Section 42300.

The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(a) Recycling rigid plastic packaging containers saves landfill space, reduces energy consumption, and preserves natural resources.

(b) The California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989 requires cities and counties to reduce the amount of waste disposed in landfills by 50 percent by the end of the decade through source reduction, recycling, and composting.

(c) Rigid plastic packaging containers represent a significant component of the solid waste generated in the state.

(d) In order for recycling in the state to be successful, it is critical that stable, in-state markets be developed for material separately collected from the waste stream and processed for recycling.

(e) As of the effective date of this chapter, curbside collection of recyclables is available to nearly 20 percent of the state's residents. In order to expand the variety of materials collected in these programs, including all rigid plastic packaging containers, it is essential that stable markets exist for the plastic materials collected.

(f) The state has required several types of products to use increasing levels of postconsumer recycled material in their manufacture, including newsprint, glass containers, and plastic trash bags.

(g) Some of the nation's largest consumer product manufacturers have announced plans to require, or are currently requiring, their plastic packaging suppliers to provide them with containers comprised of increasing levels of postconsumer recycled materials, demonstrating that the technology is already available to use recycled material to make new plastic packaging containers. However, many businesses continue to purchase packaging materials made from 100 percent virgin plastic and to sell them in the state.

(h) The food and consumer products industries are manufacturing safe products and packaging using plastic materials, some of which use less raw material than other packaging materials through source reduction and the reuse and recycling of used plastic materials.

(i) The Legislature recognizes that the need to reduce the amount of solid waste generated by food products must be balanced with the need to package those products so that they are resistant to tampering, damage, and spoilage.

(j) It is, therefore, the intent of the Legislature to spur markets for plastic materials collected for recycling by requiring manufacturers to utilize increasing amounts of postconsumer recycled material in their rigid plastic packaging containers only if the use of that material does not present an unreasonable risk to the public health and safety, and to achieve high recycling rates for these rigid plastic packaging containers.

(Amended by Stats. 1993, Ch. 1076, Sec. 3. Effective January 1, 1994.)