| Who is obligated and thresholds | A producer is a person who manufactures a product using covered material and owns or licenses the brand or trademark under which it is sold, offered or distributed in California. If there is no such person in the state, the brand owner (or exclusive licensee if the owner is outside the state) is the producer. |
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| Exemptions | A person who produces, harvests and packages an agricultural commodity on the site where it was grown or raised is not a producer. Excluded packaging includes that for medical products and prescription drugs, infant formula and medical food, products regulated under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, and products with a lifespan of at least five years. The department must set up a process to exempt small producers, retailers and wholesalers with gross sales under $1,000,000 in the state in the most recent calendar year, except from subdivision (b) of Section 42050. It may decline an exemption that would hinder a covered material category from complying. |
| Registration (steps and registry) | Every producer must file its primary business address with the department, whether or not it is in a PRO, and report any change within 30 days. A PRO can do this on the producer's behalf. The statute does not name a specific producer register. It refers to the department's online registration form and leaves the details to regulations. |
| Reporting obligations and deadlines | A producer that complies individually must report sales, recycling, composting and source reduction data to the department every year under Sections 42052 and 42057. PRO participants must give the PRO the data it needs to report on source reduction. A producer or PRO must answer a department data request within 14 calendar days, and the department may allow up to 60 calendar days. Producers and PROs must keep records of covered materials offered for sale, sold, distributed or imported into the state, in the form and manner the department sets, so that compliance can be checked in an audit. |
| PROs and compliance schemes | A PRO is an organization exempt from taxation under Section 501(c)(3) of the federal Internal Revenue Code that is formed to implement a plan meeting the chapter's requirements. Its governing body must apply to the department for approval. A PRO must develop a program plan and budget and set fees on its participating producers sufficient to meet the requirements of the law. A PRO pays the California circular economy administrative fee, funded by its producers, and must have its books audited by an independent public accountant at least once per calendar year. |
| Penalties | Under Section 42081(a)(1), the department may issue a notice of violation and impose an administrative civil penalty of up to $50,000 per day per violation. The cap is $25,000 per day for an entity meeting the criteria of Section 42061(a)(5). Penalties do not begin to accrue until 30 calendar days after notification of the violation, and the department may allow a corrective action plan before deciding whether to assess a penalty. Under Section 42082, the department must post a list of non-compliant covered material categories by producer, updated at least every six months. |
Under SB 54 (Public Resources Code, Division 30, Part 3, Chapter 3, starting at Section 42040), the main party with obligations is the "producer". This is a manufacturer of a product containing covered material that either owns the brand or trademark, or holds a license to it, for the product when it is sold, offered for sale or distributed in California.
If no person in California qualifies as a producer under the manufacturer-and-brand-owner test, the producer is the brand or trademark owner, or the exclusive licensee if the owner is outside the state, for the covered product sold, offered for sale or distributed in California.
A person who produces, harvests and packages an agricultural commodity on the site where it was grown or raised is not a producer. A sale is deemed to occur in California if the covered materials are delivered to the purchaser in the state.
Producers of covered material sold, offered for sale, imported or distributed in California must meet the Section 42050 duties. These include source reduction of plastic covered material, recyclability or compostability of all covered material offered on or after January 1, 2032, and plastic recycling rates of 30 percent from January 1, 2028, 40 percent from January 1, 2030, and 65 percent from January 1, 2032.
Under Section 42051(b), upon approval of a plan or from January 1, 2027, whichever is sooner, a producer may not sell, offer for sale, import or distribute covered materials in California unless it is approved to participate in a department-approved PRO plan. An entity that becomes a producer after January 1, 2027 must join the PRO within six months.
Every producer must file its primary business address with the department, whether or not it participates in a PRO, and must report any change of address within 30 days. A PRO may do this on the producer's behalf.
Retailers and wholesalers are defined as those who sell covered material to purchasers in California by any means, including online, phone, mail, catalog and direct sales. The text cited here does not state a separate producer-type obligation for them.
Online marketplaces: a third-party seller using a qualifying online marketplace is treated as the retailer or wholesaler for those sales, and the marketplace owner or operator is not. This applies only where the platform meets all of the statutory conditions, including that title passes directly from seller to consumer and that the operator does not control the packaging and shipping material. The operator's role is limited to order processing, payment, storage, shipping or delivery services.
Third-party sellers on a qualifying online marketplace must agree, under the platform's terms, not to use it to offer, sell or distribute into California covered material that does not meet the chapter's requirements.
Exclusions from covered material include packaging for medical products, prescription drugs, animal drugs, infant formula and medical food, and packaging for products regulated under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act. Dangerous-goods plastic containers and beverage containers under the California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act are also excluded, as is packaging for products with a lifespan of at least five years. Packaging for architectural paint recovery program products is excluded too.
Under SB 54, the term "producer" excludes anyone who grows or raises an agricultural commodity and also harvests, produces and packages it at the site where it was grown or raised.
Packaging used for medical products, devices and prescription drugs (as specified under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act) is not covered material. The same applies to animal medicines and animal products regulated as animal drugs, biologics, parasiticides, medical devices or diagnostics.
Packaging for infant formula, medical food, and specified fortified oral nutritional supplements for people with certain medical conditions is excluded from covered material.
Packaging used to contain products regulated by the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act is excluded from covered material.
Plastic packaging containers used to contain and ship products classified as dangerous goods or hazardous materials under 49 C.F.R. Part 178 are excluded. Packaging for hazardous or flammable products regulated by the 2012 federal OSHA Hazard Communications Standard (29 C.F.R. 1910.1200) is also excluded.
Beverage containers subject to the California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act, and packaging associated with products covered by the architectural paint recovery program, are not covered material.
Packaging used for long-term protection or storage of a product with a lifespan of not less than five years, as determined by the department, is excluded from covered material.
A producer can obtain an exemption for covered material that is not collected through residential recycling collection, is not separated at a commingled recycling processing facility, and is recycled at a responsible end market. The material must also show a 65 percent recycling rate for three consecutive years before January 1, 2027, and at least 70 percent annually after that date, demonstrated to the department every two years.
If only part of a producer's covered material meets those exemption criteria, only that part is exempt; the remainder stays covered material.
Within the definition of packaging, an element with a de minimis weight or volume that is not an independent plastic component, as determined by the department, is excepted. So is a component that is an integral part of a product when all of the product's components are intended to be consumed or disposed of together.
The department must set up a process to exempt small producers, small retailers and small wholesalers, except from the requirements of subdivision (b) of Section 42050. Those with gross sales of less than $1,000,000 in the state in the most recent calendar year must be exempted.
The department may decline to exempt a particular small producer, retailer or wholesaler if exempting it would hinder a type of covered material or covered material category from complying with the chapter.
The department may also exempt covered material that is single use but presents unique compliance challenges, and covered material that cannot comply for health and safety reasons or because it is unsafe to recycle.
Under Public Resources Code Section 42060(a)(2)(A), the department's regulations must set up a mandatory process for producers, retailers and wholesalers, or a PRO acting for them, to register with and report to the department. The department was required to adopt these regulations by January 1, 2025.
The department must create an online registration form to make it easier to submit these reports. Where the law permits, it may contract with an independent third-party online reporting system that has recognized standards for waste characterization, source reduction and recycling.
The statute does not name a specific register or registry for producers. It describes the department's online registration form and its reporting process, and the details are left to the department's regulations.
Step 1: Producers of covered material had to form and join a producer responsibility organization (PRO) by January 1, 2024. The PRO's governing body applies to the department to show how it meets the requirements for an approved PRO.
Step 2: From the date the plan is approved, or from January 1, 2027 if that is sooner, a producer may not sell, offer for sale, import or distribute covered materials in California unless it is approved to participate in a department-approved PRO's plan.
A producer that becomes subject to the law only after January 1, 2027, by starting to sell, offer, import or distribute covered material in the state, must become a PRO participant within six months.
As an alternative, a producer may comply individually without joining a PRO if it shows the department it meets the statutory criteria, and the department decides this at its sole discretion. An individual producer must develop its own plan and report sales, recycling, composting and source reduction data to the department each year.
Step 3: Whether or not it participates in a PRO plan, each producer must file its primary business address with the department as set by regulation, and must tell the department of any change of address within 30 days. A PRO can do this for a producer by including the address in a plan, update or annual report, or by otherwise notifying the department.
A PRO must give the department contact information for its registered participants on request. It must also notify the department within 30 calendar days if a producer stops participating in its approved plan.
The department must exempt producers, retailers or wholesalers with gross sales in the state of less than $1,000,000 in the most recent calendar year from the chapter's requirements, with the exception of subdivision (b) of Section 42050. The department may withhold the exemption if it would hinder a covered material category from complying.
Under Section 42051(a), producers of covered material had to form and join a producer responsibility organization (PRO) by January 1, 2024. The PRO's governing body must apply to the department for approval.
A producer that qualifies to comply individually, without joining a PRO, must report sales, recycling, composting and source reduction data to the department every year. The reports are made under Sections 42052 and 42057, in the manner the department determines.
Producers that participate in a PRO's approved plan must give the PRO the data it needs to report on the producers' source reduction. The PRO's source reduction reporting covers what each producer plans to reduce by January 1, 2027, January 1, 2030 and January 1, 2032.
A producer's source reduction reporting covers the source reduction pathways: reuse/refill, elimination, switching to non-plastic material, right-sizing/lightweighting/concentration/bulk, and postconsumer recycled content.
Every producer in the state must file its primary business address with the department, whether or not it participates in a PRO. A change of business address must be notified to the department within 30 days. A PRO may meet this duty for a producer by including the address in a plan, update or annual report, or by otherwise notifying the department.
A PRO must notify the department within 30 calendar days of three events. The first is the end of a three-month period in which it unsuccessfully tried to obtain a fee, records or information from a participant, or received incomplete or incorrect records. The second is the date a producer stops participating in the plan. The third is any instance of noncompliance by a participant producer.
A producer or PRO must answer a department request for additional data within 14 calendar days. The department may grant more time, but no more than 60 calendar days.
Producers and PROs must keep records of covered materials offered for sale, sold, distributed or imported into the state. The records must be in the form and manner the department sets, so that compliance can be checked in an audit.
A participating producer must give the PRO, on request, the records or information the PRO needs to meet its obligations. The PRO must treat producer data as confidential and use it only for the purposes of the chapter. It may still provide data the department requests, or release aggregated data that does not identify a specific entity.
A producer that claims an exemption for covered material outside residential recycling collection must show the department that the material has reached a recycling rate of 65 percent for three consecutive years before January 1, 2027. From that date it must show a rate at or over 70 percent annually, demonstrated to the department every two years.
The department must post a list of covered material categories, by producer, that are not in compliance, and must update it at least once every six months.
Separately, recycling and composting operations, and exporters, brokers, self-haulers and transporters of recyclables or compost, must submit periodic information to the department under Section 41821.5. The passages give no fixed filing date. Failing to submit required information carries a civil penalty of $500 to $5,000 per violation, and knowingly filing a false report carries $500 to $10,000.
Section 42051(a) required producers of covered material to form and join a PRO by January 1, 2024, in order to comply with the chapter.
A PRO's governing body must apply to the department. The application must describe how the PRO meets the requirements for an approved PRO under Section 42061.5. Once the department approves the PRO, it proceeds to carry out the chapter's requirements.
If more than one PRO application was submitted by January 1, 2024, the department decides which proposed PRO can most effectively implement the chapter.
Under Section 42051(b)(1), once a plan is approved or from January 1, 2027, whichever is sooner, a producer may not sell, offer for sale, import or distribute covered materials in California unless it is approved to participate in the plan of a department-approved PRO.
An entity that becomes a producer after January 1, 2027, by starting to sell, offer for sale, import or distribute covered material in California, must become a PRO participant within six months and comply with the chapter.
A producer may instead comply individually, without joining a PRO plan, only if it shows the department that it meets the statutory criteria, and the department determines this at its sole discretion. One route is demonstrating a 65 percent recycling rate for three consecutive years before January 1, 2027, followed by a rate at or above 70 percent annually.
A producer that complies individually takes on the full responsibilities itself. It must develop and implement its own plan, cover its costs to the same extent as PRO participants based on its share of covered material, and report sales, recycling, composting and source reduction data to the department each year.
Every producer must file its primary business address with the department, whether or not it participates in a PRO plan, and must report any address change within 30 days. A PRO may meet this duty for a producer by including the address in a plan, update or annual report, or by otherwise notifying the department.
A PRO must submit a plan and budget with the provisions the department needs to ensure covered producers comply. It must also set a charge on its participant producers that is sufficient to ensure the PRO meets the act's requirements.
A PRO must require its participant producers to submit the data it needs for its reporting. It must notify the department within 30 calendar days if a producer stops participating in its approved plan or if a participant is non-compliant.
A PRO pays the California circular economy administrative fee to the department, and that fee is funded by the producers that make up the PRO. The PRO must also have its accounting books audited at least once per calendar year by an independent public accountant certified in the United States, and provide the audit to the department with its annual report.
Under Public Resources Code Section 42080(a), failing to comply with the chapter, including a PRO failing to implement and satisfy its plan, exposes a PRO, producer, wholesaler or retailer to penalties under Article 5 or to revocation of an approved plan.
The Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery may investigate compliance by inspecting the operations, facilities and records of producers and PROs and by auditing them.
Under Section 42081(a)(1), the department may issue a notice of violation and impose an administrative civil penalty of up to $50,000 per day per violation on any entity not complying with the chapter or its implementing regulations.
The cap falls to $25,000 per day per violation for an entity that meets the criteria of Section 42061(a)(5).
When a producer or PRO violates Section 42050, the department measures the violation according to what it finds noncompliant: the brand name, the package or product line, the form of the package or product, the covered material category, and the size of the package or product.
Penalties against a PRO or producer do not begin to accrue until 30 calendar days after notification of the violation.
Before deciding whether to assess a penalty, the department may let a producer or PRO submit a corrective action plan. No penalty is assessed, and the producer is not listed as noncompliant, for material covered by a plan the producer complies with.
A corrective action plan can run for as long as 24 months. The department can lengthen it by as many as 12 additional months where the producer or PRO put in a substantial effort to comply, yet extenuating circumstances reasonably stopped it from doing so.
In setting a penalty, the department must consider at least the gravity of the violation, timely correction, any pattern of noncompliance, intent, voluntary prompt self-reporting, circumstances beyond the violator's control, the violator's size and economic condition, and the impact on the environment and communities. For a non-egregious first offense, it must consider a penalty of no more than $25,000 per day.
Under Section 42082, the department must post on its website a list of covered material categories, by producer, that are not in compliance, and must update it at least every six months.
Collected penalties are deposited into the Circular Economy Penalty Account in the State Treasury, available on legislative appropriation for purposes that further the chapter.
Section 42057 sets source reduction targets that the PRO must meet, and Section 42050 sets related requirements.
If no person in California is the producer under the first test, the producer is the brand or trademark owner. If the owner is not in California, the producer is the exclusive licensee of that brand or trademark.
If neither of those tests identifies a producer in California, the producer is the person who sells, offers for sale, or distributes the product using the covered material in or into California. A seller based outside California can therefore be the producer by default.
A sale of covered material is deemed to occur in California if the material is delivered to the purchaser in California. A seller shipping into the state from elsewhere is therefore treated as selling in the state.
The definition of retailer or wholesaler covers anyone who sells or offers covered material to purchasers in California by any means. The listed channels include remote offering through sales outlets or catalogs, the internet, telephone, mail, and direct sales, so distance selling is within scope.
A third-party seller that uses an online marketplace is treated as the retailer or wholesaler for those transactions. The owner or operator of the marketplace is not.
A further condition for marketplace status is that third-party sellers agree, under the platform's terms or another enforceable agreement, not to offer, sell, or distribute into California covered material that fails the chapter's requirements. Sellers on a platform should expect to be bound by such terms.
A producer may not sell, offer for sale, import, or distribute covered material in California unless it is approved to participate in a producer responsibility organization's plan. The alternative is to comply with the act individually without joining a PRO.
Producers whose covered material is sold, offered for sale, imported, or distributed in California must make sure that, from January 1, 2032, all such material that is offered, distributed, or imported into the state is either recyclable in the state or eligible for a compostable label. Plastic covered material must reach recycling rates of 30 percent starting January 1, 2028, 40 percent starting January 1, 2030, and 65 percent starting January 1, 2032.
The department may impose an administrative civil penalty of up to $50,000 per day per violation, except as otherwise specified, on any entity that does not comply with the act.
Yes. If no producer is identified under the manufacturer-and-brand-owner test or the brand-owner test, the person who sells, offers or distributes the covered product in or into California is the producer, so an out-of-state seller can be the producer by default. A sale is deemed to occur in California if the covered materials are delivered to the purchaser in the state. Retailers and wholesalers include those selling to California purchasers by any means, including internet, telephone, mail, catalog and direct sales, so distance selling is within scope.
A third-party seller using a qualifying online marketplace is treated as the retailer or wholesaler for those sales, and the marketplace owner or operator is not. This applies only if the platform meets all statutory conditions, including that title passes directly from seller to consumer and that the operator does not control packaging and shipping material. Third-party sellers must agree under the platform's terms not to offer, sell or distribute into California covered material that fails the chapter's requirements.
Only if the department determines, at its sole discretion, that you meet the criteria. One route is showing a 65 percent recycling rate for three consecutive years before January 1, 2027, and at least 70 percent annually afterwards. An individual producer must develop and implement its own plan, cover its costs to the same extent as PRO participants based on its share of covered material, and report data to the department each year.
Section 42050 requires source reduction of plastic covered material, and recyclability or compostability of all covered material offered on or after January 1, 2032. Plastic covered material must reach recycling rates of 30 percent from January 1, 2028, 40 percent from January 1, 2030, and 65 percent from January 1, 2032.
An entity that becomes a producer after January 1, 2027 by starting to sell, offer, import or distribute covered material in California must become a PRO participant within six months and comply with the chapter.
The department may let a producer or PRO submit a corrective action plan before deciding whether to assess a penalty. No penalty is assessed, and the producer is not listed as non-compliant, for material covered by a plan it complies with. A corrective action plan may last up to 24 months, with an extension of up to 12 more months if the producer or PRO made a substantial effort but was reasonably prevented by extenuating circumstances.
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This guide is for general information only and does not constitute legal advice. It summarises the official legal texts listed above as of the "last verified" date; obligations may have changed since. Check the official sources or consult a qualified professional before making compliance decisions.
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