California’s Rigid Plastic Packaging Container Proposed Regulations Workshop Webinar – June 8, 2011

On May 17, I attended a workshop via webinar and reported on some of the proposed changes. The latest webinar was June 8 which covered updates based on comments from the May workshop.

California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) held several segments which covered certification timelines and formulas for compliance and penalties, resin switching, post-consumer definition and RPPC definition. The items of most interest were the newest revision to the definition of “Post-Consumer Material” and the discussion on resin switching. (The Word documents and PPT presentations showing the proposed changes can be found on the CalRecycle website – see the link at end of this post).

Post-Consumer Material section:
In May, they announced that RPPCs holding obsolete or unsold product as well as finished plastic packaging rejected by the container manufacturer or the production manufacturer can now be considered for post-consumer materials. The changes from May were for the following:

• clarified the additional documentation as to source and amount of this packaging needed on the Product Manufacturer Certification Information
• modified the Container Manufacturer Certification Information to include a description of the claimed postconsumer material to include bar codes, SKUs or other info that will verify the fact that it was obsolete, unsold, or rejected packaging

Resin Switching portion:
Two new definitions were proposed, one for Material Type and the other for Source Reduced container. These needed to be address ed because in November 2007, the CIWMB (predecessor to CalRecycle) directed that Resin Switching be removed for the proposed regulation.

• Material type – current regs include broad feedstock categories such as paper, glass, plastic or aluminum. 45-day version refers to these feedstock categories, but changes “plastic” to “individual plastic resins” and that they are not limited to just those categories.
• Source Reduced Container – currently, it is allowed that the source reduced container can be of a different resin than the non-source reduced container. In the new version, resin switching is not allowable.

There are two points of view regarding whether resin switching is or is not in compliance with the regulation. Based on Public Resources Code Section 42301 (j) (1) (B), it is permitted for compliance but based on PRC 42301 (j) (2) (A) and (C), it is not. These are key issues that still need to be addressed.

There were several public comments against the removal of resin switching as a method of compliance. One company was concerned with the limited availability of PCR resin making that compliance option impossible to use. Another company is trying to use a degradable resin and they feel that not having the ability to switch to that resin as a form of compliance would be a disincentive to use what some feel is a more environmentally friendly resin.

A response supporting the removal of resin switching stated that it would cause companies to use that option instead of using PCR materials, which would have an adverse effect on the growing market of PCR materials.

The next workshop will be on June 22.

http://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/laws/Rulemaking/RPPC/default.htm