CalRecycle has picked the number that decides how much plastic California has to cut under the state\u2019s 2022 landmark plastic law, and it is low. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s just one-third of what the state estimated in a 2024 report<\/a>, and 20% lower than an initial<\/a> number<\/a> the industry announced in June. <\/p>\n The benchmark number, known as the source reduction baseline, is supposed to reflect how much single-use plastic was produced, distributed and sold in the state during 2023. Future reduction targets under the state\u2019s single-use plastic law, or Senate Bill 54, are based on it. By 2032, plastic producers and distributors are required to cut the amount of single-use plastic sold in the state by 25%.<\/p>\n In 2024, the state estimated that Californians were sold 2.9 million tons of single-use plastic. Yet on Monday, CalRecycle adopted the industry\u2019s latest number, 1.03 million tons \u2014 20% lower than its June estimate of 1.29 million tons, and a third of the state\u2019s estimate.<\/p>\n If the state\u2019s initial estimate had held, roughly 725,000 tons of single-use plastic would vanish from state commerce in 2032. Instead, Californians will only see a reduction of 250,000 tons.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the difference between every Californian using 37 pounds of single-use plastic less per year versus 13 pounds less. <\/p>\n Zoe Heller, director of CalRecycle, said the new number \u201creflects best available information.\u201d She acknowledged that \u201cnot all producers have reported and not all producers have submitted accurate reporting.\u201d<\/p>\n She said CalRecycle and the Circular Action Alliance \u2014 the organization that represents the industry under the single-use plastic law \u2014 will continue working to make sure data from all producers are included, and will update the baseline accordingly every year until 2030.<\/p>\n That won\u2019t be in time for the first reduction target \u2014 an initial 10% \u2014 set to begin on Jan. 1. Instead of reducing 290,000 tons of single-use plastic by that first date, the state will only require producers to cut 100,000 tons. <\/p>\n The alliance did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Douglas McCauley, professor of ocean science at UC Santa Barbara and director of the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory, said the new report doesn\u2019t provide much information about how the new number was calculated. And the little it does include only begs more questions. <\/p>\n For instance, the new report says the baseline update relied on reporting from only half of the alliance\u2019s member companies.<\/p>\n \u201cDoes this mean CalRecycle expects the baseline to double in a future correction?\u201d said McCauley. Or does it reflect only the reporting of large companies, which would suggest the number is unlikely to budge.<\/p>\n Companies who produce less than $1 million per year in revenue must register with the alliance, but their numbers are excluded from the baseline. <\/p>\n The new report also shows that 222 billion single-use plastic components were produced, sold or distributed in the state in 2023. This number is more than twice the alliance\u2019s preliminary June analysis of 108 billion items; it also exceeds the state\u2019s 2024 estimate of 189 billion items. <\/p>\n What these items are, or why the numbers have changed so drastically \u2014 doubling in number but weighing far less \u2014 is a head-scratcher, said McCauley. But \u201cwithout being able to see their data all we can do is guess.\u201d <\/p>\n Kyle Meisterling, a project scientist in McCauley\u2019s lab at UC Santa Barbara, said the numbers are also likely to skew recycling rates. The lab also includes researchers at UC Berkeley.<\/p>\n In a 2025 report, the state estimated the recycling rates of various kinds of plastic. In the case of high-density polyethylene, or HDPE \u2014 the material used in most shampoo and detergent bottles \u2014 the recycling rate was estimated at 19%. Using the new numbers, the recycling rate would jump to 53% \u2014 even though not one more pound of HDPE was actually recycled. <\/p>\n State Senate Bill 54, the Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act, was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2022<\/a>. It was considered landmark legislation because it requires plastic and packaging companies to use less single-use plastic and, in addition to its ambitious cuts in single-use plastic, ensures that by 2032 all packaging is either recyclable or compostable.<\/p>\n Accumulating plastic waste<\/a> is overwhelming waterways and oceans<\/a>, sickening marine life and threatening human health<\/a>.<\/p>\n The intent was not only to reduce single-use plastic but also to put the onus and cost of dealing with it on packaging producers and manufacturers, not consumers and local governments. It was supposed to incentivize companies to consider the fate of their products and spur innovation in material redesign.<\/p>\n Indeed, the law incorporates the industry \u2014 currently represented by the Circular Action Alliance \u2014 as a governing body for the reductions. The alliance writes the industry plan for meeting the law\u2019s targets, reports producers\u2019 data to the state and sets member recycling and reduction fees. <\/p>\n McCauley said Californians need to decide what they want to achieve through this law.<\/p>\n \u201cToday, there is a significant amount of plastic polluting our beaches, our communities and our bodies,\u201d he said. \u201cThis seemingly trivial set of baseline numbers will shape, almost more than anything else, how much of that unwanted plastic pollution\u201d remains.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CalRecycle has picked the number that decides how much plastic California has to cut under the state\u2019s 2022…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":905834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[45849,345029,74577,237350,192,7263,378882,27290,378885,378883,99346,378884,99522,2853,79,13109,136895],"class_list":["post-905833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-alliance","tag-baseline","tag-calrecycle","tag-douglas-mccauley","tag-environment","tag-industry","tag-less-single-use-plastic","tag-number","tag-plastic-law","tag-plastic-producer","tag-producer","tag-recycling-rate","tag-reduction","tag-report","tag-science","tag-state","tag-ton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=905833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/905834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=905833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=905833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=905833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}