CalRecycle must establish a source reduction baseline — a measurement of single-use plastic packaging and food service ware sold, offered for sale, and distributed in the state in 2023 — by January 1, 2025, under the Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act (SB 54, Allen, Chapter 75, Statutes of 2022, the Act).The Needs Assessment Report of Findings: Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act Source Reduction Baseline, produced under contract, outlines the methodologies utilized by Accenture in estimating the source reduction baseline. This technical report is not the final baseline adopted by CalRecycle. Formal establishment of the baseline is an action that must be taken separately by CalRecycle, based on its own expertise and statutory authority, and may be informed by this report and any other relevant information in the department’s records. The baseline is the estimated amount of plastic covered material that was sold, offered for sale, or distributed in the state in the 2023 calendar year (see more information in Public Resources Code (PRC) Section 42057(a)(1), (b)). Plastic covered material includes single-use plastic packaging (primary, secondary, tertiary) and single-use plastic food service ware, including both items made fully of plastic and items made partially of plastic (see Definitions and Terminology below and definitions under PRC Section 42041). The baseline is comprised of separate figures for the weight and the number of plastic components of plastic covered material. The estimate for weight only includes the plastic portion of plastic covered material. To estimate the baseline, Accenture developed three models that rely primarily on publicly available data: (1) Single-Use Plastic Packaging Model (2) Single-Use Plastic Food Service Ware Model (3) Single-Use Plastic Food Service Ware Packaging Model. Accenture combined outputs from these models to formulate the estimated baseline.