Bill Name: Solid waste: products: environmental marketing claims

Bill Number: AB-2253

Bill Author(s): Assembly Member Tasha Boerner

Legislative Session / Year: 2026

State: California

AVFCA Position: Support

Bill Synopsis: This bill strengthens California's environmental marketing standards by expanding the state's existing recycled content claim requirements, currently applying only to plastic food container products, to cover all products sold in the state. This ensures that any manufacturer or supplier making a recycled content marketing claim is held to the same documentation and substantiation standards regardless of product type. The bill requires that recycled content claims be based on actual physical recycled content present in the product, explicitly prohibiting the use of credit-based accounting methods that allow companies to claim recycled content that isn't physically in the product being sold. This legislation is needed because the current narrow application leaves most consumer products unregulated, and the growing use of accounting workarounds has enabled misleading claims that undermine consumer trust and disadvantage companies making real investments in recycled content.