Riverside, CA Single-Use Items: Takeout Containers (2026)

(a) This chapter shall be known, and may be cited, as the Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act. (b) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following: (1) Disadvantaged and low-income communities are disproportionately impacted by the human health and environmental impacts of plastic pollution and fossil fuel extraction. (2) (A) Local jurisdictions are the backbone of the solid waste management and recycling efforts in California. The new statewide comprehensive circular economy framework established by this chapter is intended to shift the burden of costs to collect, process, and recycle materials from the local jurisdictions to the producers of covered material. (B) It is the intent of the Legislature in enacting this chapter to ensure that local jurisdictions will be made financially whole for any new costs incurred associated with the implementation of this chapter and its implementing regulations. [...] (B) It is the intent of the Legislature to establish a producer responsibility program designed to ensure that producers of single-use packaging and food service ware covered by this program take responsibility for the costs associated with the end-of-life management of that material and ensure that the material is recyclable or compostable. This standardization will reduce consumer confusion regarding recycling and composting, reduce costs to ratepayers, and increase system efficiency.