AN ACT PROMOTING REUSABLE SHOPPING BAGS.

This bill requires retailers other than restaurants to charge customers (people who buy goods from retailers) five cents for each disposable paper or plastic bag they distribute, starting January 1, 2010. It requires that a part of the proceeds fund municipal recycling programs, which the bill creates. It prohibits municipalities from regulating the retail use of plastic or paper bags starting October 1, 2009, but does not affect any such ordinance adopted before then.

By law, towns must report annually to the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) on their recycling obligations. The bill eliminates a requirement that this report include the amount of each recyclable item delivered to a recycling facility or scrap metal dealer, as reported to the municipality by the facility or dealer.

EFFECTIVE DATE: October 1, 2009, except for the provision requiring DEP to (1) create a municipal recycling grant program and (2) report annually on the programs created by the bill, which takes effect July 1, 2009.

The bill requires retailers who provide customers with disposable plastic or paper bags at the point of sale to charge customers five cents per bag, starting January 1, 2010. Retailers must submit the fee proceeds to the Department of Revenue Services (DRS).

The bill requires DEP to use the fee proceeds to fund recycling programs the bill creates, preserve open space, protect the environment, and oversee state parks and forests.

The bill excludes restaurants from this requirement. Under the bill, a restaurant is a business whose sole purpose is preparing and selling food and beverages intended for individual portion service, including the location where the sale takes place, regardless of where the food or beverage is consumed.

Retailers must submit the disposable bag fee proceeds to DRS for the quarter beginning January 1, 2010, together with a DRS-prescribed return form, by April 30, 2010. Retailers must thereafter submit these forms and fees to DRS each calendar quarter, by the last day of the month immediately following the end of each quarter (i. e. , by April 30 for the quarter ending March 31). The DRS commissioner must distribute copies of the return forms throughout the state. But retailers who do not receive a return form still must submit a return, along with the proceeds, by the quarterly deadlines.

A retailer who fails to submit the fees on time will be charged a penalty of 10% of the amount due, or $ 50, whichever is greater, in addition to the amount owed. The penalty begins accruing immediately. The retailer must thereafter pay 1. 5% interest per month on the delinquent amount until it is paid.

The bill creates a “recycling initiatives account” as a separate, non-lapsing account in the General Fund into which DRS must deposit the fee proceeds. The account must hold all the money that must be deposited in it by law. The DEP commissioner must use this money to fund the recycling programs the bill creates; preserve open space, including state parks and forests; and protect the environment.

The bill requires that the disposable bag fee not affect the amount of state sales tax charged the customer. This appears to mean that the charge for the bags is not subject to the sales tax. Existing laws concerning tax refund claims; willful failure to pay taxes; tax records, hearings, and appeals procedures; allowing the DRS commissioner to examine tax records; tax collection; and liens against real estate as security for a tax apply to the disposable bag fee, except that all statutory references to “tax” must be read as “fee. ”

The bill requires DEP to establish, by January 1, 2011, a municipal recycling matching grant program for municipalities to implement, or improve existing, recycling programs. The maximum grant is $ 200,000, which cannot be used to fund more than half the estimated cost of implementing or improving a recycling program. DEP cannot award more than $ 4. 6 million annually. Each municipality can receive only one grant.

1. a pay-as-you-throw program in which residents pay for trash removal based on the volume or weight of the solid waste they generate but nothing for material they recycle;

2. other recycling incentives, such as offering retail coupons to households that meet certain recycling goals; or

3. single stream recycling.

Single stream recycling is a system in which a resident combines all paper fibers and containers (metal, plastic, glass, etc. ) in one collection bin, instead of separating them.

A municipality may apply for a grant by submitting a DEP-prescribed application form. The commissioner may reject a grant application she finds is incomplete. If she rejects an application, the commissioner must promptly notify the applicant and explain why she did so. The applicant may resubmit its application no later than 15 days after receiving this notice.

Each municipality the commissioner selects to receive a grant must submit a plan for her approval that includes:

1. an estimate of the operating and capital expenses and income required to implement the plan;

2. recycling goals;

3. an estimate of the tipping fee savings, if applicable;

4. a method to track the program's actual cost; and

5. any additional information the commissioner requires.

By January 1, 2011, DEP must establish a municipal recycling receptacle grant program for municipalities to buy recycling receptacles for public spaces such as parks, schools, and municipal buildings that already have trash receptacles. Each municipality is eligible for one grant of up to $ 5,000. DEP cannot award more than $ 250,000 in grants annually.

The application process is the same as for the recycling program matching grant program, but applicants do not have to submit a plan for the commissioner's approval.

The DEP commissioner may retain up to $ 200,000 a year to administer the matching grant and recycling receptacle grant programs.

By January 1, 2012 and annually thereafter, DEP must report to the Environment and Finance, Revenue and Bonding committees on (1) the amount of revenue received annually from the disposable bag fee, (2) the number of grants issued, (3) the number of municipalities receiving the grants, and (4) the amount of solid waste generated by each recipient town in the year following receipt of its grant.

Under the bill, a “disposable bag” is a plastic or paper sack provided at the point of sale for the storage of purchased goods. The bill excludes (1) reusable bags made of cloth or durable plastic at least 2. 25 mils (0. 00225 inches) thick; (2) bags used to store produce, flowers, baked goods, or meat that a retailer provides at a location other than the point of sale; (3) bags used to cover dry cleaned items; (4) paper bags a pharmacy provides to store purchased pharmaceuticals; and (5) plastic bags used to wrap newspapers delivered to homes.

By law, retailers include people in the business of making sales (1) at retail or in the business of making retail sales at auctions of tangible personal property and (2) for storage, use, or other consumption, or in the business of making sales at auction of tangible personal property for storage, use or other consumption. It includes sellers rendering specific services; people under whom any salesman or representative operates in this state, or from whom such salesman or representative obtains the tangible personal property that is sold. It includes certain people making retail sales from outside the state to a destination within the state and not maintaining a place of business here, and others (CGS § 12-407 (12)).

A Westport town ordinance banning retailers' use of plastic bags took effect March 19, 2009.

On April 20, the House referred the bill (File 360) to the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee, which favorably reported a substitute that requires DEP to (1) annually report to the Finance Committee as well as the Environment Committee and (2) include in the report the amount of revenue received annually from the disposable bag fee the bill creates.

Yea

Nay

(03/13/2009)

Yea

Nay

(04/27/2009)