Beverage containers: wine and distilled spirits: processing fees.

Plain English Breakdown

The official source material does not provide specific details on how often or under what conditions the department will reduce fees.

Wine and Distilled Spirits Containers: Processing Fees

This law allows the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery to reduce processing fees for certain wine and distilled spirits containers if it determines that collecting these fees will result in excess funds.

What This Bill Does

• Requires beverage manufacturers to pay a fee for each container sold or transferred in California.
• Deposits this fee into the California Beverage Container Recycling Fund, which is used to support recycling efforts.
• Specifies that processing payments from the fund must cover operational costs and provide a financial return for recycling centers.
• Sets the processing fee at 65% of the processing payment, unless there are special circumstances.
• Allows the department to lower fees for certain containers if collecting these fees would result in excess funds.

Who It Names or Affects

• Beverage manufacturers who sell or transfer wine and distilled spirits containers in California.
• The Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, which manages the recycling fund.
• Recycling centers that receive payments from the fund.

Terms To Know

Processing fee

A charge paid by beverage manufacturers to help cover costs related to recycling containers.

California Beverage Container Recycling Fund

A special fund used to support recycling efforts for beverage containers in California.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify the exact percentage by which forecasted collections must exceed needed payments.
• It is unclear how often or under what conditions the department will reduce fees.
• The law only applies to certain types of wine and distilled spirits containers.

Official Summary Text

SB 1341, as introduced, Cabaldon.
Beverage containers: wine and distilled spirits: processing fees.
The California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act requires a beverage manufacturer to pay to the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery a processing fee for each beverage container, as defined, sold or transferred in this state. The act requires the department to deposit the fee into the California Beverage Container Recycling Fund, a continuously appropriated fund. The act requires the department to pay processing payments to processors and recycling centers from the fund, as specified. The act requires the processing payment to be at least equal to the difference between the scrap value of the beverage containers and the sum of certain actual operational costs for certified recycling centers and a reasonable financial return for recycling centers, as specified. The act requires the processing fee to be 65% of the processing payment, except as specified.
This bill would authorize the department to reduce the processing fee for a beverage container that is a box, bladder, or pouch, or similar container containing wine or distilled spirits if the department determines the aggregate amount forecasted to be collected from that processing fee will exceed by at least an unspecified percentage the aggregate amount needed to pay the corresponding processing payment.

Current Bill Text

Download Bill PDF