HB2144– Providing for a beverage container deposit return program implemented by a distributor responsibility organization, if it and Ecology agree on a plan.
Prime Sponsor – Representative Stonier (D; 49th District; Clark County) (Co-Sponsor Berry, D)
Current status – Had a hearing in the House Committee on Environment & Energy on January 9th; amended and passed out of committee January 18th. Scheduled for a hearing in Finance at 8:00 AM on Thursday February 1st.
Next step would be – Action by the committee.
Legislative tracking page for the bill.
Comments
This is a new version of part of HB1131, which died in Rules last session.
In the House –
There’s a staff summary of the changes made by the amendment.
Summary
The bill would allow a group of distributors handling the majority of beverages in qualifying containers sold in or into Washington to form a distributor responsibility organization to operate a deposit return system. (I think it covers glass, metal, and plastic bottles or cans.) If they did, other distributors would have to join them, or fulfill all the requirements of the bill independently. The organization would submit a plan for Ecology’s review explaining how it would achieve performance targets, with attention to the volume of sales in different areas and to providing convenient drop off locations in rural areas, small cities, communities close to the ferry system, economically strained areas, and underserved urban areas. It would include education and outreach activities. It would describe how this system would coordinate with other recycling systems and producer responsibility organizations. If Ecology and the organization couldn’t reach an agreement on the plan the system would not be created, and the containers would be subject to any other Washington producer responsibility legislation.
If it came into existence, containers would be refundable for 10 cents and display that on their labels; charges for the refund value of the containers would not count as gross income in calculating the business and occupation tax, and they wouldn’t be subject to the litter tax if they were shown as an item on receipts. Drop-off locations could be located at dealers, any retail establishment, any publicly owned facility, or any other location convenient for consumers. There would also be a convenient bulk drop-off system for containers in the organization’s bags. The organization could use automated equipment to count returned containers and issue redemption vouchers for the deposits; it would not have to provide refunds for contaminated containers, ones that were so damaged that the brand was illegible, or ones it had reasonable grounds to believe were sold outside the state. Dealers over 5,000 square feet and selling more than 100,000 containers a year would have to install a self-service kiosk provided by the organization to print redemption vouchers, pay customers for them, and sell bags for the program at a price established by the organization. (They could choose to let customers redeem their vouchers for store credit rather than cash.) The organization would reimburse dealers for their payments to consumers, and pay the full deposit for containers purchased in the state and returned by recovery facilities, governmental entities, and other processing facilities if the containers had been collected and separated according to the organization’s standards and are delivered directly to one of its processing facilities. (The containers would have to be separated by material type, not contaminated with other materials, and in substantially the same shape as when they were purchased.) It would have to have a way to accept direct, sorted returns in commercial quantities at its facilities for an additional refund premium if they were returned by non-profits that served very low-income individuals who relied on regular container refunds for daily income and that the organization approved.
The organization would reimburse the Department of Ecology for the costs of administering the system. It would pay up to $15 million a year for five years to offset demonstrated losses that local governments and operators of curbside or drop-off recycling programs experienced as a result of scrap material being diverted to the deposit return system.
Starting in 2029, at least 60% of all qualifying beverage containers would have to be redeemed for reuse or recycling through system; this requirement would increase to at least 80% starting in 2032 and at least 1% of the beverages by the end of that year would have to be in reusable packaging. There would be specified annual reporting by the organization and third party auditing of some financial issues. Ecology could collect a annual fee of 10 cents from the organization for each container below that year’s performance target. The Department might choose to propose that the organization add additional drop-off areas as an alternative to the financial penalties or along with a reduction in those. There are also minor possible penalties for other violations of the requirements.
The organization would establish a Consumer Convenience Advisory Council with representatives from various stakeholders to work with it to identify potential convenient bag drop-off locations. provide input on the location of new drop-off sites, and consult along with Ecology in selecting a third-party firm to conduct consumer convenience assessments. These would be done in the fourth and ninth years of the program, paid for by the organization, and designed to identify any barriers to achieving the performance requirements and to make recommendations if the number of drop-off locations in the plan hasn’t been reached or the redemption rate is significantly below the performance targets. The organization would update its plan in the year after the assessment, taking any recommendations into account.
Ecology and the Department of Revenue would consult with the organization, study the impacts of the requirements on the litter rates of beverage containers and other covered products as well as possible improvements to the litter tax, and report to the Legislature.