Report to Mayor and City Council
Tuesday, May 04, 2021
Consent
SUBJECT:
Title
CONSIDER SUBMITTING A LETTER OF SUPPORT IN CONCEPT FOR SENATE BILL 619 (LAIRD) AS AMENDED ON APRIL 13, 2021 - (ORGANIC WASTE: REDUCTION REGULATIONS) (CITY COUNCIL)
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I. SUMMARY
SB 1383 was passed in 2016 and is the most significant waste reduction mandate to be adopted in California in the last 30 years. It requires the state to reduce organic waste [food waste, green waste, paper products, etc.] disposal by 75% by 2025. In other words, the state must reduce organic waste disposal by more than 20 million tons annually by 2025. The law also requires the state to increase edible food recovery by 20 percent by 2025.
SB 619, introduced by Senator John Laird, would among other elements ease the pace of implementing these massive changes at the local level by requiring the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) until January 1, 2023, to only impose a penalty on a local jurisdiction and only allow a penalty to accrue for a violation of the regulations if the local jurisdiction did not make a reasonable effort, as determined by CalRecycle, to comply with the Senate Bill 1383 (Lara, 2016) [SB 1383] regulations.
Existing law and CalRecycle's regulations; however, do not recognize the significant challenges created by a lack of infrastructure and the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, it would benefit the City to request that the bill also be amended to include the specific additional provisions recommended by the Los Angeles County Solid Waste Management Committee / Integrated Waste Management Task Force (the "Task Force") discussed below.
A letter of support-in-concept for SB 619 is attached for City Council consideration.
II. RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
APPROVE the City of Carson's support-in-concept position and the sending of a corresponding letter on SB 619 in the 2021/2022 legislative session.
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III. ALTERNATIVES
1. DO NOT TAKE a support-in-conc...
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