In new plastics push, California wants recycled content in thermoformed packs

California state legislators unveiled a broad series of plastics packaging proposals March 9, including recycled content for thermoformed containers and phaseouts of film in e-commerce shipping.

Eight lawmakers who nearly passed significant producer responsibility laws last year unveiled their package of 12 bills on March 9, saying they are needed to reduce the impact of single-use packaging.

"Plastic waste is a global threat to our oceans, marine life, natural resources and public health," said state Sen. Ben Allen, D-Santa Monica. "But it's also hitting regular folks who are being asked to pay more and more through trash pickup rates to put patches on our broken waste management system."

One new element for plastic packaging makers is a requirement that thermoformed containers like berry clamshells have recycled content, starting at 10 percent and rising to 30 percent, while also setting penalties for manufacturers that do not meet that requirement.

A sponsor of that bill, Assembly Member Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, said it builds on a law passed in 2020 requiring up to 50 percent recycled content for plastic beverage containers. He urged California "to do the same for thermoform food containers, like clamshells."

"We need to redesign products so they can be repurposed, not pollute our environment," Ting said.

Some of the legislative language, like the thermoformed bill, is not very detailed, and one source described some of the measures as placeholders with details to be filled in later.

The centerpiece proposal, the Plastic Pollution Producer Responsibility Act, is not as detailed as last year's version, which would have required single-use plastic packaging to have a 75 percent recycling or composting rate by 2032.

But in pushing the new plan, lawmakers said they see continued major problems in the state's markets for recycling low-value plastics and paper, especially after China banned scrap imports in 2018. Their new plan wants all single-use disposable packaging or foodserviceware to be recyclable or compostable after 2032.

The previous bill was the subject of intense negotiations the last two years in the state capitol, and major provisions changed several times before ultimately failing in the final hours of the legislative session.

This year, though, there's a new political wrinkle that could put more pressure on passage, in the form of a referendum likely to go before California voters in November 2022.

That vote would ask the electorate to approve a 1-cent fee in plastic packaging to fund environmental cleanup and recycling, as well as ban or limit some single-use plastics.

A plastics industry group said it looked forward to working with the legislators around solutions to plastics waste and urged lawmakers to consider new technologies for difficult to recycle materials.

"We will continue to constructively engage on these bills and advocate that any recycling legislation be practical, take into account potential environmental trade-offs and unintended consequences, and recognize the complementary role advanced recycling technologies can play for materials that may currently be more difficult to manage," said Joshua Baca, vice president of plastics for the American Chemistry Council.

One supporter of the package of bills, Nick Lapis, director of advocacy for Californians Against Waste, said they're meant as a signal from the legislature that they want to have industries shoulder "responsibility for the mess that they create."

"In some ways, I'd say by killing last year's comprehensive legislation, the industry created a multihead hydra," Lapis said. "Instead of just dealing with one comprehensive policy, they now have to contend with a comprehensive policy and a ballot measure, and a package of major pieces of legislation that will tackle important parts of the problem."

Other legislation in the package would tighten rules around plastics and packaging.

One bill would prohibit the "chasing arrows" symbol on packaging, arguing that consumers mistakenly see that as denoting recyclability, and it would tighten when a product could be labeled as "recyclable."

Another would limit exports of plastic scrap from the state, similar to restrictions on global recyclables trade in the Basel Convention that kicked in Jan. 1. It would prevent the state from considering exported plastic scrap in calculating recycling rates unless it's properly recycled overseas.

"Plastic waste that's exported and then landfilled, burned, or dumped shouldn't be called recycled," said Assembly Member Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, one of the main authors of last year's bill.

Other bills would target microplastics in the environment, requiring by 2024 that all home washing machines sold in California have a microfiber filtration device installed and that state agencies and industrial facilities identify filtration technology they can use.

Other provisions would add returnable bottles in the state's container deposit program, ban the sale of compostable plastic products unless they meet certain standards, strengthen provisions to buy recycled materials in government purchasing and expand "straw upon request" requirements to other disposable foodserviceware.

As well, another new idea in the package calls for phasing out single-use plastics in e-commerce packaging, including films and expanded polystyrene peanuts.

"We must commit to actually tackling our plastics issue in California with a commitment to a circular economy that includes transparency and manufacturer responsibility," Gonzalez said.