HB2722 – Requires increasing recycled content in plastic beverage containers.
Prime Sponsor – Representative Mead (D; 44th District; Everett and Marysville) (Co-Sponsors Fitzgibbon, Peterson, Doglio, Goodman, Gregerson, Slatter, Tarleton, Davis, Duerr, Ramel, Walen, Cody, Senn, Pollet)
Current status – Vetoed by the Governor.
In the House – (Passed)
Had a hearing in the House Committee on Environment and Energy February 3rd. Amended substitute passed out of committee February 6th. Replaced by the prime sponsor’s striker on the floor and passed by the House February 13th. On March 7th, the House refused to concur in the Senate’s amendments; bill returned to the Senate, which may recede from the amendments. On March 11th, the House concurred in the Senate’s new version.

In the Senate – (Passed)
Referred to the Senate Committee on Environment, Energy & Technology. Scheduled for a hearing February 20th at 10:00 AM, but not heard. Had a hearing February 25th. Replaced by a striker and passed out of committee February 27th. Referred to Ways and Means, and had a hearing there on February 29th. Passed out of committee March 2nd and referred to Rules. Passed by the Senate March 5th, and returned to the House for concurrence.  On March 10th, as I understand it, the Senate receded from its previous changes, replaced the bill with a new striker which was amended on the floor, and then passed that version. The new version went back to the House for possible concurrence.
Next step would be – Signature by the Governor.
Legislative tracking page for the bill.
SB6645 is a companion bill in the Senate.

Comments –
The bill doesn’t currently seem to say that manufacturers have to report the number of their containers covered by the bill to Ecology each year, though that’s assumed in other sections.

In the House –
The substitute reduces the requirement for the first four year period from 15% to 10%. It shifts from assessing fines per container for violations to fines per pound; they would now be from $0.5 to $0.15 per pound when manufacturers have at least seventy-five percent of the required recycled content; from $0.10 to $0.20 per pound when they have between fifty percent and seventy-five percent of that; from $0.15 to $0.25 per pound when they have between twenty-five and fifty percent of it; from $0.20 to $0.30 per pound  when they have at least fifteen percent but less than twenty-five percent of it; and $0.25 to $0.30 when they have less than fifteen percent of the required recycled plastic. (There’s about a pound of plastic in ten 2-liter bottles or in forty-five single serving bottles, so a fine that was one cent per container or ten cents for the 2-liter bottles would now be between $0.15 and $0.25, but a fine that would have been $0.45 for the single bottles would now still be between $0.15 and $0.25.)

The substitute also gives manufacturers room to negotiate with Ecology about other things besides the size of the fines, requiring the Director to consider whether the minimum recycled content requirements should be waived or reduced at least once a year, and requiring the Department to consider equitable factors in deciding whether to assess a fee and its amount including the nature and circumstances of the violation; actions taken by the manufacturer to correct it; the manufacturer’s history of compliance; and its size and economic condition. (In addition, it directs Ecology to consider granting a waiver, reduction, or extension of the fees to a manufacturer that has demonstrated progress toward meeting the requirements if it hasn’t met them or anticipates that it won’t be able to.) The amendment merely exempts wine pouches and bladders from the requirements.

The striker limits the containers the bill covers to bottles. It moves the initial compliance date back to 2022, and makes minor adjustments in some other time periods. It adds emissions associated with the transportation of recycled plastic to the items Ecology is to take into account. It now specifies that Ecology must consider equitable factors in decisions about fines; adds consideration of whether violations were due to circumstances beyond the manufacturer’s reasonable control or were unavoidable; and limits the use of fines to supporting the State’s new recycling development center.

In the Senate –
The committee striker makes minor technical adjustments, and moves the date at which manufacturers become subject to fines for failing to meet the requirements back a year, to January 1, 2023.

The new striker removes some ambiguity about when manufacturers become subject to fees for violations, gives the Pollution Control Hearings Board authority to review appeals of fees and of any adjustments of recycled content rates, and makes some technical changes. The floor amendment preempts local authority to implement recycled content requirements for plastic beverage containers.

Summary –
The bill requires increasing in the average annual level of post-consumer recycled plastic in a manufacturers’ beverage containers, beginning with at least 15% in the period between the beginning of 2021 and the end of 2024. The requirement goes up to 25% from January 2025 through the end of 2030; increases to 50% from then to the end of 2034, and is 75% after that.

It requires manufacturers’ to report to the Department of Ecology each year on the percentages of virgin plastic and recycled plastic in the containers they sold or distributed in the state during the previous year. They’re subject to the following fines (adjusted for inflation) if they fail to meet the requirements:
(a) $0.0025 for each container when they have at least seventy-five percent of the required recycled content;
(b)$0.005 for each container when they have between fifty percent and seventy-five percent of that;
(c) $0.01 for each container when they have between twenty-five and fifty percent of it;
(d) $0.015 for each container when they have at least fifteen percent but less than twenty-five percent of it; and
(e) $0.02 for each container when they have less than fifteen percent of the required recycled plastic.
Ecology’s authorized to conduct audits and inspections and there’s an additional penalty of $1.15/pound for any over-reporting of recycled content it discovers through those or some other means.

The bill doesn’t apply to polycoated cartons, foil pouches, drink boxes, refillable plastic beverage containers, infant formula, medical containers, or others Ecology decides to exempt.