Solid waste: products: environmental marketing claims.

Plain English Breakdown

The official source material does not specify enforcement details or penalties for non-compliance.

Environmental Marketing Claims for Recycled Products

This law changes rules about how companies can say their products are made with recycled materials, making sure the claims are true and based on real data.

What This Bill Does

• Expands existing rules that apply to plastic food containers to all types of products.
• Requires companies to keep detailed records showing exactly how much recycled material is used in their products.
• Specifies that these records must be based on actual physical recycling, not just accounting tricks.
• Updates the reference to federal guidelines for environmental marketing claims as they stood on January 1, 2026.

Who It Names or Affects

• Manufacturers and suppliers who make products with recycled materials

Terms To Know

Postconsumer

Materials that have been used by consumers and then collected for recycling.

Preconsumer

Waste materials generated during manufacturing processes before the product reaches a consumer.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify what happens if companies do not follow these new rules.
• It is unclear how this law will be enforced for products made by out-of-state manufacturers.

Official Summary Text

AB 2253, as amended, Boerner.
Solid waste: products: environmental marketing claims.
Existing law requires a manufacturer or supplier making an environmental marketing claim relating to the recycled content of a plastic food container product to maintain specified information and documentation in written form in its records in support of that claim. Existing law requires the maintained information to include that the recycled content for materials has been diverted from the solid waste stream either during the manufacturing process (preconsumer) or after consumer use (postconsumer) and that the recycled content claim conforms to the uniform standards for recycled content contained in the Federal Trade Commission Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims. Existing law provides for the imposition of a civil penalty by a city, county, or the state for a violation of these provisions.
This bill would expand
the application of
those provisions from plastic food container products to all products. The bill would revise the reference to the Federal Trade Commission Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims to specifically refer to those guides as they read on January 1, 2026. The bill would additionally require
documentation in written form that
the recycled content claim
to be
is
based on the actual physical recycled content
used
in
the production of
the
product
product, calculated as specified,
without the use of certain types of accounting. The bill would define “postconsumer” for purposes of these provisions.

Current Bill Text

Download Bill PDF