BILL ANALYSIS Ó HR 20 Page 1 Date of Hearing: May 4, 2015 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON RULES Richard Gordon, Chair HR 20 (Williams) - As Introduced April 27, 2015 SUBJECT: Compost Awareness Week. SUMMARY: Designates the week of May 3, 2015 through May 9, 2015, as Compost Awareness Week. Specifically, this resolution makes the following legislative findings: 1)Compost is an important soil amendment and is critical to the state's valuable agricultural industry; and, composting is an effective form of waste reduction, reuse, and recycling: and since compostable organic materials make up approximately 42 percent of the material going to landfills, composting is becoming one of the primary methods used by communities to reach waste diversion goals. 2)Communities, through their local governments, highway departments, soil conservation services and extension offices, and public works professionals, can have a significant impact on clean water, soil, climate change, and landfill diversion by using compost for public works projects. 3)Composting California's food waste could cut landfill methane emissions by up to 3 million tons of carbon dioxide per year, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an additional 3.3 million tons, through the use of finished compost in agriculture. HR 20 Page 2 4)Composting creates green jobs and infrastructure for cities and states that implement composting programs and the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery estimates that recovering a significant portion of our organic waste stream could create 14,000 new jobs in the state by 2020. FISCAL EFFECT: None REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION: Support Association of Compost Producers Opposition None on file Analysis Prepared by:Nicole Willis / RLS. / (916) 319-2800 HR 20 Page 3