Last week, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 54, requiring all packaging in the state to be recyclable or compostable by 2032, cutting plastic packaging by 25 percent in 10 years and requiring 65 percent of all single-use plastic packaging to be recycled in the same timeframe. The compromised bill reached by industry and the NGO community also shifts the plastic pollution burden from consumers to the plastics industry by raising $5 billion from industry members over 10 years to assist efforts to cut plastic pollution and support disadvantaged communities hurt most by the damaging effects of plastic waste. In exchange for the passage of SB 54, California environmentalists removed from the November ballot, a more draconian measure to reduce single-use plastics. PWQA will continue to be engaged in the implementation of the law, which will require companies to join a Producer Responsible organization by 2024 and begin reducing their use of plastic by January 1, 2028.
