AB80 - Carpet recycling.

Amended IN Senate July 09, 2025 Amended IN Senate July 07, 2025 Amended IN Assembly May 23, 2025 Amended IN Assembly March 12, 2025 CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION Assembly Bill No. 80 Introduced by Assembly Member Aguiar-Curry December 19, 2024 An act to amend Sections 42968, 42968.1, 42968.4, 42968.21, 42968.23, 42968.30, 42968.32, 42968.40, 42968.62, 42973.7, 42976, and 42978 of the Public Resources Code, relating to recycling. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 80, as amended, Aguiar-Curry. Carpet recycling. (1) The California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989, administered by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, generally regulates the disposal, management, and recycling of solid waste. The act establishes stewardship programs for various products, including, among others, carpet. The act includes a product stewardship for carpet program and a successor carpet producer responsibility program, and requires the product stewardship for carpet program to become inoperative upon the completion of certain conditions related to the implementation of the successor carpet producer responsibility program. Existing law, the product stewardship for carpet program, requires a manufacturer of carpets sold in this state, individually or through a carpet stewardship organization, to submit a carpet stewardship plan to the department, which is required to include specified elements, including achieving specified carpet recycling rates and a funding mechanism that provides sufficient funding to carry out the plan. Existing law authorizes the department to administratively impose a civil penalty of $25,000 $10,000 per day on any person in violation of the program or $25,000 per day if the violation is intentional, knowing, or negligent. negligent, as specified. This bill would instead authorize a civil the department to impose administrative, rather than civil, penalties in those amounts, and to impose an administrative penalty of $25,000 per day if the violation is intentional or knowing. Existing law requires a carpet stewardship organization to include nonvoting board members with representation from, among others, a retailer that sells carpet. This bill would instead require the stewardship organization to create a governing board for the stewardship program, as specified. Existing law requires a manufacturer of carpets sold in this state, individually or through a carpet stewardship organization, to submit to the department an annual report describing its activities to achieve the purposes of the program, as provided. Existing law authorizes a carpet stewardship organization to award grants and subsidies to incentivize the recycling of carpet materials that have the highest recyclability. This bill would require a carpet stewardship organization to include in its annual report specified information related to the grants and subsidies provided pursuant to the program, as specified. (2) Existing law, the successor carpet producer responsibility program, requires producers of covered products to form and join a single producer responsibility organization (PRO) for the collection and recycling of a covered product. Existing law defines a “covered product” as carpet, as defined, and requires the PRO to develop a producer responsibility plan for the collection, transportation, recycling, and the safe and proper management of covered products in the state. Existing law requires, no later than January 1, 2029, a person who removes a covered product as part of the installation of a covered product to transport, or contract to transport, all of the removed covered product to an approved collection site, as provided. Under existing law, an approved collection site is a solid waste facility that has agreed to be a collection site for the PRO. This bill would exempt a covered product from this transport requirement if certain conditions are met, including that it is returned to the producer. The bill would expand approved collection sites to include certain carpet recycling centers, municipal facilities, and retailers. Existing law requires the governing board of a PRO to include 4 nonvoting members, including, but not limited to, a nonvoting member representing a nonprofit organization established to promote a circular economy and to address environmental issues. Existing law requires the PRO to submit an annual report to the department on or before July 1 of each year, as provided. Existing law requires a producer to publish on its internet website, for each of its covered products, an environmental product declaration that identifies a covered product’s components, as provided. This bill would instead require one voting and 5 nonvoting members, as specified. The bill would require the annual report to be submitted on or before September 1 of each year, instead of July 1 of each year. The bill would instead require a producer to publish on its internet website, for each of its covered products, the components that constitute more than 1% of the product’s weight and any component that is a hazardous chemical, as specified. Existing law requires the PRO to submit to the department an annual report, as specified, and to make the report publicly available on the PRO’s internet website. Existing law requires the PRO to provide annual grants to apprenticeship programs for training carpet installers in proper carpet recycling techniques, as provided. This bill would require the PRO to include in its annual report specified information related to the grants and incentive payments provided pursuant to the program, as specified. Existing law requires a producer responsibility plan, among other things, to explain how producers will use standardized stamping or some other means to provide a visual mark on the back of a covered product that is a synthetic material to allow expeditious sorting of the carpet, as provided. Existing law requires the department to adopt regulations to implement the program with an effective date no earlier than December 31, 2026. This bill would instead require a producer responsibility plan to explain how producers will use standardized stamping or some other means to provide a visual mark on the back of a covered product that provides the name of the producer, the date of manufacture, and a listing of the types of face fibers and backing materials contained in the product. The bill would instead require the department to adopt the regulations no later than December 31, 2026. Existing law requires a producer responsibility plan in effect as of January 1, 2025, to continue in effect, as provided, until it expires or is revoked, except that the PRO is required to submit an amendment to conform the producer responsibility plan to certain requirements. This bill would eliminate the requirement to submit an amendment to the producer responsibility plan. Digest Key Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NO Bill Text The people of the State of California do enact as follows: SECTION 1. Section 42968 of the Public Resources Code is amended to read: 42968. For purposes of this chapter, the following definitions apply: (a) “Apprenticeship program” means a program approved by the Chief of the Division of Apprenticeship Standards for training apprentice and journey-level carpet installers in proper carpet installation, reuse, and recycling practices to maximize the chances of achieving the goals of the program. (b) “Approved collection site” means a carpet recycling center, municipal facility that accepts carpet, retailer that sells a covered product, producer’s regional distribution center, or solid waste facility that has agreed to be a collection site for the producer responsibility organization, as described in Section 42968.23. (c) “Authorized collector” means a person or entity that has entered into an agreement with the producer responsibility organization to collect covered products. (d) “Brand” means a name, symbol, word, or mark that identifies a covered product rather than its components, and attributes the covered product to the owner or licensee of the brand as the producer. (e) (1) “Carpet” means a floor or stair covering made from thick woven fabric that is used in residential buildings, commercial buildings, conventions, and events, including modular carpet tiles. (2) Carpet does not include area rugs that are 11 feet by 15 feet in size or smaller. (f) “Closed loop recycling” means recycling in which products or materials are reclaimed and returned to the original process or processes in which they were generated and they are reused in the production process. (g) “Consumer” means a purchaser, owner, or lessee of a covered product, including a person, business, corporation, limited partnership, nonprofit organization, or governmental entity. (h) (1) “Covered product” means carpet. (2) “Covered product” does not include carpet that meets the requirements in Section 42357 to be labeled “compostable.” (i) “Department” means the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery. (j) “Environmental nongovernmental organization” means a nonprofit organization established to address environmental issues related to waste and recycling. (k) “Permanent collection site” means a permanent location in the state where discarded covered product may be returned at no cost, by a consumer or another party on behalf of a consumer, to be reused, recycled, or otherwise managed. (l) “Postconsumer covered product” means a covered product that is no longer used for its manufactured purpose. (m) (1) “Postconsumer recycled content” means material derived from postconsumer covered product. (2) Postconsumer recycled content does not include material derived from recycled beverage containers, as defined in Section 14505. (n) “Processor” means a company that uses a process, including, but not limited to, shredding, grinding, sheering, or depolymerization, to convert discarded covered products into finished recycled output that is ready to be used as an input material for manufacturing products. (o) (1) “Producer” means a person who manufactures a covered product and who sells, offers for sale, or distributes a covered product in or into the state under that person’s own name or brand. (2) If there is no person in the state who is the producer for purposes of paragraph (1), the producer of the covered product is the owner or exclusive licensee of a brand or trademark under which the covered product is sold or distributed in or into the state, whether or not the trademark is registered. For purposes of this subdivision, an “exclusive licensee” is a person holding the exclusive right to use a trademark or brand in the state in connection with the manufacture, sale, or distribution for sale in or into the state of the covered product. (3) If there is no person in the state who is the producer for purposes of paragraph (1) or (2), then the producer of the covered product is the party that imports the covered product into the state for sale, distribution, or installation. (4) If there is no person in the state who is the producer for purposes of paragraph (1), (2), or (3), then the producer of the covered product is the distributor, wholesaler, or retailer who sells the product in or into the state. (p) “Producer responsibility organization” means either of the following: (1) An organization that is exempt from taxation under Section 501(c)(3) of the United States Internal Revenue Code of 1986, is formed for the purpose of implementing a producer responsibility plan to meet the requirements of this chapter, and is approved by the department pursuant to Section 42968.21. (2) A carpet stewardship organization, as defined in Section 42971. (q) “Producer responsibility plan” means the plan developed by the producer responsibility organization that complies with Section 42968.32 and is submitted to the department for approval pursuant to Section 42968.30. (r) (1) “Recycle” or “recycling” means the process of sorting, cleansing, treating, and reconstituting materials that would otherwise ultimately be disposed of onto land or into water or the atmosphere, and returning them to, or maintaining them within, the economic mainstream in the form of recovered material for new, reused, or reconstituted products that meet the quality standards necessary to be used in the marketplace. (2) “Recycle” or “recycling” does not include any of the following: (A) Combustion. (B) Incineration. (C) Energy generation. (D) Fuel production, except for anaerobic digestion of source separated organic materials. (E) Other forms of disposal. (3) To be considered recycled, covered products shall be sent to a responsible end market. (s) “Retailer” means a person who offers new covered products in a retail sale, as defined in Section 6007 of the Revenue and Taxation Code, including a retail sale through any means, including remote offerings such as sales outlets, catalogs, or an internet website, online marketplace, or other similar electronic means. (t) (1) “Sell” or “sale” means a transfer of title of a covered product for consideration, including a remote sale conducted through a sales outlet, catalog, or internet website, online marketplace, or similar electronic means. (2) “Sell” or “sale” includes a lease through which a covered product is provided to a consumer by a manufacturer, wholesaler, or retailer. (3) For the purposes of this chapter, the sale of a covered product shall be deemed to occur in the state if the covered product is delivered to the consumer in the state. (u) “Solid waste facility” means a solid waste facility, as defined in Section 40194, that accepts under its normal operating conditions covered materials for collection, storing, and handling, whether for recycling or disposal. (v) “Wholesaler” means a person who offers new covered product for sale in this state in a sale that is not a retail sale, as defined in Section 6007 of the Revenue and Taxation Code, and in which the covered product is intended to be resold. SEC. 2. Section 42968.1 of the Public Resources Code is amended to read: 42968.1. The department shall adopt regulations to implement this chapter in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act (Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code). The regulations shall have an effective date no later than December 31, 2026. SEC. 3. Section 42968.4 of the Public Resources Code is amended to read: 42968.4. (a) Subject to subdivision (b), a producer shall publish on its internet website, for each of its covered products, the components that constitute more than 1 percent of the total composition of the product by weight and any intentionally added component that is listed by the Department of Toxic Substances Control as a Candidate Chemical pursuant to Section 69502.2 of Title 22 of the California Code of Regulations. (b) Subdi [Text truncated for display. Full text available on Congress.gov.]