Press Release

Legislators, Advocates Call on CalRecycle to Hold Polluters Accountable

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Aug. 19, 2025)  – Today lawmakers joined recyclers, businesses, environmental leaders and community advocates at the Capitol to urge Governor Newsom and CalRecycle to implement Califorina’s landmark plastic pollution and producer responsibility law, SB 54 (Allen, 2022), as written, negotiated and enacted. This comes as CalRecycle prepares its second attempt at formal rulemaking to implement the law.

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“Ever increasing plastic waste is polluting our environment and costing communities and ratepayers more and more as they try to put band-aids on the problem,” said Senator Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica). “We are grappling with a global plastic pollution crisis, and California is poised to take a key leadership role by finally holding plastics producers accountable and getting them involved in finding needed solutions. However, in order to deliver the results our communities are counting on, we need to ensure that SB 54 is implemented to its full extent with regulations that adhere to the letter and intent of the law.”

Passed by the Legislature and signed into law by Governor Newsom in 2022, SB 54 makes producers responsible for reducing plastic in packaging design, investing in effective recycling and compositing infrastructure, and paying for the waste generated by their products.The law sets clear education and recycling/composting targets for packaging and foodware, and shifts the costs from the public and local governments to the companies that profit from these products.

A recent state analysis estimates implementing SB 54 could deliver $32 billion in net benefits and reduce plastic waste by 1.9 billion pounds if implemented with integrity.

“Forcing producers to take responsibility for their packaging is the next logical step in combating California’s plastic waste epidemic,” said Senator Catherine S. Blakespear, D-Encinitas. “We need CalRecycle to get this right to maximize the benefits to consumers, ratepayers and the state as a whole.”

Advocates raised concerns that the latest draft regulations are weaker than the previously vetted rules and introduce sweeping provisions not authorized by the law. Their concerns included:

  • Broad and unauthorized exceptions for for over-the-counter medications and food and agricultural products.
  • Weakened protections against “chemical recycling,” the plastics-to-fuel practice that further pollutes our air, land and water and can endanger public health.

“Our message to CalRecycle is simple: implement SB 54 as it was written – as it was signed – and as the public expects,” said Assemblymember Gregg Hart, D-Santa Barbara. “Let’s relieve taxpayers of the unfair burden and deliver on the environmental, economic and public health benefits of SB 54.”

“Plastic waste is costing Californians billions and polluting our communities,” said Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, D-Los Angeles. “We’ve laid the groundwork for a cleaner future with SB 54 – now it’s time to get its implementation across the finish line.”

In May, nearly two dozen legislators joined by numerous environmental leaders, local governments and businesses urged the Governor and CalRecycle to make targeted changes so the final rules meet the letter of the law and realize SB 54’s full economic and environmental benefits. 

“SB 54 is the product of a democratic, multi-stakeholder negotiation,” said Heidi Sanborn, Executive Director, National Stewardship Action Council. “Honor the deal and implement it as written – no broad carve-outs, no false solutions, and a fair, level playing field for businesses that prevents ‘free riders.” 

“There is no place on earth that is untouched by plastic – from the air in the remotest of mountaintops to the depths of the ocean floor,” said Tara Brock, Pacific Legal Director and Senior Counsel for Oceana. “Instead of being part of the solution, industry has persuaded the Governor and his administration to walk back our collective ambition to address the plastic pollution crisis. We cannot allow packaging producers to simply carry on business as usual while Californians and our environment pay the price.”

"Young people do not want a future where our kids are constantly exposed to microplastics and can’t visit the beach or go on a hike without seeing plastic trash everywhere,” said Leila Salam, CALPIRG. “Students across the state are calling on Governor Newsom to fully implement SB 54, without broad exemptions or harmful ‘recycling’ technologies that are basically just burning plastic."

“The environmental justice movement has worked for decades to get trash incinerators out of our communities,” said Thomas Helme, Co-founder of Valley Improvement Projects and Coordinator of the California Environmental Justice Coalition, “and now, with the weakening of SB 54’s draft regulations, the state is inviting polluting chemical recycling facilities to move in next. The law needs to be implemented as it was written and without the use of hazardous false solutions to the plastic crises.”

“SB 54 is at a critical juncture,” said Amy Wolfrum, Director of California Policy and Government Affairs for Monterey Bay Aquarium. “What happens now will determine whether California meets the law’s ambitious goals or risks undermining its own leadership. The regulations must not exclude broad categories of products or allow hazardous waste-generating recycling technologies. We urge Governor Newsom to stand firm against calls to weaken the regulations.”

During today’s press conference, supporters of California’s landmark plastic pollution law delivered calls to action and letters of support urging Gov. Newsom and CalRecycle to implement SB 54 as written, negotiated, passed and signed into law, including: 
 Sixteen state legislators