The Most Important Issues Currently On Our Radar
HB 1314 Could Effectively Put Washington Printers Out Of Business
UPDATE as of February 5, 2024 – HB 1314 did not make it out of committee and is effectively done for the current session.
HB 1314 aimed at addressing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in consumer products and included language that would ban the sale of any paint or printing ink that contains chlorine-based pigments in Washington state as of January 1, 2025.
A similar bill, SB 5369, was introduced last session and included an amendment that, as Gary Jones reported in piworld.com, “would have a devastating impact on the printing industry, because some of the most common inks such as process yellow or process blue would no longer be allowed to be sold in the state.” It does not appear that acceptable alternatives are currently available. At the last minute, the amendment was pulled and SB 5369 passed without any threat to industry.
Companion bill, HB 1314, was introduced in the current session and referred to the Environment & Energy Committee and did not leave the committee. We do not believe that the sponsor is done with this proposed legislation and we expect that it will reappear in the next session. As such, we are working hard to educate our legislators about the severe economic impact that this ban would have.
SB 6005/HB 2409 Would Hold Packaging Producers Responsible For Recycling
UPDATE as of February 26, 2024 – Both SB 6005/Hb 2409 did not make it out of their respective House of Origin and are considered dead for the 2024 legislative session.
The Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislation that’s been introduced every year since 2021 just will not go away. This year’s version, SB 6005, does not include the recycling of bottles and cans which sunk last year’s bill.
If passed, SB 6005 would raise the cost of doing business for many printers. Printers that fall under the definition of “producer” in the bill would have to meet reporting requirements and pay as-yet-to-be-determined fees to a Producer Responsibility Organization. The bill is now with the Fiscal Committee but it is uncertain if it will move further.
A striker amendment to SB 6005’s companion bill, HB 2049, has been introduced. A striking amendment removes everything after the title and inserts a whole new bill. A key provision for the industry is that the striker amendment “excludes, from producer responsibility organization (PRO) participation requirements, products demonstrated by a producer to … (4) have a Washington recycling rate or is directly managed by the producer and recycled at a rate exceeding 65 percent prior to 2028 and 70 percent beginning in 2029.” This provision is known as an off ramp and works to capitalize on the recycling success that certain industries have achieved in recent years such as paper recycling.
Based on the EPR legislation in other states, there is much that still needs to be deliberated. Our advocacy efforts for this bill are focusing on emphasizing the great results that we already have for recycling paper and cardboard.
SB 5924 Would Have Created Yet Another Private Cause Of Action
SB 5924 did not pass! The bill would have required an employer to furnish an employee, former employee or their designee with the employee’s personal file, at no cost, within 21 calendar days of a request.
In addition, within 21 calendar days of receiving a written request from a former employee (from the past three years) or their designee, an employer must furnish a signed written statement regarding the former employee’s effective discharge date and reason of discharge.
While none of this appeared unreasonable on the surface, the catch is that these requirements could be enforced through a private cause of action. Which means that an administrative error, such as a missing time record, could have become cause for a lawsuit. For each violation, the person would be entitled to equitable relief, statutory damages (ranging from $250 to $1,000 per violation) and reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs.