Porterville City Council Gives Green Signal to Go Ahead with Proposed CalRecycle Plan

SEATTLE (Waste Advantage): The Porterville City Council Tuesday approved city staff to move forward with a 12-month plan proposed by CalRecycle to ensure compliance with Assembly Bills 341 and 1826 requirements.

“What they would prefer is that you [city council] self regulate and adopt an ordinance that would require this,” said City Manager John Lollis, adding, “It is the objective of the legislation that there be 100 percent participation and the success of your program is determined and judged by if you get 100 percent compliance.”

City Public Works Director Mike Reed said AB 341 legislation was passed in late 2011, and requires that on and after July 1, 2012, a business that generates more than four cubic yards of commercial solid waste per week or is a multifamily residential dwelling of five units or more shall arrange for recycling services. Reed said AB 341 also requires that on and after July 1, 2012, each jurisdiction shall implement a commercial solid waste recycling program appropriate for that jurisdiction designed to divert commercial solid waste from businesses subject to the legislation.

If a jurisdiction already has a commercial solid waste recycling program as one of its diversion elements that meets the requirements, Reed said it shall not be required to implement a new or expanded commercial solid waste recycling program. He said the commercial solid waste recycling program shall include education of, outreach to, and monitoring of, businesses. A jurisdiction, Reed said, shall notify a business if the business is not in compliance with the legislation.

Reed said AB 1826 legislation was passed in late 2014, and requires that on and after April 1, 2016, a business that generates a specific amount of organic waste per week to arrange for recycling services for that organic waste in a specified manner. Reed said organic waste as defined by the act means food waste, green waste, landscape and pruning waste, nonhazardous wood waste, and food soiled paper waste that is mixed with food waste.

In April 2016, Reed said the threshold was eight cubic yards or more of organic waste per week, and decreased to four cubic yards or more of organic waste per week on Jan. 1, 2017. Effective Jan. 1, 2019, a business that generates four cubic yards or more of solid waste will be required to arrange for organic waste services, Reed said. He noted that jurisdictions are required to implement an organic waste recycling program that is appropriate for that jurisdiction and designed specifically to divert organic waste generated by businesses subject to the act.

Reed said the organic waste recycling program shall provide for the education of, outreach to, and monitoring of, businesses, and requires a jurisdiction to notify a business if the business is not in compliance with the legislation.

Reed said both AB 341 and AB 1826 specifically authorize the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle), to conduct reviews of jurisdiction’s mandatory commercial recycling (MCR) programs and/or mandatory commercial organics recycling (MORe) programs at any time to determine whether each jurisdiction has made a “good faith effort” to implement its selected recycling programs. Good faith effort, Reed said, is defined in the legislation as all reasonable and feasible efforts by a jurisdiction to implement its recycling programs.

On Jan. 12, Reed said the city received a correspondence from CalRecycle regarding the status of CalRecycle’s review of whether the City of Porterville is complying with meeting its AB 341 and AB 1826 requirements. After reviewing the city’s MCR and MORe program implementation for 2016, Reed said CalRecycle determined there are gaps in the programs that warranted further review by CalRecycle’s Jurisdictional Compliance Unit (JCU).

Lollis said 62 percent of eligible businesses in the city are not participating. He noted that CalRecycle would like to see 50 percent.

“So, through increased pressure and outreach, perhaps we can bridge that gap,” Lollis said.

Lollis noted a reason why some businesses may not want to participate is because of costs, an issue he believes can be fixed by encouraging partnerships.

Vice Mayor Brian Ward agreed.

“Maybe businesses can share a recycling thing if they are in close proximity,” Ward said.

Reed said the city was given 30 days to provide a detailed plan addressing the informational and programmatic gaps indicated by CalRecycle, and if the gaps were adequately addressed through the submitted plan, the city would not be referred for further review by JCU. On Feb. 13, 2018, Reed said staff submitted a plan to CalRecycle that they believed fully addressed the informational and programmatic gaps indicated.

However, on Feb. 14, 2018, Reed said CalRecycle deemed the plan to be insufficient, but as a courtesy, they offered a plan for both the city’s MCR and MORe programs. Reed said the plan is based off of the city’s initial 2012 plan, submitted as part of the Consolidated Waste Management Authority (CWMA), and benchmarked goals set by CalRecycle.

Courtesy: https://wasteadvantage.com