Overview
- A coalition of 17 Republican-led states and the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors filed a federal suit in Sacramento seeking an immediate injunction against California’s SB 54 and named CalRecycle director Zoe Heller and the Circular Action Alliance as defendants.
- SB 54, passed in 2022, requires producers to cut certain single-use plastics and to make packaging recyclable or compostable by 2032 while shifting waste-management costs from local governments to packaging producers through a producer responsibility system.
- The states argue the law violates the Constitution’s Commerce Clause, exceeds California’s regulatory reach, will raise costs for businesses and consumers, and unlawfully compels companies to fund a private organization’s operations and speech.
- Earlier this month environmental groups sued in state court contending that California’s final implementing regulations create broad exemptions and allow controversial recycling methods such as chemical recycling that they say undercut the statute’s pollution-reduction goals.
- The lawsuits create parallel legal tracks that could quickly affect enforcement: a federal injunction in Oregon already blocked a comparable law and a July trial there may set precedent while the Sacramento case proceeds and producers weigh higher compliance costs.