California’s Recycling Agency: Very Little Plastic is Recycled New Report Exposes

California’s Recycling agency doesn’t really recycle the items we as consumers are required to separate out from trash into the recycle bins, and charged extra for. According to a new report from CalRecycle, only 1% of milk jugs and 2% of certain plastic material is recycled. California instead dumps it in landfills.

Many home owners report that the same waste management truck picks up their garbage and their recyclables.

But it’s the realization from the report that legislating mandatory recycling is disingenuous as there are limited options for disposing certain materials.

“CalRecycle withdrew proposed SB 54 regulations from the Office of Administrative Law’s review, noting planned revisions related to packaging for food and agricultural commodities,” WasteDive reported.

Senate Bill 54, by Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica) was signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2022, and was billed by Sen. Allen as “The most comprehensive measure in the nation to address the plastic waste crisis.”   His bill established the “Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act,” which placed the responsibility for costs of the new program on the packaging producers rather than the local communities who pay for waste management and recycling.

It’s really just more wealth redistribution from the producers to the state.

SB 54 imposed “minimum content requirements for single-use packaging and food service ware and source reduction requirements for plastic single-use packaging and food service ware, to be achieved through an extended producer responsibility (EPR) program.”

WasteDive explained in detail:

• CalRecycle on Friday withdrew proposed regulations from the Office of Administrative Law’s review for implementing SB 54, the state’s source reduction and extended producer responsibility for packaging law.
• The agency announced it wants to make revisions to “improve clarity,” particularly related to packaging for food and agricultural commodities.

“The law includes overarching requirements pegged to 2032 to cut single-use plastic packaging food service ware by 25%; recycle 65% of single-use plastic packaging and food service ware; and ensure 100% of single-use packaging and plastic food service ware is recyclable or compostable,” WasteDive says. “The law also uniquely stipulates that producers collectively pay $500 million a year for 10 years, starting in 2027, to fund environmental mitigation.”

As we said above, this is a legislative shakedown of packaging producers for “environmental mitigation.”

SB 54 was nothing more than very expensive climate-changey woo-woo that accomplishes nothing other than to shake down business owners by lawmakers who have never signed the front of a check.

“Reports on abysmally low rates of recycling for milk cartons and polystyrene have been widely shared and known, the LA Times reported. “But the newest numbers were still a grim confirmation that there are few options for dealing with these materials.”

It wasn’t that long ago the California Globe reported CalRecycle Loses $200 Million a Year Due to Bottle Deposit Fraud.

And, CalRecycle Management Paid Bloated Salaries Even as CalRecycle is Dying. “More than 50 percent of the recycling centers around the state are closed while taxpayers are paying $1.1 billion in annual beverage container recycling taxes,” we reported.

The point is that CalRecycle has a history of underperforming, despite Sen. Ben Allen’s Senate Bill 54 which upped recycling requirements. Allen’s bill was “If you build it, they will come” thinking. And now we know the requirements not only haven’t been met, they appear ridiculous and unreachable.

PackagingDive has some of the stats, and it’s not all good news for plastics – SB 54 stipulates that 65% of single-use plastic packaging and food service ware must be recycled by 2032, and 100% of single-use packaging and plastic food service ware must be recyclable or compostable by that same year:

and:

Most of the “recycling” in California goes to the landfills. One can only conclude that this was a financial shakedown, and the blame will go to CalRecycle.

Sen. Ben Allen issued a statement:

“I continue to encourage the Department and Administration to reconsider their proposal to allow broad, sweeping exemptions that would undermine the program and increase costs for ratepayers,” he said in a statement. “The law provides producers with a clear path to ensure that all covered packaging complies.”

“Local governments are continuing to pass along higher rates because of the challenges plastics continue to pose on their refuse infrastructure. I look forward to working with my colleagues and the Administration to get this right and get it across the finish line once and for all,” Allen said.

He and his colleagues, most of whom have never worked in the private sector, created this mess in the first place. They are incapable of real world solutions – they get paid whether they succeed or fail.