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Rulemaking Timeline Update
CalRecycle said during last Friday's SB 54 Advisory Board meeting that they Agency plans to finalize the state's Packaging Extended Producer Responsibility Program in January of 2026 (no specific date given). The Office of Administrative Law (OAL), however, could instruct CalRecycle or CalRecycle could independently decide to do one more 15-day comment period before the rulemkaing package is finalized. CalRecycle is still going through commentes received from the last public comment period and has not decided if they will open another 15-day comment period.
CalRecycle Source Reduction Material Design Project
Following a series of interviews with stakeholders Eunomia and Perpetual released a high-level overview of findings from their contracted work on barriers and opportunities for compliance with SB 54.
InterEthnica's public engagement and an overview of Eunomia's pathway modeling were presented at the Advisory Board meeting last Friday. The presentation will be posted HERE. CalRecycle's full report will be published in the new year.
CAA Comments on CalRecycle SB 54 Material Characterization Study Revised Preliminary Findings Report
On Nov. 12, 2025, CAA submitted comments to CalRecycle on the September 2025 revised draft statewide waste characterization study, highlighting methodological, definitional, and data-alignment concerns that could significantly affect SB 54 recycling rate calculations and producer reporting. Read CAA's comments HERE.
The September draft introduces major changes from earlier versions — including a new analytical method, adjustments to material categories, and updated CMC definitions.
Because the study will inform statutory recycling rates due January 1, 2026, CAA has been engaged since 2024 to ensure alignment between field-sorted categories, CMC reporting requirements, and producer obligations. The revised methodology and category updates prompted CAA to submit comprehensive feedback to support accuracy, transparency, and consistency.
The September draft introduces a Dirichlet-based compositional analysis that replaces zero values and creates synthetic datasets, representing a substantial departure from ASTM-aligned approaches. CAA raised concerns about interpretability, inflation of disposal estimates for low-prevalence materials, and the unclear statistical rationale for selecting this method. The new zero-handling process appears to significantly increase disposal tonnages for several plastics and other CMCs compared to earlier drafts and historical studies, and it remains unclear whether these increases reflect genuine trends or methodological artifacts.
Consolidation of plastic and non-plastic categories further complicates producer planning, given SB 54’s requirement for plastic-specific recycling rates, and CAA requested clarity on whether disaggregated data will be published. Changes to the final CMC Reporting Guidance reintroduced misalignment with how materials — particularly plastic-coated papers — were sorted during the characterization study, creating risks to recycling rate accuracy. Shifting regulatory exclusions during the study period also raise uncertainty about how disposal results will be adjusted to reflect the final scope of covered materials.
CAA emphasized the need for clear methodological documentation, sensitivity analyses, and transparent assumptions to ensure a defensible foundation for SB 54 implementation.
The issues raised in the September draft have direct implications for CAA as an EPR PRO. Inflated or inconsistent disposal estimates could artificially depress recycling rates and create disproportionate compliance burdens for producers. Misalignment between study categories and reporting categories risks introducing inaccuracies into both numerator and denominator inputs for CMC-level recycling rate calculations, potentially triggering unintended regulatory obligations or penalties.
The consolidation of plastic and non-plastic materials may hinder producers’ ability to meet material-specific targets, especially for plastics. Uncertainty around the analytical method and treatment of zero-heavy data complicates internal modeling, fee-setting, and long-term planning.
Changes to regulatory exclusions during the study period may further affect determinations of what constitutes covered material, creating compliance ambiguity. Together, these issues underscore the need for methodological clarity, stable definitions, and transparent data to ensure accurate, fair, and enforceable obligations for producers under SB 54.
CAA will monitor when CalRecycle publishes CAA’s comments, if it revises the final study methodology or CMC category definitions, or engages CAA for follow-up discussion.
CAA will also track publication of the final study and the statutory recycling rates to determine whether CalRecycle incorporated any recommended changes—particularly regarding the analytical method, category alignment, and treatment of plastic-coated substrates—and will provide the CAA Board with an assessment once those documents are released.
Circular Action Alliance Webinars for Producers
The CRA Team continues to receive many questions on various aspects of the proposed SB 54 regulations and the majority of these questions pertain to Circular Action Alliance (CAA), the Producer Responsibility Organization (PRO) tasked with implementing California's Packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Program.
We understand how complex this regulation is and as a member of the Advisory Board for both CalRecycle and CAA, CRA's President and CEO Rachel Michelin is communicating our members' concerns and questions on the myriad of calls and meetings she participates in. The CRA Team has also submitted numerous comment letters to CalRecycle on the proposed regulations. For access to all letters and regulatory updates our team has put out on SB 54, please visit the CRA SB 54 landing page we created, accessible to current members only.
In addition to CRA's landing page, CAA has a web page that contains all upcoming and previous webinars the PRO has held for SB 54 producers and the regulated community. These webinars can also help answer many of your questions. Click the link below to view previous webinars and register for upcoming informational and Q&A sessions hosted by CAA.
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