City Council
259 N. Wilma Avenue
Ripon, CA 95366
MEMO
To: Honorable City Council
From: James Pease, Public Works Director
Date: 03/14/2023
Subject: Resourceability
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Approve and authorize the Mayor to sign the Professional Services Agreement with Resourceability in the not to exceed amount of $10,000 to assist in complying with current and future Cal Recycle regulatory requirements (funding source: Garbage Enterprise Operating Fund).
BACKGROUND:
At the November 10, 2020 City Council meeting, Council approved the General Services Agreement with Halpin Compliance Solutions for an amount of $10,000. Over the past two years Halpin Compliance Solutions has provided valuable assistance to staff with compliance for the Cal Recycle regulatory requirements outlined below.
The City of Ripon along with all jurisdictions in California, are subject to several California solid waste laws, four major pieces of legislation make up the majority of the regulations that affect the City, local residents and local businesses including AB 939, AB 341, AB1826 and SB1383.
AB 939 established the "California Integrated Waste Management Act (IWMA) of 1989." Established an integrated waste management hierarchy to guide the California Integrated Waste Management Board and local agencies in implementation, in order of priority: (1) source reduction, (2) recycling and composting, and (3) environmentally safe transformation and land disposal. Included the following major provisions that affect the City:
• Integrated Waste Management Planning - Incorporated the Integrated Waste Management Plan (IWMP). Required each city, by 7/1/91, to prepare, adopt and submit a Source Reduction and Recycling Element (SRRE) to the county which includes the following components: waste characterization; source reduction; recycling; composting; solid waste facility capacity; education and public information; funding; special waste (asbestos, sewage sludge, etc.); and household hazardous waste. • Waste Diversion Mandates - Required each city or county plan to include an implementation schedule which shows: diversion of 25 percent of all solid waste from landfill or transformation facilities by January 1, 1995 through source reduction, recycling, and composting activities; and, diversion of 50 percent of all solid waste by January 1, 2000 through source reduction, recycling, and composting activities.
AB 341 Mandatory Commercial Recycling - Requiring businesses to recycle depending on the amount of waste they generate per week. Local jurisdiction required to implement a commercial solid waste recycling program that consists of education, outreach and monitoring of businesses in an effort to divert commercial solid waste from businesses. Each jurisdiction must summarize the program compliance and submit annual reports to the State, which are then reviewed by Cal Recycle staff for review and approval.
AB 1826 Mandatory Commercial Organics Waste Recycling - Requiring businesses to recycle organic waste on and after April 1, 2016, depending on the amount of waste they generate per week. This law also required that on and after January 1, 2016, local jurisdictions across the state implement an organic waste recycling program to divert organic waste generated by businesses, including multifamily residential dwellings that consist of five or more units (multifamily dwellings are not required to have a food waste diversion program). Organic waste for the purposes of AB 1826, means food waste, green waste, landscape and pruning waste, nonhazardous wood waste, and food-soiled paper waste that is mixed in with food waste.
SB 1383 Short Lived Climate Pollutants (SLCP): Organic Waste Methane Emissions Reductions - Establishing methane emissions reduction targets in a statewide effort to reduce emissions of short-lived climate pollutants in various sectors of California's economy. Established a target of a 50 percent organics disposal reduction by 2020 and a 75 percent reduction by 2025 using 2014 as the baseline. The law grants Cal Recycle the regulatory authority required to achieve the organic waste disposal reduction targets and establishes an additional target that not less than 20 percent of currently disposed edible food is recovered for human consumption by 2025. The SLCP regulations are very restrictive and include most sectors such as residential, commercial businesses, commercial food generators, schools, industrial and government entities. In January of 2022 Ripon adopted enforceable ordinances that are consistent with the requirements of the SLCP regulations to mandate compliance from organic waste generators, haulers and other entities. SB 1383 requires each resident and business subscribe to an organic waste collection service that either source separates the waste (separate bins), or transports all unsegregated waste to a facility that recovers 75 percent of the organic content collected from the system.
DISCUSSION/ANALYSIS:
The previous contract with Halpin Compliance Solutions has expired and the company has since changed their name to Resourceability. Resourceability has expertise with regulatory compliance of solid waste and recycling requirements in California and is currently providing professional services for several nearby cities.
The primary role of Resourceability moving forward will be to support staff in developing work plans and guides as necessary to achieve compliance with CalRecycle. These plans will provide an outline for our newly hired Regulatory Compliance Specialist in order to implement the various aspects of our recycling requirements.
FISCAL IMPACT:
Due to the company name change a new Professional Services Agreement is being proposed rather than an amendment. The attached Professional Services Agreement with Resourceabilty includes a proposal outlining the tasks as Exhibit A. The cost to complete the work within the proposal is for a not-to-exceed amount of $10,000, which will be funded through the Garbage Operating Fund.
Attachments:
1. PSA - Resourceability