Program News

  • On January 7, 2022, MED-Project submitted a letter committing to revise and resubmit its Product Stewardship Plan for Covered Drugs from Households to meet conditions in this Request for Approval and a letter committing to revise its Product Stewardship Plan for Home-Generated Sharps Waste to meet conditions in this Requests for Approval. Copies of the letters may be requested via a Public Records Act Request.
  • On December 28, 2021, CalRecycle notified UltiMed that the director conditionally approved UltiMed’s Product Stewardship Plan for Home-Generated Sharps Waste.
  • On December 20, 2021, CalRecycle notified The Drug Takeback Solutions Foundation that its stewardship plans are complete via a Covered Drugs Plan Completeness Letter and a Home-Generated Sharps Waste Plan Completeness Letter . CalRecycle has until February 17, 2022, to complete its compliance review and approve, conditionally approve, or disapprove the plans.
Stewardship Program Implementation Timeline

Text version of infographic timeline

Text version of Stewardship Program Implementation Timeline

  • Certain dates on the timeline contain arrows. The arrows reflect the ability for dates to move into the future depending on:
    • The duration of Board of Pharmacy's review prior to the program operator's stewardship plan submittal to CalRecycle;
    • Potential stewardship plan resubmittals; and
    • The time it may require CalRecycle to consult with other state agencies.
  • The timeline starts with the regulations’ effective date of January 7, 2021. The six-month stewardship plan development phase begins.
    • During the stewardship plan development phase, a program operator must submit its stewardship plan to Board of Pharmacy and other applicable agencies.
  • CalRecycle’s 90-day review period starts when the program operator submits the stewardship plan to CalRecycle by July 7, 2021. This date has an arrow.
    • CalRecycle completeness review by August 6, 2021. This date has an arrow.
  • The 270-day Implementation phase starts with CalRecycle stewardship plan approval by October 5, 2021. This date has an arrow.
    • Covered entities are subject to penalties if covered product is not subject to an approved stewardship plan by January 7, 2022.
    • Program operator submits its first annual report to CalRecycle March 31, 2022.
    • CalRecycle is required to post first list of compliant entities June 30, 2022.
  • Stewardship plan fully implemented July 2, 2022. This date has an arrow.

Pharmaceutical and Sharps Waste Stewardship

Unwanted and improperly managed pharmaceutical drugs and home-generated sharps waste present significant public health, safety, and environmental problems at the end of their useful lives. These include negative impacts to water quality, sanitation, and solid waste, hazards for recycling workers, and increased potential for accidental poisonings and abuse by persons for which the medication was not intended.

California was the first state in the nation to pass a stewardship law for both pharmaceuticals and home-generated sharps waste.

The Pharmaceutical and Sharps Waste Stewardship Program (Public Resources Code (PRC) sections 42030-42036.4) established industry-run statewide pharmaceutical and home-generated sharps waste stewardship program(s) to require safe and convenient disposal options for pharmaceutical drugs and home-generated sharps waste.

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