources Control Board, the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment and other state departments.
Republic Services’ Western region, the National Stewardship Action Council and Rethink Waste were among the supporters, according to a bill analysis. A coalition of recycling and packaging groups including the Flexible Packaging Association, the Association of Plastics Recyclers, Ameripen and The Recycling Partnership sent a letter in March asking for the working group to include more stakeholder voices and follow a “science-based approach to the working group’s evaluation.” The groups were not listed in bill analyses as being formally opposed to the bill.
SB 303: SB 54 cleanup bill
This bill is meant to clean up language and resolve several “ambiguities” from the original SB 54 bill text. One of the provisions in SB 303 includes details on adjudicating disputes between entities that are required to follow regulations set forth in SB 54, and it clarifies that the arbitration process wouldn’t pause the producer responsibility organization’s implementation plans.
It also makes minor clarifications to the bill’s definitions of “recycling” and “responsible end markets.” It clarifies that in the EPR process, the producer responsibility organization and the producers —not local governments or waste haulers— are responsible for ensuring material meets CalRecycle’s criteria, according to a bill analysis. It also clarifies that “responsible end markets” means the places where the material is “actually reclaimed and reconstituted into new material” and doesn’t include collection and recycling processing.
SB 728: Plastic gift card ban
In another effort to reach SB 54-specific plastic reduction goals, SB 728 would ban most kinds of plastic gift cards — considered a “low hanging fruit” of the state’s plastic reduction, according to a bill analysis. The majority of gift cards are made from PVC, which isn’t typically accepted for recycling.
Starting Jan. 1, 2027, retailers would be prohibited from selling or distributing plastic gift cards and could face fines for violation. Retailers would be able to continue to sell their existing stock of plastic gift cards until Jan. 1, 2028. Public transit cards are exempt from the bill.
Californians Against Waste was a main supporter, while Plastics and the California Chamber of Commerce were among the opposition.
