BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 876
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Date of Hearing: April 13, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES
Das Williams, Chair
AB 876
(McCarty) - As Amended April 6, 2015
SUBJECT: Compostable organics
SUMMARY: This bill would require local governments to include
organic waste recycling facilities in the existing planning
requirements for countywide solid waste management.
EXISTING LAW, pursuant to the Integrated Waste Management Act of
1989 (Act):
1)Requires local agencies to divert, through source reduction,
recycling, and composting, 50% of solid waste disposed by
their jurisdictions.
2)Establishes a statewide diversion goal of 75% by 2020.
3)Requires a commercial waste generator, including multi-family
dwellings, to arrange for recycling services and requires
local governments to implement commercial solid waste
recycling programs designed to divert solid waste from
businesses.
4)Requires generators of specified amounts of organic waste
(i.e., food waste and yard waste) to arrange for recycling
services for that material.
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5)Requires that each jurisdiction to submit a countywide siting
element (CSE) to CalRecycle that includes:
a) A statement of goals for the environmentally safe
transformation and disposal of solid waste;
b) An estimate of the total transformation or disposal
capacity necessary for a 15-year period;
c) The remaining capacity of existing solid waste
facilities;
d) The identification of areas for the location of new
solid waste facilities that are consistent with the general
plan, if the county determines that existing capacity will
be exhausted within 15 years, or as specified; and,
e) For CSEs submitted after 2003, a description of the
actions taken to solicit public participation by the
affected communities, including low-income populations.
THIS BILL:
1)Requires that each CSE include an estimate of the total
organics processing capacity that will be needed for a 15-year
period to safely handle organic wastes generated within the
county.
2)Requires that the identification of areas for new solid waste
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facilities include organic waste processing facilities.
3)States that if the Commission on State Mandates determines
that the bill contains costs mandated by the state,
reimbursement to local agencies shall be made by the state.
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown
COMMENTS:
1)This bill. According to the author:
This bill would ensure that compostable organic waste is
properly processed by requiring municipalities to create a
15-year plan to estimate the amount of compostable waste
and to plan for facilities to process that waste. Without
proper planning, California will lose an opportunity to
divert millions of tons of organic waste from landfills.
Rather than allowing organic waste to rot and release
hazardous gases like methane, this bill would ensure that
it is turned into nutrient rich compost and environmentally
friendly biogas.
2)Meeting the state's recycling goals. CalRecycle is tasked
with diverting at least 75% of solid waste statewide by 2020.
Organic materials make up one-third of the waste stream and
food continues to be the greatest single item disposed, making
up over 15% of materials landfilled. CalRecycle is also
charged with implementing its Strategic Directive 6.1, which
calls for reducing organic waste disposal by 50% by 2020.
According to CalRecycle, significant gains in organic waste
diversion are necessary to meet the 75% goal and implementing
Strategic Directive 6.1. Recycling technologies for organic
waste include composting, anaerobic digestion, and other types
of processing that generate renewable fuels, energy, soil
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amendments, and mulch.
Compost and other soil amendments that can be produced from
organic materials have been shown to improve soil health by
incorporating organic matter, beneficial micro-organisms, and
nutrients and reduce the need for chemical pesticides and
fertilizers. These products also conserve water by allowing
water to penetrate the soil more quickly decreasing runoff.
3)Waste reduction and GHGs. According to ARB, a total reduction
of 80 million metric tons (MMT), or 16% compared to business
as usual, is necessary to reduce statewide GHG emissions to
1990 levels by 2020. ARB intends to achieve approximately 78%
of the reductions through direct regulations. ARB proposes to
achieve the balance of reductions necessary to meet the 2020
limit (approximately 18 MMT) through its cap-and-trade
program.
Recycling organic waste provides significant GHG reductions over
landfilling. Composting and other organics processing
technologies, including anaerobic digestion, reduce GHGs by
avoiding the emissions that would be generated by the
material's decomposition in a landfill. Landfill gas is
generated by the decomposition of organic materials such as
food, paper, wood, and yard waste. Fifty percent of landfill
gas is methane, a GHG that is 21 times more efficient at
trapping heat than carbon dioxide. While most modern
landfills have systems in place to capture methane,
significant amounts continue to escape into the atmosphere.
According to ARB's GHG inventory, approximately 7 million tons
of CO2 equivalent are released annually by landfills. That
number is expected to increase to 8.5 million tons of CO2
equivalent by 2020.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
AB 876
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Support
AFSCME, AFL-CIO
California Compost Coalition
California Organics Recycling Council
Californians Against Waste
Carbon Cycle Institute
CleanWorld
Environmental Action Committee of West Marin
San Francisco Department of the Environment
StopWaste
1 individual
Opposition
AB 876
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None on file
Analysis Prepared by:Elizabeth MacMillan / NAT. RES. / (916)
319-2092