California PRO's draft SB 54 plan sets USD 508m compostables budget
Circular Action Alliance, the producer responsibility organisation running California's SB 54 packaging extended producer responsibility scheme, has submitted a draft programme plan to CalRecycle setting a five-year composting capital and operating budget of USD 508m, a figure CAA says will be reduced. The plan, which runs to more than 300 pages, covers 21 material categories eligible to be labelled compostable and leaves fee treatment for materials that are both recyclable and compostable still to be set. The final plan is due to CalRecycle in October 2026.
Why this mattersHow California's producer organisation prices and reimburses compostable packaging will set the economics of composting as an end-of-life route for the largest US EPR scheme.
- CAA's draft California EPR plan sets a five-year Composting Capital and Operating budget of USD 508m, which CAA says will be reduced.
- SB 54 requires all packaging and single-use plastic food serviceware sold in California to be recyclable, compostable or reusable by 2032.
- CAA estimates over 1 million tons of compostables entered California's waste stream in 2024.
- 21 covered material categories on CalRecycle's list are eligible to be labelled compostable; 10 of those are both compostable and recyclable.
- SB 54 requires the producer responsibility organisation to return USD 500m a year to California for plastic pollution mitigation from 2027 to 2037.
- The final programme plan is due to CalRecycle in October 2026, after a public comment period that closed in mid-August.