Within 12 months of the effective date of the regulations adopted by the department pursuant to Section 42420.2, a program operator shall develop and submit to the department a complete stewardship plan, in accordance with the requirements of this chapter, for the collection, transportation, and recycling, and the safe and proper management, of covered batteries in the state in an economically efficient and practical manner. No stewardship program serving more than one producer may limit its collection, transportation, and recycling of covered batteries to covered batteries of the producers participating in that stewardship program.

(Added by Stats. 2022, Ch. 351, Sec. 1. (AB 2440) Effective January 1, 2023.)