Law and Policy

The RMDZ Loan Program assists local jurisdictions in achieving or assuring continued compliance with several mandates:

• Assembly Bill 939 (Statutes of 1989): This bill established the California Integrated Waste Management Act (IWMA) of 1989. 
• Senate Bill 876 (Escutia, Chapter 838, Statutes of 2000) This bill provides for a comprehensive measure to extend and expand California’s regulatory program related to the management of waste and used tires. The five-year plan establishes goals and priorities for the waste tire recycling program and includes programmatic and fiscal issues as well as performance objectives and measurement criteria. For more information, see the Five-Year Plan web page.  
• Assembly Bill 2398 (Perez, Chapter 681, Statutes of 2010):  This bill enacted a product stewardship program for carpet to increase the amount of postconsumer carpet diverted from landfills and recycled into secondary products. One provision of AB 2398 required CalRecycle and the Department of General Services to complete a study by January 1, 2014, that examines the Platinum Level of American National Standards Institute (NSF/ANSI) 140-2009 Standard for carpet that was in effect on January 1, 2011, or the most current version of the standard that the state uses to purchase carpets, and to include recommendations for changes that would improve the environmental sustainability of carpet purchased by the state.
• Assembly Bill 341 (Statutes of 2011): Sets forth the requirements of the statewide mandatory commercial recycling program. On June 27, 2012, the Governor signed Senate Bill 1018 which included an amendment that requires a business that generates 4 cubic yards or more of commercial solid waste per week to arrange for recycling services.
• Senate Bill 254 (Statutes of 2013) and Senate Bill 1274 (Statues of 2014): The Used Mattress Recovery and Recycling Act aims to reduce illegal dumping, increase recycling, and substantially reduce public agency costs for the end-of-use management of used mattresses. The legislation established an industry-run, statewide program to increase the recovery and recycling of mattresses at their end-of-use.
• Senate Bill 1383 (Statutes of 2013): Set landfill methane emissions reduction targets for California in a statewide effort to reduce emissions of short-lived climate pollutants (SLCP).  SB 1383 Capacity Plans:  To achieve the goals of SB 1383, CalRecycle estimates that California needs approximately 50-100 new or expanded organic waste recycling facilities to annually recycle an additional 20-25 million tons of organic waste. Edible food recovery infrastructure expansion is also needed.  Capacity planning is vital to help jurisdictions meet this mandate. More information is available on the Capacity Planning webpage.
• Assembly Bill 1826 (Statutes of 2014):  requires businesses to recycle their organic waste.  Organic waste (also referred to as organics throughout this resource), for the purposes of AB 1826, means food waste, green waste, landscape and pruning waste, nonhazardous wood waste, and food-soiled paper waste that is mixed in with food waste.  
• Assembly Bill 1694 (Statutes of 2014): Commencing January 1, 2020, the use of green material as alternative daily cover does not constitute diversion through recycling and shall be considered disposal, that will need to be diverted from landfills.
• AB 1158 (Chew, Chapter 794, Statutes of 2017) This bill would provide that it is the goal of the state to reach a 24% recycling rate for postconsumer carpet by January 1, 2020, and to meet or exceed that rate continually thereafter. The bill would require a carpet stewardship plan to achieve a 24% recycling rate for postconsumer carpet by January 1, 2020, and to include quantifiable 5-year goals and annual goals, as specified. The bill would require a carpet stewardship plan to achieve any other recycling rate, and include goals, that the department required after plan review.
• Senate Bill 54 (Allen, Chapter 75, Statutes of 2022) This bill requires that requires that by 2032 100% of packaging in the state be recyclable or compostable, 25% of plastic packaging be cut, and 65% of all single-use plastic packaging be recycled.   The SB 54 Needs Assessment requires CalRecycle to collaboratively develop a statewide needs assessment (PRC Section 42067) that identifies actions and investments needed to: Cut California’s single-use plastic packaging and plastic food service ware, increase reuse and refill, and recycle or compost the rest.  More information is available on SB 54 Needs Assessment web page. 
• Zero Waste Principals are a process and a philosophy that involves a redesign of products and consumption, so that all material goods can be reused or recycled—or not needed at all.  The principles are Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) also known as product stewardship, and Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP). More information is available on the Zero Waste web page.   

• Circular Economy: CalRecycle is developing a Circular Economy webpage, see Circular Economy web page.