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Dear CAWA Members,
Next Tuesday, April 12, the Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee will hear AB 2153 by Assemblymember Cristina Garcia (D - Bell Gardens). AB 2153 seeks to place unnecessary car battery recycling requirements on California consumers and the automotive parts distribution industry.
To stop this bill, we are asking members to do a few things:
- Send in letters of opposition. Please send your letters to [email protected] and she will get them to the committee, committee members, and the author's office.
- Call the committee and committee member offices voicing your concerns.
- Post to social media.
Below you will find a draft letter to the committee, legislative contact information (including twitter handles), sample social media posts and a call script.
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[LOGO]
[DATE]
The Honorable Luis Alejo
Chair, Committee on Environmental Safety & Toxic Materials
1020 N Street, Room 171
Sacramento, CA 95814
RE: AB 2153 (C. Garcia) Duplicative Recycling Program - OPPOSE
Dear Assemblymember Alejo:
On behalf of [NAME OF ORG], I must respectfully oppose AB 2153 by Assemblymember Cristina Garcia. The bill seeks to place unnecessary car battery recycling requirements on California consumers and the automotive parts distribution industry.
[NAME OF ORG] opposes the bill because the automotive parts industry already has a proven track record of recycling car batteries, making this bill redundant. An astounding 99.6% of all lead-acid core batteries are recycled in California, a statistic utilized by Battery Council International, as well as the author's office.
AB 2153 is a flawed measure in many ways, most concerning is that it will unnecessarily add administrative costs to the recycling process that will be paid for by consumers, but will result in no additional batteries being recycled. In fact, it may likely reduce the number of batteries that are returned for recycling, currently exceeding a 99% return rate (more than glass, tires and beer and soda cans).
Furthermore, proposed changes to the Point-of-Sale (POS) systems are unworkable. Current POS systems established in our retail auto supply stores do not address a consumer's credit for anything other than the full value of the lead-acid core battery deposit charged when the consumer originally purchased their battery. Manual overrides of the POS system would have to be made by each and every transaction. Needless to say, our automated accounting systems will have to be abandoned in order to provide the exclusive handling of the battery credits. Consumers are due their entire battery core deposit in credit upon the purchase of a new battery.
[ADD ANY OTHER REASONS WHY THIS BILL WOULD NEGATIVELY IMPACT YOUR ORG]
For the reasons above
we urge your NO vote when the bill is brought before you in the Environmental Safety & Toxic Materials Committee. Please feel free to contact me with any questions about our position. I can be reached at [EMAIL, PHONE NUMBER].
Sincerely,
NAME
TITLE
ORG
c.c. Members of the Committee on Environmental Safety & Toxic Materials
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Legislative contact information - please call the following offices:
**Call Script**
Hi my name is _________ and I am calling from ________________. May I please speak to the person who staffs the member on the Environmental Safety & Toxic Materials Committee?
(once you get that person on the line)
- I am calling today to express concerns over AB 2153 (Garcia), a bill that is scheduled to be heard on Tuesday, April 12 in the Environmental Safety & Toxic Materials Committee.
- The author would like to amend the bill in committee, but we haven't seen the final version of the amendments, which is concerning for many reasons.
- As someone in the automotive parts industry, I know first-hand how lead-acid core batteries are recycled in the State of California.
- The industry as a whole should be congratulated for recycling 99.6% of all these batteries. No other recycled item comes close to having that rate of success.
- We are also concerned about the proposed changes to the Point-of-Sale systems.
- Current POS systems established in our retail auto supply stores address a consumer's credit for full value of the lead-acid core battery deposit charged when the consumer originally purchased their battery.
- Can we count on your member to vote NO when the bill is heard in committee?
Thanks for your time.
**Please make provide us any feedback you are getting from these calls - send to [email protected]
Sample Tweets (please swap in each of the member's Twitter handles):
.@AsmLuisAlejo DYK the recycling rate of lead from lead-acid batteries in the US is 99% -
http://bit.ly/1TzQRLG #NoOnAB2153
.@AsmGarcia: Good news for consumers and the environment, recycling rate of lead from lead-battery batteries is 99%. #NoOnAB2153
.@AsmLuisAlejoDYK Lead-acid batteries are recycled more than glass, tires AND beer/soda cans? #NoOnAB2153
.@AsmGarcia: DYK 99% of battery lead is recycled? #NoOnAB2153
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