SB 54. MAKING SUSTAINABILITY AFFORDABLE for California families and businesses.

Fulfills the promise:  The revised regulations now define the recycling path forward for California, driving the investment and innovation needed to build the true circular economy and, critically, make sustainability affordable.

Delivers the breakthrough:  following Governor Newsom’s clear direction, the updated draft significantly enhances the approach on both policy and pragmatic grounds.

Strikes a better balance: as a critical part of the enhanced approach,  the updated regulations effectively articulate a reasonable, responsible, and enforceable way to meet California’s recycling and resource recovery goals, protecting medicine, and the food supply chain.

Fair to families and small businesses:  economists currently estimate the updates will save Californians a minimum of $3.6 billion annually and protect critically important products and packaging families rely upon. The true costs avoided are likely much more when you consider the real costs of everything, from retooling entire supply chains to costs associated with food and materials waste to secondary impacts on programs like school lunches and food banks to other direct and indirect consumer pass-throughs. 

Failure is not an option: not when you consider the stakes and the critical need for demonstrable success.  Especially in the face of a federal government clearly intent on attacking states trying to lead the way on climate and the environment.