BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 876 Page 1 Date of Hearing: April 29, 2015 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Jimmy Gomez, Chair AB 876 (McCarty) - As Amended April 6, 2015 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Policy |Natural Resources |Vote:|7 - 2 | |Committee: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: YesReimbursable: Yes SUMMARY: This bill requires local governments to include organic waste recycling facilities in existing planning requirements for countywide solid waste management. Specifically, this bill: AB 876 Page 2 1)Requires that each county siting element (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 facilities to specifically include the identification of organic waste processing facilities. FISCAL EFFECT: 1)Increased initial implementation costs of approximately $380,000 (special fund) annually for two years for CalRecyle to advise counties, verify and approve siting elements, and enforce the new requirements. 2)Ongoing costs to CalRecyle of approximately $200,000 (special fund) annually. 3)Potential reimbursable state mandated costs in the hundreds of thousands of dollars (GF) range to counties if this bill is determined to be a reimbursable state-mandate. COMMENTS: 1)Purpose. According to the author, without proper planning California will lose an opportunity to divert millions of tons of organic waste from landfills. This bill would ensure that compostable organic waste is properly processed by requiring municipalities to create a 15-year plan to estimate the amount AB 876 Page 3 of compostable waste and to plan for facilities to process that waste. 2)Background. 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 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. Analysis Prepared by:Jennifer Galehouse / APPR. / (916) 319-2081 AB 876 Page 4