California’s Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle, Sacramento, California, USA; www.calrecycle.ca.gov) has released documents expected to serve as key building blocks for implementing a 2022 law that seeks to significantly reduce single-use plastics (SUP) and packaging waste in the state.

Under the Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act (SB 54), the agency is required to draft rules detailing new industry responsibilities to cut waste and increase recycling, create and post a list of material categories covered under the law, and report to the legislature on the implementation process. CalRecycle also published a supplemental list of the recycling rates of the material categories.

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The state’s sweeping waste reform law requires a 25% reduction in single-use packaging and food ware by 2032; that 65% of single-use packaging and food ware be recycled; that 100% of single-use packaging and food ware be suitable for reclaim or composting; and that a new Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) program be established that ensures products are easily reused or recycled and minimise their negative impact on public health and the environment.

Producers would also pay all implementation costs to create the programmes, increase recycling, cut trash pollution in disadvantaged communities, and enroll manufacturers, CalRecycle said.

The department’s list of material categories covered under the law includes an identification code for plastics, metal, paper and fibre, glass and ceramic, and wood and other organics, and evaluates if the material has a plastic component and whether that material is potentially recyclable or compostable. CalRecycle said that 37 out of 98 material categories covered are recyclable in California.