BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1826
.
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
Senator Jerry Hill, Chair
2013-2014 Regular Session
BILL NO: AB 1826
AUTHOR: Chesbro
AMENDED: June 16, 2014
FISCAL: Yes HEARING DATE: June 25, 2014
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT: Rebecca Newhouse
SUBJECT : SOLID WASTE: ORGANIC WASTE
SUMMARY :
Existing law :
1) Under the California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989
(Public Resources Code �40000 et seq.):
a) Specifies a state policy goal that 75% of solid waste
generated be diverted from landfill disposal by 2020.
b) Requires each local jurisdiction to divert 50% of
solid waste from landfill disposal.
c) 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.
2) Under the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006
(commonly referred to as AB 32), requires the Air Resources
Board (ARB) to determine the 1990 statewide greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions level and approve a statewide GHG emissions
limit that is equivalent to that level, to be achieved by
2020, and to adopt GHG emissions reductions measures by
regulation. ARB is authorized to include the use of
market-based mechanisms to comply with these regulations.
(Health and Safety Code �38500 et seq.).
AB 1826
Page 2
This bill :
1) Requires businesses that generate organic waste to arrange
for recycling services for that material on the following
schedule:
a) Beginning January 1, 2016, a business that generates
eight cubic yards or more of organic waste per week;
b) Beginning January 2, 2017, a business that generates
four cubic yards or more of organic waste per week; and,
c) On and after January 1, 2019, a business that
generates four cubic yards or more of solid waste per
week, or two cubic yards of solid waste if specified
findings are made by the Department of Resources
Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle).
2) Exempts a business from the above requirements if it is in a
rural jurisdiction, as defined, where the county board of
supervisors of the county, city or regional agency that
contains the rural jurisdiction, adopts a resolution that
make findings as to the purpose of and need for the
exemption.
3) Makes the above exemption inoperative on or after January 1,
2020, if CalRecycle finds that statewide organics disposal
has not reduced 50% from 2014 levels, and that applying the
diversion requirements in rural jurisdictions will result in
significant additional reductions of disposal or organic
waste.
4) Defines "business" as a commercial or public entity
including, but not limited to, a firm, partnership,
proprietorship, joint stock company, corporation, or
association that is organized as a non-profit or for-profit
entity, or a multifamily dwelling.
5) Defines "organic waste" as food waste, green waste,
landscape and pruning waste, non-hazardous wood waste, and
food-soiled paper mixed with food waste.
AB 1826
Page 3
6) Defines "organic waste recycling facilities" as composting
facilities or as an operation or facility that processes,
transfers, or stores compostable material.
7) Requires businesses that generate organic waste generators
that are subject to the organic recycling requirements in
this bill to do one of the following:
a) Source separate organic waste from other waste and
subscribe to a basic level of organic recycling service.
b) Source separate organic waste from other solid waste
and manage its organic waste on site or self-haul its own
organic waste.
c) Subscribe to an organic waste recycling service that
may include mixed waste processing that specifically
recycles organic waste, or make other arrangements
consistent with selling or donating the waste.
8) Requires businesses that contract for landscaping or
gardening services to require that the organic waste
generated be recycled in compliance with the bill.
9) Specifies that multifamily dwellings of fewer than five
units are exempt from the requirements of this bill, and
specifies that food waste generated by multifamily dwellings
of five or more units is not subject to the requirements of
this bill.
10)On and after January 1, 2016, requires each local
jurisdiction to implement an organic waste recycling program
that is appropriate for the jurisdiction and designed to
divert organic waste generated by businesses. Specifies
that local jurisdictions that have an organic waste
recycling program in place prior to January 1, 2016, and
that meet certain requirements, do not have to implement a
new or expanded program.
11)Requires the program to:
a) Identify existing solid waste recycling and organic
waste recycling efforts in the jurisdiction, permit and
zoning requirements, incentives and barriers for organic
AB 1826
Page 4
waste recycling development and other specified items.
b) Provide education, outreach and monitoring for
businesses.
c) Notify the businesses if they are not in compliance
with the organic waste recycling requirements.
12)Authorizes organic waste recycling programs to include a
mandatory organic waste recycling policy or ordinance,
mandatory commercial organic waste recycling through a
franchise contract or agreement or requirement for organic
waste processing to divert organic materials from disposal.
13)Authorizes the organic waste recycling program to include
enforcement provisions, certification requirements for
self-haulers and to exempt businesses from the requirements
of the bill on a case-by-case basis for specified reasons.
14)Requires local jurisdictions to include specified
information relating to the organic waste recycling program
in each jurisdiction's annual report to CalRecycle and
requires CalRecycle to review a jurisdiction's compliance
annually.
15)Specifies that if a local jurisdiction adds or expands an
organic waste recycling program pursuant to the bill, it is
not required to update its source reduction and recycling
element or obtain CalRecycle's approval.
16)Specifies that the bill does not limit the authority of a
local jurisdiction to adopt requirements that are more
stringent than the bill and clarifies that the bill does not
modify, limit, or abrogate:
a) A solid waste franchise granted by a local government;
b) A contract, license, or permit to collect solid waste
granted by a local government; or,
c) The existing right of a business to sell or donate its
recyclable organic waste materials.
AB 1826
Page 5
17)Requires CalRecycle to identify and recommend actions to
address state and federal permitting and siting challenges
and to encourage the continued viability of the state's
organic waste processing and recycling infrastructure.
18)Requires CalRecycle to cooperate with local government
agencies and the solid waste industry to provide assistance
and incentives for increasing the feasibility of organic
waste recycling and requires CalRecycle to post funding
mechanisms available for the development of organic waste
infrastructure.
COMMENTS :
1) Purpose of Bill . According to the author, "AB 1826 will
help California achieve the state's air quality, GHG, and
waste reduction goals by diverting organic materials from
landfills."
2) Statewide Waste Diversion Goals . CalRecycle is tasked with
diverting at least 75% of solid waste statewide by 2020.
Currently, organic materials, including green waste, make up
one-third of the waste stream (approximately 11 million
tons) and food waste continues to be the highest single
category of disposal at over 15%. Green materials, such as
lumber, cardboard, and leaves and grass comprise over 20%.
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 (through
recycling technologies for organic waste including
composting and anaerobic digestion) are necessary to meet
the 75% goal and to implement Strategic Directive 6.1.
Anaerobic digestion, which produces biogas that can be
processed to biomethane fuel, is particularly suited to
handle food waste. Green waste is more efficiently
processed through composting. Compost, in addition to
improving the quality of soil, prevents soil erosion,
reduces the need for chemical fertilizers and pesticides,
and enables better soil water retention.
AB 1826
Page 6
3) Greenhouse Gasses and Organic Waste . Landfill gas is
generated by the anaerobic decomposition of organic
materials such as food, paper, wood, and green material.
Fifty percent of landfill gas is methane, a GHG with a much
shorter life, but much higher global warming potential than
CO2 (methane is approximately 25 times more efficient at
trapping heat than carbon dioxide over a 100-year time
span). Depending on the types of solid waste, the chemical
makeup of landfill biogas can vary greatly from the biogas
produced from dairy farms and municipal solid waste and
wastewater treatment facilities.
Local air districts regulate air emissions from stationary
sources and have adopted rules to implement federal and
state emission standards for municipal solid waste
landfills, primarily targeting reductions in ozone
precursors and hazardous air pollutants, but which also
provide supplemental methane emission reductions.
In 2009, pursuant to authority under AB 32 as a discrete
early action measure, landfill methane capture regulations
were adopted and requires owners and operators of certain
uncontrolled municipal solid waste landfills to install gas
collection and control systems for methane emissions, and
requires existing and newly installed gas and control
systems to operate in an optimal manner. Often, these
emission control systems involve a combustion step as a way
to reduce the emissions of methane and other organics.
Even with advanced methane landfill control systems,
however, significant amounts of methane from landfills
continue to escape into the atmosphere. According to ARB's
updated Scoping Plan, approximately 8 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.
Recycling organic waste provides significant GHG emission
reductions over landfilling. Composting and other organics
processing technologies, including anaerobic digestion,
reduce GHG emissions by avoiding the emissions that would be
generated by the material's decomposition in a landfill. In
AB 1826
Page 7
the case of anaerobic digestion, the process produces
methane from the organic waste in a controlled environment
for use as a renewable fuel, and results in climate benefits
by both reducing GHGs from landfills, and displacing fossil
fuels.
4) AB 341 (Chesbro) . AB 341 (Chesbro) Chapter 476, Statutes of
2011, requires businesses and multifamily residential
dwellings of five or more units that generate more than four
cubic yards of solid waste per week to separate recyclable
materials from solid waste and "subscribe to a basic level
of recycling service" that includes collection,
self-hauling, or other arrangements for the pickup of the
recyclable materials or subscribe to a recycling service
that may include mixed waste processing that yields
diversion results comparable to source separation.
AB 1826 creates a similar framework to AB 341 specifically
for commercial generators of organic waste and requires
businesses and multifamily residential dwelling to either
source separate organic waste and subscribe to a "basic
level of organic recycling service," source separate and
manage on-site or self-haul, or subscribe to an organic
waste recycling service that may include mixed waste
processing.
However, AB 1826 is unclear regarding what a "basic level of
organic recycling service" includes.
An amendment is needed to specify that a basic level of
organic recycling service includes collection and recycling
of organic waste.
5) Organic Waste Recycling Facilities . The bill currently
defines organic waste recycling facilities as composting,
anaerobic digesting (AD), or chipping facilities. Local
jurisdictions, as a part of their organic waste recycling
programs, are required to identify various types of these
facilities, as a part of their annual reporting to
CalRecycle. Although these are important types of organic
waste recycling facilities, they do not represent the only
types of facilities or ways that local jurisdictions can
recycle their organics. For instance, the definition
AB 1826
Page 8
excludes small scale composting facilities, and the reuse of
organics through agricultural feed.
In order to ensure that local governments have ample
flexibility when developing their programs, the definition
of "organic waste recycling facility" should be removed from
the bill.
6) Rural County Exemption . AB 1826 defines a rural
jurisdiction as a jurisdiction located within a rural county
(defined as having a population under 100,000) or a regional
agency comprised of jurisdictions that are located within
one or more rural counties.
California has a total of 58 counties, 23 of which would be
considered "rural counties" under the bill. According to
CalRecycle, these counties account for approximately 2.2% of
the solid waste stream. AB 1826 allows these jurisdictions,
through the adoption of a resolution with findings on the
purpose and need for their exemption, to exempt themselves
from the provisions of this bill. AB 1826, however, sunsets
this exemption in 2020, if CalRecycle is not meeting a 50%
reduction in organic waste diversion from levels in 2014 and
determines that inclusion of rural jurisdictions would
significantly contribute to meeting this goal.
7) Technical amendments . The following technical and clarifying
amendments are needed:
a) For clarity and consistency with other provisions of
the bill, the phrase "has not decreased by 50 percent
from" on page 4, line 19, should be changed to "has not
been reduced to 50 percent of."
b) An incorrect section reference on page 5, line 7
should be changed from 42469.84 (which does not exist) to
42649.82.
c) A reference to subparagraph (A) should be included on
AB 1826
Page 9
page 6, line 14.
8) Related Legislation .
a) AB 1594 (Williams) of 2014, phases out solid waste
diversion credit for green material used as landfill
cover. AB 1594 will be heard by the Senate Environmental
Quality Committee on June 25th.
b) AB 341 (Chesbro), Chapter 476, Statutes of 2011,
requires businesses and multifamily dwellings that
generate at least four cubic yards of solid waste to
arrange for recycling services on and after January 1,
2012.
SOURCE : Author
SUPPORT : American Biogas Council
Association of Compost Producers
Biodegradable Products Institute
Bioenergy Association of California
Breathe California
California Biomass Energy Alliance
California Climate and Agriculture Network
California Coastal Protection Network
California League of Conservation Voters
California Resource Recovery Association
Californians Against Waste
Castaway Solutions
Center for Biological Diversity
City of Los Angeles
City of San Francisco
City of San Jose
CleanWorld
Clean Power Campaign
Coalition for Clean Air
Community Alliance with Family Farmers
Costa Mesa Sanitary District
County of San Francisco
CR&R Environmental Services
East Bay Municipal Utility District
Ecology Center
Environment California
AB 1826
Page 10
Frank M. Booth Design Build Co.
GAIA
Global Green USA
GrassRoots Recycling Network
Greenaction
GreenWaste Recovery
Harvest Power
Inland Empire Disposal Association
LAANE
Los Angeles County Waste Management Association
Marin County Hazardous and Solid Waste
Management
Joint Powers Authority
Napa Recycling & Waste Services
Natural Resources Defense Council
NatureWorks
Northern California Recycling Association
Peabody Engineering
Planning and Conservation League
Recology
Rethink Waste/South Bayside Waste Management
Authority
Sierra Club, California
Solid Waste Association of Orange County
Sonoma Compost Co.
Synergex International
US Composting Council
Vasko Electric, Inc.
OPPOSITION : California Restaurant Association
City of Commerce
City of West Hollywood
County Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles
County
Los Angeles County Solid Waste Management
Committee/Integrated Waste Management
Task Force
San Luis Obispo County, Integrated Waste
Management Authority
AB 1826
Page 11