Section 14539.5.

(a) The department shall certify dropoff and collection programs pursuant to this section. The director shall adopt, by regulation, requirements and standards for certification and a dropoff or collection program shall meet all the standards and requirements contained in the regulations for certification. The regulations shall require that all information be submitted to the department under penalty of perjury. The regulations shall require, in addition to any other conditions that may be imposed by the department, that both of the following conditions be met for certification:

(1) The dropoff or collection program demonstrates, to the satisfaction of the department, that the dropoff or collection program will operate in accordance with this division.

(2) The dropoff or collection program notifies the department promptly of any material change in the nature of its operations that conflicts with the information submitted in the application for certification.

(b) A certified dropoff or collection program shall not receive any refund value or processing payment on an empty beverage container that the certified dropoff or collection program knew, or should have known, was received from a noncertified recycler, on any beverage container that the certified dropoff or collection program knew or should have known came from out of this state, or any other beverage container or other product that does not have a refund value established pursuant to Section 14560.

(c) The department may recover, in restitution pursuant to paragraph (5) of subdivision (c) of Section 14591.2, any payment made from the fund to a dropoff or collection program pursuant to Section 14573.5 that is based on a document that is not prepared or maintained in compliance with any applicable recordkeeping requirements required pursuant to this division or the department's regulations and that does not allow the department to verify the claims for those payments.

(Added by Stats. 2000, Ch. 731, Sec. 5. Effective January 1, 2001.)