Recycling: precious metals and critical minerals: report.

Senator McNerney's recycling initiative directs California's Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery to evaluate the state's capacity for recycling precious metals and critical minerals from electronic waste and other products. The department must submit a comprehensive report to the Legislature by January 1, 2028, examining current collection methods, recycling technologies, and opportunities to create domestic stockpiles of these materials.

The report will analyze existing and emerging extraction technologies, assess potential revenue from recycled materials, and identify barriers to establishing in-state recycling operations. The department must engage researchers, manufacturers, environmental organizations, and other stakeholders during the assessment process. The legislation authorizes the department to recommend product design practices that optimize end-of-life recycling of valuable materials.

This initiative builds upon California's electronic waste recycling programs, which currently divert hundreds of thousands of devices from landfills annually. While these programs successfully collect materials, the bill's findings note that components containing rare earth elements are typically exported to other countries for processing rather than recycled domestically. The department's analysis will examine opportunities to process these materials within California to support domestic manufacturing of green technologies.