SPRINGFIELD — By Sunday morning, Illinois laws will require automobile passengers to wear a seat belt even if they are in the back seat of a car, will prohibit people from throwing their old computers and other electronic waste into the trash where it will end up in a landfill, and will require that a sex offender must register with the public safety or security director at a college or university he or she is employed at or attends.

The measures are among nearly 220 laws that go into effect as the new year begins.

They are not uniformly popular.

Sen. Shane Cultra, R-Onarga, said the Legislature passes too many laws, and he cited HB 2193, which requires purchasers of certain caustic substances, including drain openers and toilet cleaners, to provide an ID and sign a log documenting the purchase.

"That is just terrible. It needs to be repealed immediately," Cultra said. "How is it going to save anyone from using this material in the wrong way? It's just a paperwork nightmare."

Legislative records show, however, that Cultra voted for the legislation. In fact, no lawmaker in either the House or the Senate opposed it.

"I don't think there's any doubt about it that there are too many laws," he said. "The reason we have too many laws is that the legislators have allowed the leaders to usurp their power and they're not involved in the budget and the things that are really important to the state right now."

Cultra said lawmakers pass new laws "to show people that you're doing something when you're down there. You introduce legislation that you normally wouldn't have time for, or which wouldn't be important to you if you were working on real things that need to be done."

But other lawmakers said most of the bills passed are needed.

"When you let the process work at the end of the day, there's usually a legitimate issue and a legitimate reason for things to happen. It's the stuff that comes through at the last minute that is often the problem," said Rep. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet. "Much of the time you can take care of problems with a phone call or a rule. But the problem is that sometimes an agency is doing things a particular way because of a law. So lots of time what you're really doing is not passing new laws but rewriting existing laws to make them better."

Rep. Jason Barickman, R-Champaign, agreed with Cultra "that we ought not be running to Springfield to create a number of new laws. But the reality is that there are a number of laws on the books today that often have unintended consequences that are remedied only by new legislation."

Here are some of the major new laws going into effect Jan. 1:

— Hospital report cards now will be accessible on the state Department of Public Health website.

— The state Transportation Department will be able to issue a switchgrass production permit to allow private entities to grow and harvest switchgrass on certain rights of way.

— Hotels will be required to be equipped with at least one smoke detector within 15 feet of every room used for sleeping purposes.

— A mandatory prison sentence will be required for the unlawful use or possession of a weapon by a convicted felon or a Corrections Department inmate on parole or mandatory supervised release.

— Corrections Department inmates will be required to pay a $5 co-pay (up from $2) for each non-emergency medical or dental visit.

— School boards will be allowed to suspend or expel a student who makes an explicit threat on a website against a school employee or student.

— A school bus company that has a reasonable suspicion that a driver is under the influence of alcohol or drugs can require the driver to submit to alcohol and drug testing before driving a bus.

— All current and future elected and appointed officials in the state will be required to take Open Meetings Act training courses administered by the attorney general's office.

— All former first-degree murder convicts will be required to be on a state-administered registry for at least 10 years following their release from prison.

— State statutes will be changed so that all references to "mental retardation" are replaced with "intellectual disability" and references to "crippled" will become "physically disabled."