The California dairy industry is warning that a recycling law that will hold dairy manufacturers accountable for the packaging and disposal of products, will impact grocery prices and businesses.
Under California Senate Bill (SB) 54, a “2022 law” that aims to “increase recycling participation and reduce landfill waste in California by making companies responsible for what happens to their products after they’re thrown away,” the companies will be hit with an “impact fee,” according to SFGate.
“The first phase of the law,” which California state Sen. Ben Allen (D) proposed, is being implemented by CalRecycle, according to the outlet:
The 2022 law is designed to increase recycling participation and reduce landfill waste in California by making companies responsible for what happens to their products after they’re thrown away. That includes charging companies an impact fee for each product they sell and phasing out materials that cannot be adequately reused, recycled or composted.
CalRecycle is now implementing the first phases of the law, named Senate Bill 54, with companies expecting bills as early as next month.
While advocates of the law argue that “the current system allows manufacturers and packaged goods companies to create excessive waste without paying for it” thus “off-loading those costs to taxpayers,” several officials in the dairy industry have expressed concern that “products are required to use packaging that does not currently meet the law’s targets.”
“Our members are very sensitive about the price of their product,” Katie Davey, who serves as the executive director of the Dairy Institute of California, explained. “They take a lot of pride in it, and they are at level 10, code-red alert and deeply concerned about what SB 54 is going to do to the price of their dairy products.”
While Davey explained that an analysis from the Dairy Institute of California “found that SB 54 will increase grocery costs for consumers by $1,300 on average a year,” CalRecycle predicted that California residents would see an increase in costs “between $57 to $190 a year.”
Danielle Quist, who serves as the Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Counsel with the International Dairy Foods Association, explained that companies will face challenges regarding the requirement that they “reduce their overall use of plastics by 25% over the next decade.”
Quist cited how “packaged cheese, which currently comes in flexible plastic film that is not recyclable, would be entirely outlawed by the law come 2032.”
“You may not be able to sell cheese,” Quist added. “Cheese has to be in a flexible film.”
In a post on X in June, Allen shared a video in which he revealed that “17 Attorneys Generals from other parts of the country” are suing to block SB 54.
“This week, 17 Attorneys General from other parts of the country decided to sue to block California’s massively important Plastics Waste Reduction Consumer Protection Bill, that I’ve worked on for many years, SB 54,” Allen said. “We’re going to push back, this is all about standing up for consumers and ratepayers and taxpayers that have been paying such an untold burden.”
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