California’s Recycled Plastic Reporting Requirement for Beverage Manufacturers
California now requires plastic beverage containers to include rising shares of postconsumer recycled plastic, and beverage manufacturers to report their plastic use each year.
On September 24, 2020, a new California law established a recycled content standard for plastic beverage containers. Beverage containers are containers in which a beverage is sold; they do not include loose containers such as cups.
The Recycled Content Schedule
The law requires plastic beverage containers to include at least:
- 15% postconsumer recycled plastic from January 1, 2022, through December 31, 2024;
- 25% from January 1, 2025, through December 31, 2029; and
- 50% on and after January 1, 2030.
Who Must Report, and What
By March 1 each year, beverage manufacturers must report to the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery the resin type and the total amount of virgin and postconsumer recycled plastic they used in the prior calendar year. Beverage manufacturers include any person who bottles or fills beverage containers or imports filled beverage containers. All beverage manufacturers that use plastic containers are required to report, unless the plastic containers are ordinarily returned to the manufacturer to be refilled and resold.
Preparing for the Transition
Because the required percentage of recycled plastic will increase after just three years, manufacturers should begin experimenting with different types of recycled plastic and seeking suppliers of it. The transition from virgin to recycled plastic takes time, and preparing now will help ensure a seamless transition by the deadlines set in the statute.
See compliance automation for distributors managing new reporting requirements, or see how MatCheck centralizes compliance reporting across your product lines.