California has long been at the forefront of going green—and new laws going into effect in 2025 and beyond are poised to make even more progress.
Why does this matter? No matter how good we are at filling our recycling bins, we are a long way off from making sure all goods that can be recycled, are recycled. The Recycling Partnership, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, found in its latest annual survey that just 21% of recyclable material is captured. The majority of the remaining recyclables—about 76% of them—are thrown into the trash at the household level.
This makes it sound like we’re collectively a bunch of callous, careless consumers. But it’s not that simple; sometimes, people don’t know what can or can’t go into the recycling bin. Other times, we have to bring items to specific places to be disposed of responsibly, and that’s an ask with which not everyone can comply. Items don’t always come with instructions that tell you how to dispose of them after their useful life, and the amount of packaging generated by our ever-growing online shopping habits might be easier to just throw away.
Nick Lapis is the director of advocacy Californians Against Waste, an organization founded in the 1970s that was an early advocate for the state’s bottle bill—you know, those 5 and 10 cent charges per container that are on your receipts.
“If you’ve heard of a recycling law in California, it’s probably one that came across through us,” Lapis said. “If you had to pay a fee when you purchased something, that’s probably our fault.”
The organization has recently advocated for policies that aim to curb plastic, responsibly recycle e-waste, and tackle that ever-growing collection of dead batteries we all have sitting in a drawer somewhere.
Here’s a rundown of some of the changes in the works.
No More Plastic Produce Bags
One major change CAW supported that will be effective at the start of 2025 is a ban on plastic produce bags—otherwise called “pre-checkout bags.” These are the bags on a roll near the produce section; they also might be used for meat or deli items.
Every time some sort of grocery-related bag ban gets into the news, some people wonder what to do about bagging up dog waste or lining their trash bins. Setting aside the fact that you can buy compostable bags for those purposes, people will still be offered bags. Lapis said they’ll just have to be made of paper, or compostable.
“Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods have been doing this for a while, so other stores will need to align with what they’re doing,” Lapis said.
Another option already popular with some shoppers: bringing your own reusable mesh produce bags, or using beeswax wrap.
The change stems from Senate Bill 1046, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law in 2022. Why does it matter? Because a plastic produce bag is a useful item for as long as it takes you to buy grocery groceries—but it can take as long as 20 years to break down.
E-Waste Expansion
Next year will see some progress on expanding California’s e-waste program per Assembly Bill 1215, passed in 2022. This is an expansion of the state’s Electronic Waste Recycling Act to include battery-embedded products, like cell phones or children’s toys that have batteries that can’t be removed at home.
“E-waste is a huge problem with waste streams,” Lapis said, especially when it comes to items that contain batteries. Sanitation workers can be injured if they accidentally encounter such products in the waste stream, and lurking batteries can start fires. A 2021 report from the Environmental Protection Agency linked lithium-ion batteries to at least 245 fires at 64 waste facilities between 2013 and 2020.
Currently, the EWRA covers TVs, computers, laptops, printers and other devices. The state’s Covered Electronic Waste program (CEW) is a fee that people pay at the point of purchase for one of those devices that goes into an account used to help cover e-waste recycling costs for waste haulers. Lapis said the expansion addresses something of a free-rider problem with the current system: When there’s an e-waste recycling event, for example, people bring all kinds of technology.
An estimated 52% of e-waste is currently recycled in the U.S., per the United Nations Institute for Training and Research. Add in the potential hazards of irresponsible disposal and—as much as we don’t like government-mandated fees—it makes sense to put resources toward getting rid of such products. Next year will see CalRecycle establish regulations, with the fee kicking in by 2026.
Loose Batteries
Changes are also in the works for how to get rid of household batteries—the kind of item that many people would probably like to recycle, but they just don’t know how to do so. If you’re like me, that means you have a coffee can or bag full of old, loose AAs and AAAs just waiting for the Saturday morning when you feel like driving to Burrtec.
“Even the people who know they’re not supposed to throw them away end up piling them in a drawer for the eventual trip that happens to the hazardous-waste facility,” Lapis said.
Per 2022’s Assembly Bill 2440, CalRecycle is currently working on regulations on how to get rid of loose batteries through what’s called an “extended producer responsibility” law. This will make manufacturers of single-use or rechargeable batteries responsible for making a convenient, free collection and recycling program. This is expected to include drop-off sites in every county, including some at major retailers that sell batteries.
Lance Klug, information officer for CalRecycle, told the Independent the agency is finalizing regulations to comply with the law. Once those regulations are released, businesses will submit their stewardship plans within 12 months, and then implement them within a year after that. This means stores likely won’t have loose-battery drop-offs ready for customers until 2026 or 2027.
Lapis said the organization has lobbied for this change for at least five years. It’s a critical fix, because not only can batteries in the waste stream start fires; some battery components can be melted down and reused.
“Batteries take a lot of natural resources to produce, including heavy metals and critical minerals,” Lapis said. “To think we’re just wasting them? It’s pretty stupid.”
Old Clothes
California this year became the first state in the nation to adopt an extended producer responsibility program for textiles when the Legislature passed Senate Bill 707. This tackles the scourge of “fast fashion” and the ever-growing amount of fabric that ends up in landfills; CalRecycle says textiles make up about 3% of what’s in state landfills.
The Responsible Textile Recovery Act of 2024 has multiple facets, but essentially it makes companies that manufacture clothes or textiles to figure out a statewide plan for textile recycling. They’ll be charged with forming and funding a “producer responsibility organization.” That organization will weigh in on creating a statewide structure for textile recycling that includes drop-offs for used textiles statewide by 2030.
It’s difficult to realize that even when we vote for change, it can take years for those changes to get implemented. We’re already living through the effects of climate change and are surrounded with reminders of how our culture of consumerism is at odds with the health of planet.
But at least in California, we’re paying attention to the damage and trying to do something about it—before it’s too late.
I live in Auburn,, California, and I do not have a recycling bin because my trash service does not provide one because they don’t offer any kind of a recycling program. How could we change this?