Amended in Assembly May 19, 2016

California Legislature—2015–16 Regular Session

House Resolution No. 51

Introduced by Assembly Member Quirk

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(Coauthors: Assembly Members Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Arambula, Atkins, Baker, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mayes, Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago, Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk, and Wood)

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May 2, 2016

House Resolution No. 51—Relative to Compost Awareness Week.

WHEREAS, Composting is an effective form of waste reduction,
reuse, and recycling, and since organic materials make up
approximately 30 percent of the material going to landfills,
composting is becoming one of the primary methods communities
use to reach waste diversion goals and create sustainable
communities; and

WHEREAS, Chapter 719 of the Statutes of 2014 phased out
diversion credits for organic alternative daily cover in landfills
and Chapter 727 of the Statutes of 2014 statutorily mandated
commercial recycling of organics; and

WHEREAS, Section 42649.87 of the Public Resources Code
requires the California Environmental Protection Agency, in
coordination with the Department of Resources Recycling and
Recovery, the State Water Resources Control Board, the State Air
Resources Board, and the Department of Food and Agriculture,
to “develop and implement policies to aid in diverting organic
waste from landfills by promoting the use of agricultural, forestry,
and urban organic waste as a feedstock for composting and by
promoting the appropriate use of that compost throughout the
state”; and

WHEREAS, Materials, including yard trimmings, vegetable
cuttings, biosolids, food scraps, manures, and hay shavings, have
been composted and converted into a beneficial product known as
compost; and

WHEREAS, Returning organic resources to the soil reduces
water consumption by over 30 percent on all soil types, conserves
water during extreme drought or flooding conditions, decreases
dependence on chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and decreases
erosion and nonpoint source pollution; and

WHEREAS, Composting is recognized by the State Air
Resources Board as an important tool to sequester massive amounts
of carbon in California’s soils to help immediately reverse global
warming; and

WHEREAS, Communities, through their local governments,
highway departments, soil conservation services, and public works
professionals, can have significant impact on clean water, soil,
climate change, and landfill diversion by using compost for public
works projects; and

WHEREAS, International Compost Awareness Week is a
multimedia publicity and educational initiative to showcase
compost production and demonstrate compost use; and

WHEREAS, Composting creates green jobs and infrastructure
for cities and states that implement composting programs; and

WHEREAS, The United States Composting Council, Canada,
and the United Kingdom have declared the first week of May to
be the annual International Composting Awareness Week; and

WHEREAS, The Association of Compost Producers is the
California State Chapter of the United States Composting Council
and manages International Composting Awareness Week in
California; and

WHEREAS, The theme of 2016, “Compost: the Soil and Water
Connection,” is a great way to get the message out regarding
compost and its many benefits to communities and property
owners; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, That the
week of May 1, 2016, through May 7, 2016, is hereby designated
as Compost Awareness Week; and be it further

Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies
of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.