Pending regulations now being developed by CalRecycle will have a significant impact on persons generating, transporting, recycling and disposing of organic waste in California. These regulations should become final by mid-2018, but due to statutory limitations, will not actually become effective until 2022. However, the time to begin preparing for these new regulations聽is now. Landfilling of organic waste will no longer be a significant option by 2025. Alternative means of reducing or handling organic waste will have to be developed. The cost of developing organic waste reduction or recycling programs has been informally estimated to exceed $1 billion in the Los Angeles region alone鈥攑robably $3 billion statewide. The majority of these costs will likely have to be borne by persons and businesses who generate organic wastes.
In September 2016, Governor Brown signed SB 1383 (Lara, Chapter 395, Statutes of 2016), establishing methane emissions reduction targets in a statewide effort to reduce emissions of short-lived climate pollutants (SLCP) in various sectors of California鈥檚 economy.
As it pertains to CalRecycle and the management of organic waste, SB 1383 establishes targets to achieve a 50 percent reduction, based on 2014 levels, in the statewide disposal of organic waste by 2020鈥攁nd a 75 percent reduction by 2025. Methane emissions resulting from the decomposition of organic waste in landfills are believed to be a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions contributing to global climate change. Organic materials鈥攊ncluding waste that can be readily prevented, recycled or composted鈥攁ccount for a significant portion of California鈥檚 overall waste stream. The law gives CalRecycle the regulatory authority to achieve the organic waste disposal reduction targets and establishes an additional target that not less than 20 percent of currently disposed edible food be recovered for human consumption by 2025.
What waste materials will be targeted by CalRecycle? Here is the agency鈥檚 currently proposed definition of organic waste: 鈥淥rganic Waste鈥� means solid waste containing material originated from living organisms and their metabolic waste products,聽including, but not limited to, food, green waste, landscape and pruning waste, applicable textiles and carpets, wood, lumber, fiber, manure, biosolids, digestate and sludges.
Not only will services that collect, process and manage organic solid waste be affected, so will generators of organic waste, including, but not limited to, hotels, restaurants, institutions, hospitals, landscaping firms and food processors鈥攖o name just a few. However, it is still unclear exactly what standards individual generators, service providers and local jurisdictions will have to meet to remain in compliance with this new聽mandatory聽program鈥攁nd the overall 2025 statewide goal of a 75 percent reduction in organic waste disposal.
CalRecycle is currently planning to establish direct regulatory oversight of local government jurisdictions and organic waste generators that are outside of local jurisdictions鈥攕uch as schools and state/federal agencies. However, the agency is also planning to exercise 鈥渟econdary鈥� regulatory oversight of organic waste generators, haulers, waste-facility operators and food-recovery organizations. Local jurisdictions will have primary regulatory oversight over these activities as well.
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