Hello CALSAFE Members,
I would like to bring an important legislative matter to your attention that could have an impact on our industry.
A new ordinance, the Los Angeles County Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Ordinance, is currently being proposed to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. While this ordinance may not directly affect your company at this time, we believe it is important for all CALSAFE members to be aware of it. If approved, similar ordinances could potentially be adopted by other counties and cities throughout California.
The proposed ordinance would include fire extinguishers among the products covered by the program. Under the proposal, manufacturers would be responsible for the disposal of fire extinguishers and would be subject to an associated fee. We are concerned that these additional costs could ultimately be passed on to consumers, resulting in increased prices for fire extinguishers sold throughout California.
This issue was brought to our attention through FEMA, NAFED, and Jamie Knowles of Amerex. In response, the CALSAFE Board of Directors submitted a letter to Los Angeles County requesting that fire extinguishers be removed from the list of products covered by the proposed ordinance. A copy of the letter submitted by CALSAFE is included with this newsletter for your review.
CALSAFE will continue to monitor this issue closely. As additional information becomes available, we will keep our members informed and post updates on the CALSAFE website.
On a brighter note, we recently held our 2026 CALSAFE Annual Conference in Carlsbad on October 2–3. We had a great event and appreciate everyone who attended, participated, and helped make the conference a success. We look forward to sharing photos and highlights from the conference in our 4th Quarter Newsletter.
Thank you for your continued support of CALSAFE and for your commitment to our industry. We look forward to keeping you informed and working together on issues that affect our businesses and our profession.
Sincerely,
Matthew McCarrick
President, CALSAFE