March 1, 2022
Mayor Robert Garcia and City Councilmembers of Long Beach411 West Ocean BlvdLong Beach, CA 90802 Sent Via Electronic Mail
Re: Agenda Item No. 20 (22-0231) “Recommendation to adopt resolution to authorize CityManager to submit a Notice of Intent to Comply with the regulations of Senate Bill 1383(SB 1383) per the Senate Bill 619 (SB 619) Statute. (Citywide)” Dear Mayor and City Council of Long Beach,
As you are all aware, under SB 1383, jurisdictions across the entire state of California need todevelop and implement city-wide programs to collect and process organic waste, and arerequired to purchase the finished processed product, as well as roll-out programs to recoveredible food. There are different ways in which organic waste can be processed - some of whichare more harmful than others when considering the processing methods, and end-useapplications of the finished product.
Currently, the City of Long Beach released an RFP to look into processing organic waste atSERRF, and there are conversations at the city level that are looking towards anaerobicdigestion. Both are false solutions that keep us locked into relying on combustion and fossilfuels that will continue to harm our communities and contribute to climate change. Further, weshould not be relying on outdated, unreliable technology like SERRF which has been pollutingour air, land, and water for almost thirty-five years with numerous toxic pollutants andcompounds that pose grave threats to public health.
The City of Long Beach could be doing more to comply with SB 1383. Several cities around usalready provided green bins to their residents prior to the enactment of SB 1383, but our city isseverely behind because for decades it has opted towards burning waste of various types inexchange for miniscule amounts of electricity generated from the dirtiest energy possible.
Last summer, East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice hosted Zero Waste visioningsessions in which residents and groups across Long Beach named they want to see LongBeach adopt a zero waste goal and plan, and in regards to organic waste, would like to seelocal, decentralized composting systems. There are several examples and models of community
composting across the country, Los Angeles County, and an amazing group in our very own citynamed Long Beach Community Compost, that are processing food scraps into beneficialcompost that remains local. Composting not only nourishes the soil, but also has severaladditional benefits like water retention properties, reduced use of chemical fertilizers, andcarbon sequestration properties. Community composting is supported under SB 1383, caneasily be scaled with raised bed gardening, and our city needs to start investing now inneighborhood compost hubs that are accessible to everyone and simplify the process oforganics collection rather than relying on costly polluting technologies at the primary level, withadded entailed Vehicle Miles Traveled at the secondary level.
Our city has expressed interest in Zero Waste goals, but has failed to develop a city-wide goalor plan or policies to affect these goals, and has repeatedly contradicted that interest by itscontinued use of SERRF – failing to maximize the highest and best use of wasted resources.The City of Long Beach has the opportunity to create a path forward towards Zero Waste in howit chooses to prevent and manage and recover its own organic waste. Please direct City Stafftoresearch community composting and soil quality monitoring programs, engage with groups thatare operating community composting hubs, engage residents in creating and implementingaccessible community composting systems, and develop a Zero Waste policy for all City of LongBeach governmental accounts.
Thank you,
Whitney AmayaEast Yard Communities for Environmental Justice Dave ShuklaLong Beach Alliance for Clean Energy