SB 955: Beverage containers: supermarkets: reverse vending machines.

Official summary

Legislative Counsel’s Digest (official, as of the latest version). Written by nonpartisan legislative staff; reproduced verbatim.

(1)The California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act requires the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery to designate convenience zones annually and to ensure that at least one certified recycling center that meets specific requirements is located within each convenience zone. The act defines a “convenience zone” as the area within a one-mile radius of a supermarket, as defined. Under the act, a reverse vending machine, as defined, may be certified as a recycling center, as prescribed. The act establishes the California Beverage Container Recycling Fund, and continuously appropriates moneys in the fund to the department for specified purposes, including the amount necessary to pay processing payments to recycling centers and to pay handling fees to certain types of recyclers to provide an incentive for the redemption of empty beverage containers in convenience zones. The act prohibits processing payments, handling fees, and administrative fees for dealer cooperatives if a certified recycling center operates in a convenience zone where a dealer participating in the dealer cooperative is located.

A violation of the act is a crime.

This bill would specify that a reverse vending machine certified to operate as a recycling center does not make an unserved convenience zone served, that a dealer cooperative or a mobile unit is not precluded from operating and receiving program payments in the same convenience zone as a reverse vending machine, and that an existing certified recycling center is not ineligible for handling fees if a reverse vending machine is located in the same convenience zone.

(2)The act defines a “supermarket” as a full-line, self-service retail store with gross annual sales of $2,000,000 or more that sells specified items and some perishable items.

This bill would revise that definition by increasing the minimum gross annual sales to $6,000,000, revising the description of the required items for sale, causing recycling centers that are supermarkets eligible to receive handling fees under existing law to continue to be eligible to receive handling fees, and requiring the department to consult the most recent annual update to the Progressive Grocer Marketing Guidebook and other relevant updates to the guidebook to determine which dealers are supermarkets, as specified.

(3)The act requires, until June 30, 2027, the handling fee to be determined using a methodology established by the department through emergency regulations, and requires those regulations to remain in effect through that date, as specified.

Sponsors

Sponsors by party (alphabetical): Democratic 1 · Republican 1

“Support” is shown only as formal sponsorship recorded by the legislature. Roll-call votes are available on the official bill page.

Recent official actions

1. September 18, 2026Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 319, Statutes of 2026.
2. September 18, 2026Approved by the Governor.
3. September 2, 2026Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3 p.m.
4. August 27, 2026Assembly amendments concurred in. (Ayes 39. Noes 0.) Ordered to engrossing and enrolling.
5. August 26, 2026Ordered to special consent calendar.
6. August 24, 2026In Senate. Concurrence in Assembly amendments pending.
7. August 24, 2026Read third time. Urgency clause adopted. Passed. (Ayes 78. Noes 0. Page 6421.) Ordered to the Senate.
8. August 17, 2026Read second time. Ordered to third reading.
9. August 13, 2026From committee: Do pass as amended. (Ayes 11. Noes 0.) (August 13).
10. August 13, 2026Read second time and amended. Ordered to second reading.
11. August 13, 2026Assembly Rule 63 suspended.
12. August 5, 2026August 5 set for first hearing. Placed on suspense file.