Tips From a Commission Aiming to Solve California's Recycling Problem

Listen: Heidi Sanborn, Chair of the California Statewide Commission on Recycling Markets & Curbside Recycling. She's also the Executive Director of The National Stewardship Council.

California Commission on Recycling Markets & Curbside Recycling Report Makes 30 Policy Recommendations to Save Recycling

Consensus provides lawmakers a clear path to transformative legislation

On Friday June 18, California’s Statewide Commission on Recycling Markets & Curbside Recycling released their first Annual Report with 30 policy recommendations to help improve the state’s troubled recycling system. The Report, which has been delivered to California legislators and regulators, includes recommended policies to increase markets, and reduce contamination and costs in the recycling system. Some policies are basic safety recommendations to eliminate batteries and gas cylinders in waste streams that start fires in the system, where other policies request ending subsidies that undermine recovery economics. The Commission also asked for the State to end the exports of plastics to foreign countries unable to properly manage it which is currently embodied inAJR 4by Assemblymember Christina Garcia, to address what counts as recycling and ending our contribution to environmental injustice around the world. Other policies would require proper labeling on products and packaging, so they do not mis-lead the public to put non-recyclable materials in the recycling stream as introduced in Senate Bill 343 by Senator Ben Allen. Additional policies promote waste prevention, such as allowing refillable bottles back into the bottle bill program and updating the State’s procurement practices, to outlining producer responsibilities to address markets, labeling, and material choice.