Connecticut House Bill 6664 (2023) - (Introduced)

Covered materials means packaging, packaging-like products and paper materials. 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. Packaging-like products means products intended for the consumer market that are not packaging, but discarded after one use, whether or not they could be reused. For example, food containers, foils, wrap, bags, straws, utensils, bowls, cups, plates, party supplies, and objects purchased by or supplied to consumers expressly for the purpose of protecting, containing or transporting commodities or products.

Paper is included under covered products and means paper that is not packaging and that is printed with text or graphics including newsprint, magazines, catalogs, writing paper, flyers, brochures and others.

Exclusions include:

1. Any material that could become unsafe or unsanitary to recycle.
2. Any container or material used for multiyear protection or storage.
3. A beverage container under a deposit return system.
4. Architectural paint containers under an existing stewardship program.
5. Other materials collected through stewardship programs.
6. Bound reference, literary, or textbooks.

The producer responsibility program must provide state-wide recycling that is as convenient as the existing collection plan. The bill includes service to single and multifamily residences.

Public places are covered entities in the bill and the PRO must provide recycling services.

For physical retail locations the responsible party is the person who manufactures the covered material (or good sold in a covered material), if the covered material or good is sold under the manufacturer's own brand or is sold in covered materials that lack identification of a brand. For remote sale the same definition applies.

If the covered material or good is manufactured by a person other than the brand owner, the responsible party is the person that is the licensee of a brand or trademark under which the covered material or good is used in a commercial enterprise, sold, offered for sale or distributed in or into Connecticut, whether or not the trademark is registered.

If there is no brand or licensee, the responsible party is the person that imports the covered material or good into the United States for use in a commercial enterprise that sells, offers for sale or distributes the covered material or good into Connecticut. For remote sale the responsible party is the person that offers the good for sale or distribution if there is not otherwise an identified brand that appears on the covered material.

A producer is exempt if they sell less than one ton of covered materials per year in the state or has a gross annual revenue of less than two million dollars.

Municipalities are exempt.

A responsible party must join a stewardship organization, but can only join 1 stewardship organization for each covered material type.

Producers may comply individually, but any additional stewardship organizations are required to collaborate efforts.

The stewardship organization must be a nonprofit organization.

Producers are responsible for all costs. Municipalities can choose to retain control of operations without reimbursement, continue control of operations for a reimbursement at a reasonable rate from a stewardship organization, or a municipality does not have to continue operations and a stewardship organization is then responsible for operations and administration of a stewardship program and contracting with a service provider.

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

The plan must provide for education and outreach to consumers throughout the state.

The plan must provide for administration of the program.

The plan must cover abatement of cover materials litter in the state.

The plan must provide for investment in existing and future reuse programs, recycling infrastructure and end-market development.

There must be a flat fee option, assessed on a tiered basis, for responsible parties that generate less than fifteen tons of covered materials in a calendar year. Regardless of the type of covered materials they are to pay no more than five hundred dollars per ton of covered materials.

Fees are based on a responsible party's share of covered materials sold into the state.

Eco-modulated fees must be included in the fee schedule.

Fees must incentivize the use of post-consumer recycled content in covered materials.

Fees must incentivize the use of covered materials that have lower associated greenhouse gas emissions.

Fees must incentivize the use of covered materials that have a longer life span and reduction in the amount of covered materials used.

Fees must incentivize the increased recyclability of covered materials, lower toxicity in covered materials, the use of covered materials that are recycled in a country listed as a member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the use of covered materials that do not disrupt recycling processes.

If a responsible party can demonstrate that a type of covered material sold in the state achieved an eighty-five percent or greater recycling rate in the state during the prior calendar year, the stewardship organization may reduce the fees owed by the responsible party to an amount that represents no more than the costs associated with the collection and transportation for recycling in the state of that type of covered material.

A stewardship organization must propose state-wide performance goals in its program plan to be achieved no later than 5 years after program implementation. Goals should include:

1. a minimum reduction rate measured as the total reduction in the amount of each type of covered material
2. 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
3. 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
4. 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
5. 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
6. 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 plan must describe how the responsible party or stewardship organization will meet certain convenience standards and statewide recycling collection.

The bill includes recycled content minimums. On and after July 1, 2025, any plastic beverage container offered for sale or distributed in this state shall contain not less than fifteen per cent post-consumer recycled content, not less than twenty-five percent by 2028, and not less than fifty percent by 2033. Beginning July 1, 2026, and annually thereafter, each producer shall provide third‐party certification of the minimum post-consumer recycled content of all plastic beverage containers offered for sale in the state, in writing, to the commissioner.

Any responsible party or stewardship organization authorized to operate and administer a program on its behalf that intends to submit a stewardship plan shall register on or before January 1, 2025.

Any responsible party or stewardship organization authorized to operate and administer a program on its behalf that intends to submit a stewardship plan shall submit a stewardship plan on or before January 1, 2026.

Not later than one hundred eighty days after the approval of a plan the responsible party or stewardship organization shall implement the approved plan for a packaging stewardship program.

On and after the implementation date of a stewardship program, a responsible party's covered materials may not be sold in the state unless the covered materials are managed under an approved stewardship plan.

Not later than one hundred eighty days after submission of a plan, the Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection shall make a determination whether to approve the plan. If the plan is not approved, the responsible party or stewardship organization, as applicable, shall revise and resubmit the plan to the commissioner not later than sixty days after receipt of notice.

No later than three years after the implementation date of program, each responsible party or stewardship organization shall submit updated performance goals to the Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection.

No later than October fifteenth of each year, each responsible party or stewardship organization authorized to operate and administer a stewardship program shall submit an annual report to the Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection.

Any violations 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.

The stewardship program shall ensure educational materials developed are consistent with RecycleCT Foundation educational messaging and materials, and that educational materials are developed to have applicability to all residents of the state.

No later than one hundred eighty days after a responsible party or stewardship organization registers with the Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection, they shall establish and nominate members to an advisory committee. The Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection shall approve all nominations and may add new members to such advisory committee at the commissioner's discretion.

The advisory committee shall include, at a minimum the Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection, or the commissioner's designee

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

Recycling is defined as 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 feedstock that is converted to a raw material that is used for the manufacture of new products.

This bill extends antitrust protections to members of a stewardship organization for actions taken in accordance with this regulation.

A responsible party or stewardship organization must, along with registration, describe a scope of work for a study conducted by a third party that the responsible party or stewardship organization intends to fund to assess recycling and covered materials management needs in the state.

Reuse or 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 life cycle to the break-even point with a comparable discarded covered material.

Break-even point means the minimum number of reuses after which a covered material designed for reuse is environmentally preferable to a comparable covered material intended for discard after a single use.