(a) By January 1, 2025, the department shall adopt regulations necessary to implement and enforce this chapter and to ensure that the requirements of this chapter and in particular the requirements established in Section 42050 and the policy goal established in Section 41780.01 as it relates to covered material are met. The regulations shall include, but not be limited to, all of the following:

(1) Any regulations necessary to ensure the PRO fully funds plan implementation, including fully funding the budget. This shall include the costs incurred by a local jurisdiction or a local jurisdiction’s recycling service providers to implement this chapter, including, but not limited to, the cost of consumer education and of collection, including the cost of containers where relevant, as well as the processing, storage, and transportation of covered materials. Costs may vary based on population density or other relevant factors and shall allow local jurisdictions to protect ratepayers from increased costs associated with the processing and marketing of covered material.

(2) (A) Establish a mandatory process for producers, retailers, and wholesalers, or a PRO operating on behalf of a producer, retailer, or wholesaler, to register with and report to the department.

(B) The process shall include establishing appropriate timelines to begin regular reporting following the adoption of the regulations. The department shall consider, along with any other factors the department deems appropriate, the amount of information being reported in developing the timelines.

(C) (i) Data requests by the department shall be consistent with the covered material categories established and posted on the department’s internet website pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 42061.

(ii) To the maximum extent feasible, the department shall seek to use records and information that the local jurisdiction, producer, retailer, wholesaler, or PRO already maintains, in order to minimize the burden imposed by the reporting and recordkeeping requirements while still enabling the department to determine compliance with this chapter.

(D) The department shall, to the extent feasible, make the reporting consistent with other recognized third-party reporting systems used by producers or other packaging extended producer responsibility programs.

(E) Market-sensitive trade secret data received by the department pursuant to this chapter shall be held confidentially by the department as required by Section 40062 and any implementing regulations, provided that the furnisher of the data complies with the requirements set forth in subdivision (b) of Section 40062 and any implementing regulations for identifying the information claimed to be a trade secret.

(F) The department shall create an online registration form to facilitate submitting reports pursuant to this subdivision. To the extent permissible under applicable law, the department may contract with an independent third-party online reporting system with recognized standards for waste characterization, source reduction, and recycling.

(3) (A) The department shall establish a process to identify covered material that, while determined to be single use for purposes of this chapter, presents unique challenges in complying with this chapter. The department may exempt covered material identified pursuant to this subparagraph from this chapter.

(B) For any covered material identified as presenting unique challenges and exempted from this chapter under subparagraph (A), the department may at any point develop a plan to phase the covered material into the requirements of this chapter.

(4) The department shall establish a process to identify covered material that cannot comply with this chapter for health and safety reasons, or because it is unsafe to recycle. The department may exempt that covered material from this chapter.

(5) The department shall establish a process to exempt from the requirements of this chapter, except for the requirements of subdivision (b) of Section 42050, small producers, small retailers, and small wholesalers based on size, revenue, number of retail locations, and market share, as follows:

(A) Subject to subparagraph (B), the department shall exempt producers, retailers, or wholesalers that, in the most recent calendar year, had gross sales of less than one million dollars ($1,000,000) in the state.

(B) If the department determines that exempting a particular small producer, small retailer, or small wholesaler pursuant to subparagraph (A) would hinder the ability of a type of covered material or covered material category from complying with the requirements of this chapter, the department may determine that the particular small producer, small retailer, or small wholesaler will not be exempted from the requirements of this chapter.

(6) (A) The department shall include mechanisms necessary to reduce the amount of covered material entering the environment, in accordance with the regulations adopted pursuant to this section.

(B) The department may consider reductions of covered material achieved by a producer before the effective date of the regulations toward a producer’s compliance with this chapter if the producer can demonstrate to the satisfaction of the department that the producer reduced the covered material in a manner consistent with this chapter and actions taken to comply with Chapter 5.5 (commencing with Section 42300).

(C) In calculating the reductions necessary to achieve the requirements adopted pursuant to subdivision (a), the department shall consider source reduction achieved pursuant to Section 42057.

(7) The department shall establish a process to require coordination between a PRO and producer that is not a participant of the PRO’s approved plan and between multiple PROs as necessary. This includes determining how much each PRO shall charge producers of plastic covered material in order to prorate the funding as necessary to raise the revenue required by Section 42064.

(8) The department shall establish a methodology and process to calculate, to the extent feasible, an annual recycling rate defined in subdivision (ab) of Section 42041.

(b) (1) The department shall ensure that any regulations adopted pursuant to this chapter consider guidelines and do not conflict with regulations issued by the United States Food and Drug Administration and the United States Department of Agriculture and consider requirements imposed by other California state agencies.

(2) Neither the department nor the PRO shall impose any requirement, including, but not limited to, a recycled content requirement, in direct conflict with a federal law or regulation, including, but not limited to, laws or regulations covering tamper-evident packaging pursuant to Section 211.132 of Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations, laws or regulations covering child-resistant packaging pursuant to Part 1700 (commencing with Section 1700.1) of Subchapter E of Chapter II of Title 16 of the Code of Federal Regulations, regulations, rules, or guidelines issued by the United States Department of Agriculture or the United States Food and Drug Administration relevant to packaging agricultural commodities, requirements for microbial contamination, structural integrity, or safety of packaging under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. § 301 et seq.), 21 U.S.C. § 2101 et seq., the federal FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (Public Law 111-353), the federal Poultry Products Inspection Act (21 U.S.C. § 451 et seq.), the Federal Meat Inspection Act (21 U.S.C. § 601 et seq.), or the federal Egg Products Inspection Act (21 U.S.C. § 1031 et seq.). Neither the department nor a PRO shall impose a postconsumer recycled content requirement for covered material for fresh produce.

(c) In developing the regulations, the department shall consider relevant information on reduction programs and approaches in other states, localities, and nations, including, but not limited to, the European Union, India, Costa Rica, China, Chile, and Canada, and international standards, including, but not limited to, ISO 18602.

(d) In adopting regulations pursuant to this section, the department shall ensure the regulations, and activities conducted in accordance with the regulations, avoid or minimize disproportionate impacts to disadvantaged or low-income communities or rural areas.

(Amended by Stats. 2023, Ch. 131, Sec. 187. (AB 1754) Effective January 1, 2024.)