It can cost up to $65 for a jurisdiction to deal with one single-use propane cylinder that was disposed of improperly.
“These things have exploded. … They split open,” said Nate Pelzcar of the California Public Stewardship Council. “We saw these issues arising, and they’ve gotten nothing but worse.”
The cylinders he’s referring to are typically a forest green 1-pound metal canister, sold under brands like Coleman and Benzomatic. They fit and fuel camp stoves and gas lanterns and are meant to be used up and tossed. But most people don’t trash them correctly, Pelzcar said, which can be dangerous.
“It’s almost impossible to get all that gas out,” he said. “The proper way to get rid of those, as it always has been for products like this, … is to take those unwanted cylinders to those hazardous waste processing facilities.”
More than 4 million single-use propane cans are purchased annually in California, according to the Stewardship Council, a nonprofit that works to write and pass legislation and ordinances to regulate toxic products and hold their manufacturers accountable. Director of Administration Pelzcar said that it costs local governments millions of dollars annually to fish those cans out of the waste stream and properly deal with them.
That’s why the council worked with state Sen. John Laird (D-Santa Cruz) to get Senate Bill 1280 passed in 2024, banning the sale of single-use propane cylinders in the state. The governor signed it last year, and the ban goes into effect in 2028. But 2024 wasn’t the bill’s first attempt, and an outright ban wasn’t always the goal.
“It actually took three tries,” Laird said.
Former state Sen. Bob Wieckowski (D-Castro Valley) was the first to introduce a propane ban bill, Laird said. But the governor vetoed it and requested that the Legislature work with the industry to craft an extended producer responsibility bill, where propane canister makers would be involved in helping get the cylinders out of the waste stream and crafting a recycling program in the state. But Laird said the industry resisted.
Pelzcar called the discussions “slow-rolling.”
“Obviously in an effort to maintain the status quo,” he said. “They simply weren’t interested.”
The biggest resistance, Pelzcar and Laird said, came from Worthington Enterprises, which distributes Coleman and Benzomatic one-time use propane cylinders as well as other brand names. With a leading manufacturer holding up the process, Laird said he re-introduced the original bill—an outright ban—with a three-year lead time built in to give the state time to build the infrastructure to support refillable 1-pound propane cylinders.
It’s the first bill of its kind in the U.S.
He did this for a couple of reasons. One-time use canisters aren’t disposed of properly. Campers stash them by dumpsters, people throw them in the trash or recycling, and it’s up to taxpayers to foot the cost of disposing of them properly. Yosemite National Park, Laird said, spends between $70,000 and $100,000 annually on the problem.
And they can be dangerous. They often still have gas inside when they’re thrown out. When trash trucks compact their loads, the cans—which are under pressure—can explode.
“We shouldn’t put it on cities or national or state parks to clean up the aftermath of these that are discarded,” Laird said. “It’s an issue on the Central Coast because of the number of beaches. … People just leave them or they discard them in trash cans.”
San Luis Obispo County spends between $18,000 and $24,000 per year on the issue, Integrated Waste Management Authority (IWMA) Executive Director Peter Cron said.
Processing trash involves compacting it and bailing it together, Cron said. Although the IWMA has a process for sorting and removing the cylinders at its processing facility, staff doesn’t always catch them all.
“When packed into a cube, they will ignite,” Cron said. “There are times when they ignite and they don’t cause a lot of trouble. … There are times where they ignite things inside the bail and cloud up the sensors and shut us down for an hour.”
It’s not uncommon for something like that to happen three or four times a year, he said.
The IWMA received a grant from CalRecycle to help the county distribute 350 refillable propane cylinders and educate residents and local businesses about them. Cron said the California Product Stewardship Council helped with promotional work and getting places like The Mountain Air to commit to the refillable program.
Refillable canisters are more durable and sturdier than single-use cylinders. They’re double-walled and made to be refilled up to 100 times, Cron said, adding that people often have the misconception that the single-use canisters are refillable. They aren’t.
He encourages residents to take their used ones to a household hazardous waste collection site. Visit iwma.com to find one near you.
“I think it’s cool that California is the first state to do this,” Cron said. “We buy the most propane.”
This article appears in Get Outside – Winter/Spring 2025.