Business Agenda Item 5j
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STAFF REPORT
City Council Business Agenda Item
DATE: June 6, 2022
TO: Honorable Mayor and Council Members
FROM: Merritt Perry, City Manager
SUBJECT: Mandatory Organic Waste Disposal Ordinance
STAFF RECOMMENDATION:
Conduct second reading and adopt Ordinance 2022-755 adding Chapter 8.14 to the Fortuna Municipal Code establishingmandatoryorganicwaste disposalreduction regulationstoimplement and enforce CalRecycle organics regulations and SB 1383.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
In September 2016, Governor Brown signed into law 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 varioussectors of California's economy. The new law codifies the California Air Resources Board's Short-Lived Climate Pollutant Reduction Strategy, established pursuant to SB 605 (Lara, Chapter 523, Statutes of 2014), to achieve reductions in the statewide emissions of short-lived climate pollutants. Actions to reduce short-lived climate pollutants are essential to address the many impacts of climate change on human health, especially in California's most at-risk communities, and on the environment.
From 2016-2020, the California Department of Resources, Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) worked to develop regulations to achieve the goals of SB 1383. These new regulations were finalized by CalRecycle in November 2020. The regulations went into effect January 1, 2022 and every city and county in California is required to have an enforceable SB 1383 Ordinance in place by this date. The law establishes statewide targets to reduce the amount of organic waste disposed of in landfills (50% reduction by 2020 and 75% by 2025). It also sets a goal to rescue at least 20% of currently disposed edible food by 2025 and redirect that food to people in need.
The state defines “Organic waste” as food, landscape and pruning trimmings, lumber, wood, manure, cardboard, paper products, printing and writing paper, and other plant and animal- based products. The SB 1383 regulations require that jurisdictions conduct education and outreach on organics recycling to all residents, businesses (including those that generate edible food that can be donated), haulers, solid waste facilities, and local food banks and other food recovery organizations.
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With the delaysin finalizing the SB 1383 regulations, CalRecycle has prioritized three components of the regulations to be in place prior to January 2022: an enforceable ordinance, an edible food recovery program, and mandatory organics collection. As a response to the challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated delays in rulemaking for SB 1383, Governor Newsom signed Senate Bill 619, which allows agencies to request that CalRecycle waive finesfor non-compliance by January1, 2022. The fines would only be waived for agencies that have a "Notice of Intent to Comply" (NOIC) on file with CalRecycle by March 2022.
The City Council authorized the City Manager to submit the Notice of Intent to comply on February 22, 2022, which was submitted by the City Manager on February 24, 2022.
There are many parts of SB 1383 that will take time and effort to develop and implement. The City is working on an Implementation Plan in collaboration with the HWMA and other jursidictions in Humboldt County. A part of that effort was the development of a roadmap of options for how we might look to identify the requirements of the various portions of the new regulations. The City will have to make changes to the City's waste collection, recycling, and organics programs in the next few years to satisfy the requirements of SB 1383.
Ordinance 2022-755 will satisfy the City’s requirement to adopt an enforceable ordinance, but delay implementation of the requirements until January 1, 2023. If changes need to be made before the effective date, or the effective date is changed, that will remain an option for the City.
It is important for the City to adopt this ordinance now so that the City can qualify for the local assistance grant that it applied for to fund some of the planning work required to comply with SB 1383. The City will receive a minimum of $20,000 that will fund staff and consultant efforts currently underway, provided that an ordinance is adopted prior to June 14, 2023.
A workshop was held on May 2, 2022, at which the council reviewed the draft ordinance and received input from the public. Linda Wise with Recology was also present, and answred questions regarding the draft ordinance and how the ordinance would impact collection programs within the City.
The City Council conducted the first reading of the draft ordinance on May 16, 2022.
Gary Bell of the Colantuono, Highsmith, & Whatley Law firm that has been assisting the City with the development of the draft ordinance and negotiating the franchise agreement will be on hand to answer questions regarding the draft ordinance.
The next step after adopting the ordinance will be for the City to update the solid waste franchise agreement with Recology to reflect SB 1383 requirements that the City will be requesting they complete as a part of their contract with the City. As a part of that process, it will be necessary to review potential rate changes to support the new organic collection and recycling requirements.
Additionally, staff is considering adding a staff position to the city organizational chart to be responsible for activities necessary for compliance with SB 1383.
Some of the key components of the legislation related to the ordinance are described in more detail below.
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SUMMARY OF KEY COMPONENTS OF SB 1383
Organics and Recycling Collection
Jurisdictions are required to provide organic waste collection to all residents and businesses, which means providing service automatically and not relying on the generator to subscribe.
SB 1383 requires specific colors for waste collection containers: trash containers must be grey or black, organics containers must be green, and recycling containers must be blue. All new containers must be clearly labeled with what does and does not go into them. • Beginning in 2022, SB 1383 requires every jurisdiction to provide organic waste collection servicesto all residents and businesses.Thisis what we referto as automatically providing service, mandatory service, or universal service, in which the resident or businessis automatically provided the service. The City has identified January 1, 2023 as the intended date to comply with this requirement in the NOIC, as equipment is not available to be able to collect this waste until then, and there is currently no place to take organic waste to for recycling.
• The regulations require contamination monitoring in curbside collection containers. This will be delegated to the City’s waste hauler in an update of the Franchise agreement.
Edible Food Recovery
The City must identify the edible food recovery generators that are required to implement edible food recovery programs, connect them with local food recovery organizations, provide annual outreach to the edible food generators about their requirements under SB 1383, and perform annual inspections to ensure they have contracts in place with edible food recovery organizations, and are keeping records of all recovered edible food
Education and Outreach
The law will require the City to conduct specific outreach to residents, schools, businesses, edible food generators, on an annual basis. The outreach must be translated into multiple languages, based on the most recent census results.
Procurement Requirement
Beginning January 1, 2022, the City must annually procure a certain quantity of recovered organic waste products. Jurisdictions can fulfill their target by procuring recycled organic waste products like compost, mulch, renewable natural gas (RNG), electricity, and recycled-content paper and paper products. This requirement has also been delayed and documented in the NOIC submitted by the City and will be implemented at a future date.
• Organic Waste Product Requirements
Each jurisdiction will have a minimum procurement target for recycled organic waste products that is calculated based on its population. CalRecycle will provide a calculator for a jurisdiction to use to calculate progress towards meeting their target. CalRecycle will notify jurisdictions of their target prior to January 1, 2022. This component of the regulation is subject to significant future regional discussion and coordination as most Business Agenda Item 5j
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jurisdictions are unclear as to the mechanisms and operational capacity to procure, use, and place large quantities of compost or mulch.
• Recycled-Content Paper and Paper Product Requirements All City departments that make paper purchases will be required to purchase and keep purchase records for paper products that contain postconsumer recycled content and are recyclable.
Capacity Planning
The City must collaborate with the County and the other jurisdictions located within the county to determine the necessary organic waste recycling and edible food recovery capacity needed to divert organic waste and edible food from the landfill as required under the regulations.
Jurisdictions must do an annual compliance review of commercial businesses to ensure they are subscribed to collection service. This requirement was previously established by California's Mandatory Commercial Organics Recycling law (AB 1826, Chesbro, Chapter 727, Statutes of 2014).
Contamination Monitoring
The regulations require waste audits to be conducted on each trash, recycling, and organics route regularly, to check bins for contamination (recycling and organics not being sorted correctly).
Specific recording, reporting and follow-up is required for any contamination that is found. This will likely be included in an updated franchise agreement with Recology.
In addition to the main six elements outlined above the City is required to implement enforcement mechanism and provide annual reports to CalRecycle regarding our compliance.
RECOMMENDED COUNCIL ACTION:
1. Open the Public Hearing
2. Receive staff presentation and review Council questions with staff
3. Open Public Comment
4. Close Public Comment
5. Motion to conduct second reading and adopt Ordinance 2022-755, by title only. Roll Call vote.
ATTACHMENTS:
Ordinance No. 2022-755, An Ordinance Of The City Council Of The City Of Fortuna, California Amending Title 8 – Health and Safety Of The Fortuna Municipal Code By Adding Chapter 8.14– Organic Reduction and Recycling Ordinance