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Revised regulations from the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) have gone into effect that are intended to decrease the use of new plastic and increase the use of recycled postconsumer plastic to manufacture rigid containers - affecting manufacturers and distributors.

At issue are a wide variety of rigid plastic packaging containers, or RPPCs, such as bottles, buckets and the clamshells often found enclosing or protecting many automotive products. CalRecycle has notified a number of product manufacturers through a notice in the mail that informs the company they have been identified as a product manufacturer that sells or offers for sale products in California which are held within Rigid Plastic Packaging Containers - including direct sales, retail sales, and remote sales through distributors wholesalers' and the internet.

According to the CalRecycle web site www.calrecycle.ca.gov/plastics/rppc/#rppc, a regulated RPPC sold in California must meet at least one of the following criteria:

• Made from at least 25 percent postconsumer plastic;
• Container weight be reduced by at least 10 percent;
• "Reusable" and routinely reused at least five times; or
• Have a 45 percent recycling rate.

Under the revised rules:

• Product manufacturers must register with CalRecycle within 90 days of receiving a notice from the agency. To ensure compliance, visit CalRecycle's registration web page at www.calrecycle.ca.gov/plastics/RPPC/register.htm ;
• Product manufacturers that sell products in RPPCs in California are responsible for using compliant RPPCs. California sales include remote sales through distributors and/or wholesalers' and through the internet;
• The RPPC must be capable of at least one closure (including closure during the manufacturing process);
• The "reusable" term now excludes containers that store original products for sale; and,
• Manufacturers cannot switch to using a different plastic resin in an RPPC to achieve a 10 percent weight reduction.

Additional information is available by going to the CalRecycle web site: www.calrecycle.ca.gov/plastics/rppc/#rppc.

On July 9, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) published a request for comments on the report covering vehicle thefts during calendar year 2011 of model year 2011 vehicles (CY11/MY11). The preliminary data shows a 91.45 percent decrease in CY11/MY11 vehicles compared to CY10/MY10. It is also the lowest CY/MY vehicle theft rate since trend tracking began in 1993.

The data is collected using model year production numbers reported by vehicle manufacturers to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) along with theft data from the National Crime Information Center, a division of the FBI. The total number of thefts in a particular vehicle line is divided by the total number manufactured in that vehicle line in order to determine the theft rate. In 2010 the rate was 1.17 thefts per 1,000 vehicles. In 2011, initial reports indicate that number has dropped to .1 per 1,000 vehicles.

According to the NHTSA, "The agency believes that the theft rate reduction is a result of several factors, including vehicle parts marking; the increased use of standard antitheft devices and other advances in electronic technology (i.e., immobilizers) and theft prevention methods; increased and improved prosecution efforts by law enforcement organizations; and increased public awareness which may have contributed to the overall reduction in vehicle thefts."

To see further details, including how to comment on the initial report of data, please visit http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2013-07-09/pdf/2013-16428.pdf .