17 States Challenge California's Plastic Packaging Law

This week, 17 state attorneys general and the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors filed suit in the Eastern District of California, asking a federal court to strike down California's plastic packaging law as unconstitutional.

The complaint, filed June 22, challenges the Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act, commonly known as SB 54. Enacted in 2022, the law mandates that by 2032, all single-use packaging and plastic food serviceware sold, distributed, or imported in or into California must be recyclable or compostable. It also imposes interim source-reduction targets (a 25 percent reduction by weight and by plastic component by 2032), escalating recycling-rate mandates (30 percent by 2028, 40 percent by 2030, and 65 percent by 2032), and a series of fees on "producers" administered by Circular Action Alliance (the sole producer responsibility organization designated by CalRecycle).