Connecticut Senate Bill 115 (2022) - (Failed)

Packaging means any container or material used for the containment, protection, handling, delivery or presentation of goods that are intended for the consumer market, including through an internet transaction. Food containers, including, but not limited to, take-out food containers, foil and wraps, bags, boxes, straws and items used to stir beverages, utensils, plates, bowls and cups, party supplies, and objects purchased by or supplied to consumers expressly for the purpose of protecting, containing or transporting commodities or products fall under covered products. It does not include any material that could become unsafe or unsanitary to recycle by virtue of the anticipated use of the material or design of the material.

Paper materials such as newsprint and inserts, magazines and catalogs, paper used for copying, writing, or other general use, telephone directories, flyers, brochures, and booklets are included.

Packaging does not include:

1. Any container or material used for the multiyear protection or storage of a product.
2. Any beverage container subject to the existing bottle bill.
3. Any container for architectural paint that is recycled through a paint stewardship program that is in operation and approved by the department.
4. Any other containers or materials collected through any other stewardship program.
5. Paper materials such as bound reference, literary or textbooks.

For items sold in packaging at a physical retail location in this state: If the item is sold in packaging under the manufacturer’s own brand then the brand is the producer. If it is sold in packaging that lacks brand identification the producer of the packaging is the person that manufactures the packaged item.

If the item is manufactured by a person other than the brand owner, the producer of the packaging is the person that is the licensee of a brand or trademark under which a packaged item is used in a commercial enterprise, sold, offered for sale, or distributed in or into this state, whether or not the trademark is registered in this state.

If there is no brand or licensee, the producer of the packaging is the person that imports the packaged item into the United States for use in a commercial enterprise that sells, offers for sale, or distributes the item in the state.

Producers are exempt if they generate less than one ton of covered materials per year in the state or have a gross annual revenue of less than two million dollars.

Municipalities are exempt.

Each producer must register with and be a member of a PRO that administers a producer responsibility program.

The stewardship organization will be a nonprofit organization.

A PRO must provide for the collection, transportation, and processing or marketing of covered products.
A PRO shall, upon request, reimburse the eligible expenses of a local government or the local government’s contracted service provider for eligible costs as provided in this section.

The cost coverage must support the net costs associated with the collection, transportation, processing and marketing of covered materials including payments to public and private entities at a reasonable rate.

The cost coverage must provide for education and outreach throughout the state.

The cost coverage must provide for abatement of covered materials litter in the state.

The cost coverage must provide for investment in existing and future reuse programs, recycling infrastructure and end-market development in the state, as needed to achieve compliance with the performance targets.

The cost coverage must provide for investment in existing and future reuse programs, recycling infrastructure and end-market development in the state, as needed to achieve compliance with the performance targets.

The program must establish the fee structure. The fee structure must provide for a flat-fee option to be assessed on a tiered basis for producers that generates less than fifteen tons of covered materials in a calendar year, is required to pay not more than five hundred dollars per ton of covered materials to the stewardship organization, regardless of the type of covered material.

In addition to the base fees, a PRO's membership fee schedule must incentivize producers to continually reduce the environmental and human health impacts of covered products by offering fee adjustments to producers that make or have made changes to the ways in which they produce, use and market covered products.

A producer responsibility organization’s membership fee schedule must consider the post-consumer content of the material.

A producer responsibility organization’s membership fee schedule must consider materials that have lower greenhouse gas emissions.

A producer responsibility organization’s membership fee schedule must consider the use of covered materials that have a longer life span, reduce the amount of material used, labeling that reduces consumer confusion, lower toxicity, and utilize materials that OECD countries recycle.

A producer responsibility organization’s membership fee schedule must consider increased recyclability and materials that do not disrupt recycling processes.

If producer can demonstrate that they achieved an 85% or higher recycling rate the PRO may reduce the fees owed by that producer.

The program plan must propose statewide performance goals with justifications for each goal. Goals must include: (A) a minimum reduction rate measured as the total reduction in volume of each type of covered material, (B) a minimum reuse rate measured as the total amount of each type of covered material exempted from the program through transition to a reuse program, (C) a minimum recovery rate measured as the total amount of each type of covered material divided by the tons of such type of covered material recovered through collection, (D) a minimum recycling rate measured as the total amount of each type of covered material divided by the tons of such type of covered material managed through recycling, (E) a minimum post-consumer recycled content rate measured as the percentage of total tons of each type of covered material manufactured using post-consumer recycled content over a year, and (F) a minimum contamination rate for recycling collection measured as the percentage of total covered materials collected divided by the amount of covered materials disposed after collection.

The program plan must provide for convenient and accessible state-wide collection of covered materials that is at minimum as convenient as current operations.

PRO's must register with the department on or before January 1, 2024.

A stewardship plan must be submitted on or before January 1, 2025.

No later than the effective date of the stewardship organization's contract, a producer may not sell, offer for sale, or distribute for sale in or into the state a product contained, protected, delivered, presented or distributed in or using packaging material if they have not complied with this regulation.

The department will review and approve a plan no later than 180 days after submission.

The department may require a plan review or revision at any time based on reasonable belief the plan or its performance goals are not being met and may rescind approval of a stewardship plan at any time.

A PRO must submit an annual report to the department no later than October 15th of each year.

Any person who violates any provision of this legislation shall be assessed a civil penalty not to exceed twenty-five thousand dollars for each offense. Each violation shall be a separate and distinct offense and, in the case of a continuing violation, each day's continuance of such violation shall be deemed to be a separate and distinct offense.

Education and outreach materials shall have accessible language and arrangements for diverse physical needs.

The PRO must maintain a public website that provides information about the brands, types of covered materials, responsible parties, program plans, annual reports and audit results.

No later than 180 days after a PRO registers, they shall establish and nominate members to an advisory committee to advise and provide comments on a PRO's program plan.

The advisory commitee shall include:

1. The Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection, or the commissioner's designee
2. A representative from a municipal association or municipal government
3. A representative of a regional or municipal waste management program
4. An individual with expertise in the development of recycling markets
5. A representative of a materials recycling facility located in the state
6. A representative of waste haulers, or a regional waste management and recycling organization
7. A representative of a state-wide retail association
8. A representative of a nonprofit environmental advocacy organization
9. A representative of a community-based organization or an organization representing equity and underrepresented stakeholders
10. A representative of a nonprofit organization dedicated to litter cleanup
11. An individual with expertise in environmental and human health
12. A representative of a manufacturer of packaging
13. A representative of a material supplier
14. A representative of responsible parties

Recycling" means the transforming or remanufacturing of a covered material or a covered material's components and by-products into usable or marketable materials in lieu of virgin materials.

"Recycling" does not include landfill disposal, incineration, energy recovery or energy generation by means of combustion, or final conversion to a fuel, of a covered material or covered material's components and by-products. "Recycling" for plastics includes a fuel that is converted to a raw material that is used for the manufacture of new products.

A producer or stewardship organization shall be immune from liability for the responsible party's, retailer's or stewardship organization's conduct under state laws relating to antitrust, restraint of trade, unfair trade practices and any other regulation of trade or commerce only to the extent necessary to plan and implement the program plan.

Reusable means, with respect to a covered material, that the covered material (A) is capable of being refilled or reused for its original purpose and the responsible party or a designated third party for that covered material provides a program for the consumer to refill the covered material; or (B) the responsible party or a designated third party for that covered material provides a program where the covered material is collected and refilled or reused by the responsible party or another responsible party provided such program meets or exceeds any recovery, recycling and reuse performance goals established pursuant to this section and such covered materials are designed to be reused and refilled within the material's lifecycle to the break-even point with a comparable discarded covered material.