Inside the Source Reduction Summit: Getting Ready for SB 54

In June 2026, Circle (The Circular Policy Leadership Network) and RTI convened the Source Reduction Summit — a two-day, in-person working forum for the packaging producers, suppliers, converters, and advisors covered by California's SB 54. It landed just after the first annual supply-data deadline and pointed teams toward the next milestone: the Individual Source Reduction Plan (ISRP), due August 1, 2026.

This post is a quick overview. For the full, data-rich findings, see the Source Reduction Summit findings page.

What SB 54 asks of producers

California's SB 54 sets ambitious 2032 targets for plastic packaging: a 25% source reduction (by weight and by component count), a 65% recycling rate, and 100% of packaging recyclable or compostable. The ISRP is the forward-looking plan that shows how a producer expects to contribute.

The core insight: readiness is an internal problem

The recurring conclusion from the room was simple and direct: reading the law is the easy part. The hard part is deciding what to do — and who owns it — across procurement, finance, packaging engineering, legal, marketing, and operations. A strong plan is less a compliance document than the start of an ongoing internal capability.

The five SB 54 source-reduction pathways

Every reduction action maps to one of five pathways:

1. Reuse & refill
2. Elimination
3. Switching to non-plastic materials
4. Right-sizing, lightweighting & concentrating
5. PCR (post-consumer recycled content) as alternative compliance

How the room worked: 50 case studies

The hands-on core was a grid of 50 real packaging case studies — ten sector groups (food, household, B2B/transport, e-commerce, QSR, cosmetics, retail, and CRV-exempt beverages) across the five pathways. Day 1 tested whether each reduction action was viable; Day 2 tested how to implement it.

What participants recommend

A few no-regrets moves that pay off regardless of how the rules settle:

• Build a component-level packaging database once — it powers reporting, fee modeling, and scenario planning.
• Bring the whole company in early, starting with procurement.
• Write your assumptions into the plan to manage greenwashing and disclosure risk.
• Start with your hardest, highest-volume packaging.
• Plan in good faith and treat suppliers as partners.

By the close, self-rated understanding of the ISRP jumped sharply — 97% of participants left rating their grasp "moderate" or better.

Read the full findings

This is a summary. The complete synthesis — scenarios, trade-offs, the case-study sectors, and what the two days changed — lives on the Source Reduction Summit findings page.

Anonymized, aggregate findings from a June 2026 EPR Readiness Circle convened by Circle and hosted by RTI. Chatham House Rule observed. Reviewed for antitrust compliance.