California’s Global Warming Solutions Act and AB 341

California’s Global Warming Solutions Act (2006) prompted a scoping plan from the California Air Resources Board that included mandatory commercial recycling in order to achieve a reduction of five million metric tons of CO2-e, based on the notion that recycling reduces GHG emissions from multiple upstream phases of product production and avoided methane emissions at landfills. Subsequently, the state passed the Mandatory Commercial Recycling Regulation (AB 341), adopted in 2012 to further reduce landfill methane emissions via upstream organic material diversion from landfill disposal.