
2025 Program Agenda
This year, we’re continuing our efforts to reduce waste, protect public health, and defend consumers.

CALPIRG is an advocate for the public interest. We speak out for the public and stand up to special interests on problems that affect our health, environment, and well-being. Every year, we outline our major program priorities. This year we’re continuing our efforts to reduce waste, protect public health, and defend consumers.
Beyond Plastic
Nothing we use for a few minutes should threaten our health and pollute our future for hundreds of years. That’s why we’ve been working to move California beyond single-use plastic. Over the last decade, California has taken actions to curb plastic waste, including recently approving the Plastic Pollution Producer Responsibility Act, which mandates significant reductions in single-use foodware and packaging and holds producers financially responsible for the plastic they put into our communities. While this law represents a huge step forward, we’re not done yet.
- CALPIRG supports policies to eliminate the most unnecessary and harmful single-use plastic items, like plastic water bottles, polystyrene foam, excessive plastic packaging, and toxic plastic materials. This will help us meet the new state targets faster and clean up our communities now.
- CALPIRG supports updating local regulations on plastic bags to ban plastic carryout bags at venues beyond grocery stores, like retail stores and restaurants.

Right to Repair
When our stuff breaks, it means more cost to consumers, and it also means more waste. California took action to save consumers money and reduce waste by passing the Right to Repair Act, giving Californians what they need to fix electronics and appliances. California should extend those same protections to farmers in need of fixing farming equipment and hospital technicians in need of fixing medical equipment. Ultimately, we need to end the cycle of buy, use, toss.
- CALPIRG supports efforts that will increase transparency of how easy it is to fix a product, like creating repair scores, which are EnergyGuide-like labels for repairability, measuring the availability of spare parts, ease of disassembly, and longevity of support.
- CALPIRG supports policies that will tackle unnecessary electronic waste by reducing disposable electronics, like disposable vapes.

Waste is Out of Fashion
Around the world, a dump truck’s worth of clothing is sent to a landfill or incinerator every second. Clothing overproduction is poisoning our water, contributing to climate change, and generating enough waste to fill the Great Wall of China twice by 2050. Last year, California took action by passing the Responsible Textile Recovery Act, which shifts the costs of clothing waste from taxpayers to the companies, holding them financially accountable for the waste management of their overproduction. CALPIRG supports thorough implementation of this law. CALPIRG also supports further policies that tackle clothing overproduction and waste, including prohibiting the landfilling or incineration of unsold clothing.

Stop Toxic PFAS
We are exposed to PFAS “forever” chemicals, which are linked to cancer and other illnesses, in water, food, and consumer products. We support policies that ban the use of PFAS in consumer products, clean up contamination in our water and communities, and hold industry accountable for damage they have caused.

Got PFAS?
Get the Lead Out
Lead contamination of drinking water at schools and childcare centers is a widespread threat to our children’s health. California should immediately start addressing this threat by requiring water utilities to fully replace all lead plumbing. CALPIRG also supports policies that require schools and childcare centers to replace old fountains with lead-filtering water bottle stations and install filters certified to remove lead at all other taps used for cooking and drinking.

Safe and Healthy Homes
Burning fossil fuels in our homes and businesses pollutes the air we breathe inside and outside of our buildings. A recent Stanford study found that exposure to nitrogen dioxide emissions from gas stoves alone may contribute to nearly 200,000 cases of pediatric asthma in the United States each year. Despite the threat this poses to our planet and our health, three out of every four American homes still directly burn fossil fuels for heating, hot water or to run appliances.
- CALPIRG supports policies to inform and protect consumers from the health and safety risks of gas stoves, including appliance standards, ventilation requirements and warning labels.
- CALPIRG supports incentives to help families electrify their homes.

Clean, Efficient Energy Use
California’s reliance on polluting fuels puts our health and safety at risk. We support policies to increase clean, efficient energy use.
- CALPIRG supports policies that help us meet and accelerate our commitment to 100% clean, renewable electricity, including incentivizing more solar and storage, going big on offshore wind and pursuing transformative energy conservation and efficiency measures.
- CALPIRG supports robust funding for zero-emission vehicles and infrastructure, including EV charging stations and funding to help schools transition to electric school buses.

Utility Watchdog
CALPIRG advocates are constantly on the lookout for utility abuses against consumers, bad energy investments, and unfair rate hikes that harm the public.
- CALPIRG supports increased transparency in utility costs and holding energy companies accountable for excessive spending that drives up bills for consumers.
- CALPIRG supports prohibiting ratepayer money from being used for political lobbying.
Polluters Pay Principle
To deal with the worst toxic waste sites polluting our environment, we need the industries responsible to help pay for their cleanup. CALPIRG supports programs and policies that ensure polluters pay to clean up toxic sites that threaten our air, water and soil, including superfund sites and idle and orphan oil wells.

High-Value Health Care
We live in a country with some of the best hospitals, doctors and medical technology in the world. But the simple truth is Americans pay too much for health care and don’t get enough value in return. We need to get control of healthcare costs by stopping practices that drive up costs. Healthcare markets are highly consolidated, creating monopoly pricing without any demonstrated improvements in quality. In addition, often patients are unable to find prices before services are provided, further solidifying the power health systems have over patients. CALPIRG supports policies that will shed light on healthcare prices and eliminate unfair billing practices, such as eliminating unjustifiable added charges like “facility fees” in doctor’s offices and increasing oversight of anticompetitive practices and antitrust violations in the healthcare market.

Privacy and Data Protection
Almost every company we interact with collects data on us – like what we buy and when. Companies often sell this data to other parties, increasing the risk that our personal information will be a part of a data breach, fall into the hands of scammers, or be used for invasive targeted advertising. Some companies even harvest, store, sell and use our data to train AI models, keeping information about us for way longer than necessary. We support policies that prohibit companies from collecting and using our data for purposes other than delivering the service we’re expecting to get.

Protecting Consumers
Too many products, practices and technologies put consumers’ health, safety or well-being at risk. CALPIRG supports policies that protect consumers from unsafe products, unfair practices, or exploitative policies that leave us vulnerable in the marketplace.
- CALPIRG supports price transparency in the marketplace, especially with hospital prices and the increasingly expensive ticket industry.
- CALPIRG supports better regulation of financial technology companies to ensure consumers are protected from data breaches, scammers, and rip-offs.
- From risky imported toys to recalled cars, CALPIRG supports actions to get unsafe products off the market.

Your gift can help us do even more in 2025
Will you help us curb plastic pollution, phase out dangerous pesticides, and stand up for consumers? Donate by midnight 12/31 and your gift will be matched, up to $50,000 nationwide.
Authors
Fiona Hines
Legislative Advocate, CALPIRG
Fiona supports CALPIRG’s advocacy efforts across the state, leading campaigns to reduce plastic waste and protect public health. Fiona lives in Los Angeles, where she enjoys spending time in the sunshine and seeing live music.