BILL NUMBER: AB 997	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Chesbro

                        FEBRUARY 22, 2013

   An act amend Section 40116.1 of, and to add Section 40103 to, the
Public Resources Code, relating to solid waste.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 997, as introduced, Chesbro. Composting: anaerobic digestion.
   The California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989 establishes
an integrated waste management program administered by the
Department of Resources Recovery and Recycling that requires each
city, county, and regional agency, if any, to develop a source
reduction and recycling element of an integrated waste management
plan. The element is required to divert 50% of the solid waste
subject to the element through source reduction, recycling, and
composting activities. The act allows the source reduction and
recycling element to include not more than 10% diversion through
transformation, which is defined as excluding, among other things,
composting. The act defines the term "composting" for the purposes of
the act as the controlled or uncontrolled biological decomposition
of organic wastes. The act also defines the term "solid waste
facility," for purposes of the permitting requirements of the act, as
a composting facility.
   This bill would define the term "anaerobic digestion," for
purposes of the act, as a process using the bacterial breakdown of
compostable organic material in a controlled environment that meets
the parameters that may be established by the department, and would
revise the definition of the term "composting" to include anaerobic
digestion.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 40103 is added to the Public Resources Code, to
read:
   40103.   "Anaerobic digestion" means a process using the bacterial
breakdown of compostable organic material in a controlled
environment that meets the parameters that may be established by the
department.
  SEC. 2.  Section 40116.1 of the Public Resources Code is amended to
read:
   40116.1.  "Composting" means the controlled or uncontrolled
biological decomposition of organic wastes  , including through
anaerobic digestion  .