California just gave plastic producers until 2032 to make all their packaging recyclable or compostable \u2014 the most ambitious deadline in the country. Advocates say it doesn\u2019t go far enough. Producers say it goes too far. At least one of them is threatening to sue.<\/p>\n
The sweeping regulations, finalized at the start of the month, put producers in a bind that has no obvious solution. Plastic clamshell containers, for instance, protect berries from being crushed and keep them fresher, longer until they reach a refrigerator. Plastic producers say there\u2019s simply no substitute \u2014 yet under the new rules, they\u2019ll have to find one. <\/p>\n
Last week, two environmental groups \u2014 the Natural Resources Defense Council and Californians Against Waste \u2014 said they plan to take California to court. Their argument: the state\u2019s rules actually break the law by allowing recycling methods that create a lot of toxic waste, and by letting some plastics slip through the rules entirely. On the other side, plastic manufacturers say the rules go too far and will make products more expensive for shoppers.<\/p>\n
Sen. Ben Allen, a Democrat from coastal Los Angeles County who authored the plastic waste law, said the program still \u201cmassively moves the needle on this really major problem\u201d \u2014 even if the process was messy. \u201cThis was the product of a compromise, and it was not perfect, and everybody walked away from the table, you know, unhappy about various aspects,\u201d Allen said.<\/p>\n
\u201cCalifornia is the United States, but 30 years in the future,\u201d said Joe \u00c1rvai, director of the University of Southern California\u2019s Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies. \u201cWhat\u2019s happening now is emblematic of trends that we are seeing worldwide \u2026 and the U.S. needs to adapt in the way that those countries are adapting in order to remain globally competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Less plastic, more recycling <\/p>\n
For decades, the burden of reducing, reusing and recycling plastic waste has fallen on consumers. Once a consumer buys a product, they decide what happens to it \u2014 whether it ends up in the garbage can or the recycling blue bin \u2014 and their tax dollars fund recycling systems we have today. <\/p>\n
In 2022, California\u2019s landmark Senate Bill 54,<\/a> the Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act, shifted that responsibility to businesses. The regulations outline what materials are covered by the law and who counts as a \u201cproducer\u201d of plastic waste. <\/p>\n The new regulations are a huge milestone, said Anja Brandon, director of U.S. plastics policy for the Ocean Conservancy. \u201cThere\u2019s plenty more steps on this journey, but I\u2019m just really excited that we are going to start making real progress,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n The law applies to plastic food service ware and almost all single-use packaging \u2014 from the plastic wrap around large pallets of products shipped to retailers to a tube of toothpaste and the cardboard box around it. <\/p>\n Our broken recycling system<\/p>\n Most of the plastic packaging Californians throw away isn\u2019t recycled \u2014 and that\u2019s not your fault as a consumer. For decades, the revolving green arrows symbol has urged consumers tp do a better job of reducing, reusing and recycling. But the system itself started out broken, and got worse. <\/p>\n When people toss items into recycling bins, workers at recycling centers sort through them. Contaminated items \u2014 like a peanut butter tub with residue still inside \u2014 go straight to the landfill. Manufacturers buy clean, valuable materials like water bottles and detergent tubs and turn them into new products.<\/p>\n But a slew of other trash isn\u2019t valuable enough to sell. It ends up in landfills, too.<\/p>\n In 2021, the plastic recycling rate was only 6% nationwide,<\/a> according to a report by the advocacy group Beyond Plastics. That\u2019s down from 8% in 2018, partly because China<\/a> and other countries that used to buy our trash have stopped doing so. In California, most plastic packaging types are recycled at strikingly low rates, according to a 2025 CalRecycle report: Even milk jugs and detergent bottles, among the most commonly recycled plastics, reached only 19%, while most others came in at single digits or below.<\/p>\n To carry out the law, the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery appointed the Circular Action Alliance, a nonprofit that helps states carry out extended producer responsibility mandates, as the organizing body for producers. The alliance is responsible for coming up with a plan to meet the law\u2019s goals. <\/p>\n Producers \u2014 defined as companies that make more than $1 million in sales and produce products packaged in plastic or own brands under which those products are sold \u2014 must join the organization and pay fees to fund waste management. They can meet the law\u2019s requirements by using less plastic, finding alternative materials, or investing in recycling infrastructure.<\/p>\n \u201cThe biggest challenge is the scale and coordination required to modernize a complex recycling system across a state as large and diverse as California,\u201d said Sheila Estaniel, a spokesperson for the Circular Action Alliance, in an email. <\/p>\n California\u2019s requirement that businesses reduce single-use plastic altogether makes it one of the strongest plastic waste laws in the country. It also goes further than other similar laws because it requires plastic producers to pay $5 billion over a decade to address the environmental damage their products have caused to communities \u2014 though the state doesn\u2019t expect to start distributing those funds until 2027 at the earliest.<\/p>\n Watered down rules<\/p>\n The plastic waste rules have had a rocky road to implementation. <\/p>\n In 2024, CalRecycle developed a first draft of regulations detailing what plastic the law covers and what producers must do. The draft expired before CalRecycle finalized it. In 2025, Gov. Gavin Newsom directed regulators to rewrite the rules \u2014 a move that some advocates say say food and agriculture lobbyists pushed for.<\/p>\n The result was a second draft that carved out a broad exclusion for plastics used for food and agriculture purposes, covering products under the jurisdiction of the FDA and USDA, such as packaging for fresh produce and supplements. Advocates said the exclusion gutted the law.<\/p>\n \u201cGovernor Newsom was clear when he asked CalRecycle to restart these regulations that they should work to minimize costs for small businesses and families \u2014 while ensuring California\u2019s bold recycling law can achieve the critical goal of cutting plastic pollution,\u201d said Anthony Martinez, a spokesperson for the governor. \u201cThat\u2019s exactly what these draft regulations do.\u201d <\/p>\n CalRecycle submitted that draft to the Office of Administrative Law in August 2025, but withdrew it to make changes that narrowed that exclusion. Regulators ultimately excluded only plastic that federal law requires for food safety \u2014 walking back a broader carve-out that advocates said would have gutted the law.<\/p>\n Advocates gear up to sue <\/p>\n Not all plastics follow the same rules \u2014 and advocates object to the state\u2019s two-track system.<\/p>\n Some materials with unique technical challenges can apply for exemptions, but must meet specific criteria to qualify. <\/p>\n Others, like plastic that federal law requires for food safety, escape the rules entirely once producers complete an application to CalRecycle \u2014 no timeline, no obligations.<\/p>\n \u201cIn practice, this allows exclusions to remain in effect \u2026even for notices that ultimately fail \u2014 creating strong incentives to submit weak or legally unsupported claims simply to delay (and effectively filibuster) compliance,\u201d wrote Tony Hackett, a policy associate for Californians Against Waste in a public comment letter to the department. <\/p>\n Advocates raise a second concern: the regulations allow certain waste polluting technologies \u2014 ones the law specifically excluded because they generate significant quantities of hazardous waste \u2014 to count as recycling, as long as they have a hazardous waste permit.<\/p>\n