California AB-962 - Landmark Reusable Bottle Legislation

On April 28, 2021 California AB-962 passed the Natural Resources Committee hearing with full bipartisan support vote of 11-0.

To top it off, at the end of the bill's hearing, Assemblyman Jim Woods, covering Sonoma County, shared the knowledge of our Conscious Container pilot in his county and right then requested to join Senator Kamlager to be a co-author of the bill!

This legislation will allow the California Bottle Bill system to capture and preserve glass bottles for washing and refilling by beverage producers, instead of the current system which requires glass bottles to be crushed after the deposit is redeemed by consumers.

This is landmark legislation here in the United States. For the first time a Bottle Bill program is acknowledging and formerly including returnable bottles in their deposit system.

Conscious Container provided and drove the original language proposal to California Recycling Commission in 2020. Meeting with CalRecycle, the state agency which runs California's Bottle Bill program, Conscious Container shared the gap in the current Bottle Bill program to support the a returnable bottle which can flow through the system for refilling 15-25 times.

CalRecycle advised Conscious Container the only way to enable this change was through statutory, legislative, approval.California Senator Sydney Kamalager put forward AB-962 as she had witnessed returnable systems in Oregon and felt Californian consumers should also have option to reduce their single-use CRV packaging waste. The bill is being sponsored by non-profits Californians Against Waste and the Clean Seas Coalition.Bear Republic Brewing's CEO and Founding Brewmaster Rich Norgrove provided testimony during the hearing. As the 10th largest California craft brewer, Bear Republic is making plans to move their beer into refillable glass bottles this year and needs the State of California to allow this CRV beverage container to be washed and refilled.

If you are passionate about the benefits of a reusable beverage bottle you can easily support this bill by signing a letter of support. Here are options:

1- Sign on to support letter by using this google form

2- Follow AB-962 through the legislative process - here is a link to the bill information

3- Watch the AB-962 hearing here: https://youtu.be/LLPgiIwsyDY