[Podcast] Catching Up on Canadian Environmental Regulation
The Great Green North: A Discussion on Canada’s Environmental Regulations
California’s Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act, SB 54, requires producers of single-use packaging and plastic food serviceware sold in California to assume financial responsibility for the...more
Key Takeaways - What Is Happening? On March 7, 2025, Governor Newsom declined to adopt CalRecycle’s initial draft regulations under California’s Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act...more
A lot is going on in the extended producer responsibility (“EPR”) packaging world this month. Maryland and Washington became the sixth and seventh states respectively to enact EPR packaging laws. And this week, just a...more
Two significant developments have recently emerged concerning California’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) law, SB 54, which aims to phase out single-use plastics. The landmark law for packaging and plastic food...more
California’s Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Responsibility Act (“SB 54” or “the Act”) is unique in the growing extended producer responsibility (“EPR”) packaging landscape for its source reduction component for...more
Four years after the nation’s first extended producer responsibility (EPR) laws set out approaches to making producers financially responsible for managing the disposal of plastics and packaging, 2025 will see...more
Los Angeles County Counsel Dawyn Harrison sued PepsiCo and Coca-Cola on October 30, 2024, alleging responsibility for the impacts of plastic packaging littered in Los Angeles County. The next day, a New York State judge...more
Plastic packaging and food ware are some of the first targets of California’s ambitious and far-reaching program to achieve a “Circular Economy” that reduces waste and pollution. The California Department of Resources,...more
On October 14, 2024, California's Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (“CalRecycle”) released its proposed final regulations for California’s extended producer responsibility (“EPR”) packaging and plastic food...more
What Happened - On Monday, October 14, 2024, the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecyle) opened a public comment period on changes to the previously proposed regulations implementing the...more
A recent conference led by Connecticut Attorney General (AG) William Tong discussed the alleged problems and potential solutions associated with plastics use and waste. Conference attendees included nearly two dozen...more
On July 1, 2024, CalRecycle published an updated list of covered material categories as required by California’s extended producer responsibility (EPR) law. SB 54 was signed into law by Governor Newsom in June 2022 and...more
Tomorrow, February 1, the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) will host a hybrid question and answer session to discuss the draft rulemaking on their extended producer responsibility (EPR)...more
The Circular Action Alliance (“CAA”), a 501(c)(3) non-profit, is expected to be selected as California’s new producer responsibility organization (“PRO”) under the Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer...more
Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 54 on June 30, 2022, creating an extended producer responsibility (EPR) program and imposing some related prohibitions for certain single-use packaging and plastic single-use food service ware...more
It is probably fair to say that SB 54 – California’s extended producer responsibility (EPR) law imposing source reduction and recycling requirements on single use packaging and plastic food service ware – is not only the...more
California’s Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act (the “Act” or “SB 54”) is a variation of the increasingly popular Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and circular economy frameworks in...more
On March 29, 2023, the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) held a workshop on Producer Responsibility Organizations (PROs) and forthcoming regulations under the Plastic Pollution Prevention...more
On February 28, CalRecycle held an informational workshop for SB 54, the Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act. The workshop focused on the Advisory Board and Needs Assessment components of...more
California is a leader on plastics reduction, passing legislation regulating recyclability and sustainability claims, promoting the use of recycled materials, and preventing plastics pollution. In particular, two new laws...more
On June 30, 2022, Governor Newsom signed SB 54, the Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act (“Act”), into law. The Office of the Governor described the Act as “the most significant overhaul of...more
California has a long history of enacting laws regulating plastic packaging, dating back to the Rigid Plastic Packaging Container law in 1991, a law many manufacturers only learn about when they receive a notice from the...more
On June 30, 2022, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law SB 54, putting into place some of the nation’s strictest, far-reaching regulations on packaging materials. The legislation mandates significantly reduced use...more
As the world contends with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, activists are sounding the alarm over another pandemic: the plastic pandemic. Environmentalist groups have been warning Americans about our overconsumption of plastic...more