Used Mattress Recovery and Recycling Act: mattress recycling charge: consumer education.

Assembly Member Hoover's mattress recycling legislation modifies California's Used Mattress Recovery and Recycling Act by creating new payment options for the mandatory recycling charge while expanding consumer education requirements. The measure allows distributors, retailers, and sellers to directly pay recycling fees to mattress recycling organizations on behalf of consumers through written agreements, rather than requiring the charge to appear as a separate line item on customer receipts.

The bill establishes new responsibilities for mattress sellers regarding consumer education about recycling programs. Distributors, retailers, and sellers must inform customers about mattress recycling processes and available free drop-off or collection services. The legislation maintains the existing requirement that recycling charges be remitted to mattress recycling organizations according to established procedures, while introducing a formal definition of "functionally equivalent document" to standardize how recycling charge information is conveyed to consumers.

These modifications to the state's mattress recycling framework take effect 90 days after the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery approves the program budget. The existing program, administered by qualified industry associations, continues to oversee the recovery and recycling of used mattresses through fees added to new mattress purchases.