Editor’s note: This is the second of a three-part Policy Now series on SB 54 implementation covering the local collection deadline and exemption process, responsible end markets and reimbursement funding as well as packaging progress, challenges and opportunities under SB 54.
California won’t have an official list of responsible end markets for recycled packaging materials until four days before jurisdictions are required to prove they’re sending covered materials to one, Circular Action Alliance (CAA) California Executive Director Emily Coven said during the California Resource Recovery Association (CRRA) conference in San Diego.
CAA’s program plan isn’t expected to be approved until Dec. 28, with the law’s collection requirements taking effect Jan. 1, 2027. To bridge that gap, Coven said CAA is rolling out a phased verification process, starting with producer self-attestation, moving to desk audits and eventually requiring third-party independent verification once the state approves the PRO’s responsible end market (REM) standards.
The organization has sought public comment on the framework and has already received regulatory sign-off in Oregon. CAA aims to publish its first self-attested list this fall, she said, adding it will grow incrementally rather than arrive complete.
Coven cautioned jurisdictions not to rush exemption filings tied to a lack of responsible end markets, warning that materials could land on the forthcoming list shortly after an exemption is granted, forcing jurisdictions to revise applications already filed.
“This could be a giant administrative nightmare for everybody,” she said, adding that CAA would rather jurisdictions wait and give the self-attestation process time to populate the list.
Coven also flagged a documentation hurdle. “We can’t just be like, ‘I don’t know where it’s going,'” she said. “It has to be grounded in something.” Jurisdictions filing an exemption on end-market grounds will need to show where a material is currently going, since CAA can’t evaluate whether an end market is responsible without knowing which one is in use.
Michelle Fay, deputy director of StopWaste, acknowledged that tracing a material’s path once it leaves a jurisdiction through brokers and processors can be difficult, calling it “a fairly difficult question to answer” for many local programs.
The regulations require responsible end markets to undergo audits and meet recordkeeping requirements as part of a formal transparency criteria, Marcus Santillano, an environmental program manager at CalRecycle, said.
Coven pointed to a dedicated chapter on end-market verification in CAA’s draft program plan, plus a separate, longer-term responsible end market standard the organization is developing for use across every state where it serves as the producer responsibility organization.
“Under statute, we list what doesn’t count as recycling, and incineration is one of those technologies that doesn’t count as recycling,” Santillano said.
Santillano said CalRecycle will apply a similar grace period on the enforcement side. No compliance action while an exemption request is pending, whether under review by CAA or the department.
He said the agency’s compliance team will lean more heavily on electronic annual report data than on public education materials or bin labeling to gauge whether jurisdictions are meeting their obligations, and CalRecycle plans updates to that report to capture additional compliance data points before year’s end.
Reimbursement funding for jurisdictions’ compliance costs is expected to open after the program plan is approved, Coven said. The process will run through a two-step CAA application. Applicants first go through an eligibility screen, then move on to more detailed project questions — similar to the reimbursement methodology CAA has outlined as part of its broader California program buildout.
Materials under an active exemption remain eligible for funding, she said. CAA treats exemptions as two-year extensions, not permanent carve-outs — a bridge meant to help jurisdictions build toward full collection. The PRO’s program plan also includes separate “unique challenges” exemptions. Those work the same way, Coven said: as extensions, not exits, from the collection obligation.
On messaging, Coven said CAA’s early education and outreach spending will focus on rebuilding public trust in recycling systems and addressing common contamination. That spending is expected to begin in 2027. It won’t include material-specific sorting guidance, she said. California’s programs are too mature and fragmented to standardize sorting messaging the way Oregon and Colorado have in their newer systems, where CAA has been able to roll out shared materials like cart and bin decals from scratch.
She pointed to CAA-funded doorstep film-and-flexible-packaging collection pilots as the kind of newer, less-established program where standardized messaging could eventually make more sense. CAA plans to submit its final program plan to CalRecycle in mid-October, with a 60-day public comment period on the draft funding and service agreements now open.
When asked about pending litigation challenging SB 54, both Fay and Coven declined to comment directly but said their organizations are proceeding with implementation.
“We’re still moving forward with the high hopes that this continues,” Fay said. Coven added that CAA is “full steam ahead” regardless of the litigation.
CAA’s designation as SB 54’s PRO runs for a renewable five-year term, from 2027 through 2031, Coven said, and the group intends to fund ongoing operational costs, not just one-time projects, for the life of the program.
On a question about long-term market disruption from tightening end-market standards, Coven said she expects the state’s recycling-rate calculations, which count only materials sent to responsible end markets, to create strong financial incentive for more processors to qualify over time.
