Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout4ACITY COUNCIL STAFF REPORT DATE: April 8, 2021 UNFINISHED BUSINESS SUBJECT: DISCUSSION OF PROGRESS AND PLANS FOR COMPLYING WITH STATE REGULATIONS IMPLEMENTING SENATE BILL 1383 SHORT- LIVED CLIMATE POLLUTANTS: ORGANIC WASTE METHANE EMISSIONS REDUCTIONS FROM: David H. Ready, City Manager BY: Department of Development Services, Office of Sustainability SUMMARY Regulations implementing Senate Bill 1383 (SB 1383) were finalized in November 2020. The goal of SB 1383 is to reduce methane missions from landfills that are generated by the disposal of food waste, yard waste and other organic materials. SB 1383 includes a variety of mandates that will take effect on January 1, 2022. These requirements will impact commercial and residential waste collection, city procurement practices, edible food recovery efforts, recordkeeping and reporting, and enforcement. This report provides an overview of the requirements; steps the City is taking to prepare for implementation; and plans for outreach, education, and compliance assistance. RECOMMENDATION Provide direction_ to staff as appropriate. BACKGROUND In September 2016, Governor Brown signed into law establishing methane emissions reduction targets in a statewide effort to reduce emissions of short-lived climate pollutants in various sectors of California's economy. The new law codifies the California Air Resources Board's "Short-Lived Climate Pollutant Strategy" established pursuant to SB 605. SB 1383 establishes targets to achieve a 50 percent reduction in the level of the statewide disposal of organic waste from the 2014 level by 2020, and a 75 percent reduction by 2025. It establishes an additional target that not less than 20 percent of edible food that is currently disposed of is recovered for human consumption by 2025. ITEMNO._y_l\ ___ _ 1 City Council Staff Report April 8, 2021 --Page 2 SB 1383 Organics Waste & Recycling Implementation To achieve these reductions, CalRecycle, which oversees State recycling and waste management programs, issued a sweeping set of prescriptive regulations for cities and counties in November 2020 -nearly a year after their intended issuance date. These requirements must be implemented on January 1, 2022, and local jurisdictions must begin enforcement no later than January 1, 2024. Below is a summary of the major requirements for cities: • Collect organic waste from commercial businesses that meet generation thresholds and from single-family residential households. Food waste is not required to be collected from multi-family dwellings that are classified as commercial businesses. • Conduct education and outreach to all affected parties. • Utilize a color-specific, bin-based system to collect recycling, organics, and trash (a standard compliance approach) or follow a performance-based standard that would require 90% coverage of residential units and businesses and regular waste auditing to prove diversion rates. • Establish an edible food recovery program starting with larger food service businesses such as grocery stores and expanding to larger restaurants and event venues. • Perform capacity planning covering 15 years for organic waste diversion from landfills. • Procure recycled organic waste products (i.e. compost, mulch and renewable natural gas) at levels based on City population. • Establish (via ordinance and otherwise) all required enforcement protocols that include a schedule of fines for non-compliant entities. This ordinance must match State-developed standards, including a minimum fine structure. • Prepare ordinances for organic-related construction and demolition debris. To help facilitate the SB 1383 compliance process, on November 12, 2020 the City Council adopted Ordinance No. 2034 to add Section 6.04.290 to the Palm Springs Municipal Code (PSMC) to incorporate mandatory commercial solid waste and organic waste recycling for certain businesses and multiple-family residential dwellings. A further amendment to Chapter 6.04 of the PSMC will be required later this year to incorporate the additional requirements of SB 1383. STAFF ANALYSIS SB 1383 is the most significant waste reduction mandate the State of California has adopted in the last 30 years. It requires the State to reduce organic waste by 75% by 2025, which equates to over 20 million tons annually. The law also requires the State to increase edible food recovery by 20%. Since the law establishes statewide targets, a prescriptive approach to compliance is being used by the State. This is very different from AB 939 (Integrated Waste Management Act), which set jurisdictional waste diversion mandates and allowed local governments to develop their own programs for reaching compliance. 2 City Council Staff Report Ap ril 8 , 2021 --Page 3 SB 1383 Organics Waste & Recycling Implementation SB 1383 builds on and incorporates the State's current mandatory commercial organics and recycling requirements (AB 341 and AB 1826). S imilar to these existing requirements, SB 1383 places responsibility on the jurisdiction to ensure compliance by regulated entities. Failure to enact and undertake all SB 1383 responsibilities will result in the City being deemed non-compliant and subject to fines of up to $10,000 per day. While the State is suggesting that 2022 and 2023 will be non-adversarial years where the State will only provide guidance and technical assistance , the regulations do not preclude fines being levied on the City during this two-year "grace" period. The City is currently in the sixth year of its 15-year solid waste Franchise Agreement with Palm Springs Disposal Services (PSDS). Staff is working in partnership with PSDS to evaluate the impacts of SB 1383 on the City's solid waste collection system, to determine the additional capital and operational costs required of PSDS to imp lement the new organics waste and recycling measures , and the necessary increase to the City's solid waste and recycling fee paid by residential and commercial customers. Examples of Anticipated Changes Effective January 1, 2022 Below are some of the changes that are anticipated when SB 1383 is effective January 1, 2022: • All single-family residential customers will receive three carts -trash (gray), recycling (blue), and organics (green). The Organics cart will be for food waste and for yard waste. The mandatory three-cart system may require some homes to expand cart storage areas. (Currently, green waste carts are offered to residential customers on a voluntary basis, with some decl ining a green waste cart as they may use a gardener for landscape maintenance who removes and disposes of all green waste). • Informational labels describing what can and cannot go into waste containers will be affixed to existing trash. recycling and green waste containers. The mandate calls for universal colors for Trash (gray), Recycle (blue), Organics (green) and Source Separated Food Waste (brown or yellow) throughout the State. Currently, trash carts within the City of Palm Springs are brown and will need to be changed to gray. PSDS will start the changeover along with the required container information hot stamped onto the cart lids at the start of the program. • Commercial customers that exceed the minimum organics generation threshold of 20 gallons per week will have to subscribe to an appropriate organics collection service. This could include food waste and/or green waste service provided by PSDS. Commercial customers that only have typical green waste to dispose of will be allowed to coordinate that disposal with their gardener to ensure that green waste is collected and tracked. Although many commercial businesses already do this, the lower threshold in SB 1383 of 20 gallons per week will likely require that more commercial businesses comply. 3 City Council Staff Report April 8, 2021 --Page 4 SB 1383 Organics Waste & Recycling Implementation • The City will need to change its purchasing policies to promote and track purchases of products with recycled/reclaimed organic content. The City must procure almost 4,000 tons of salvaged organic material each year. Because the City does not purchase much mulch or compost, the City will be investigating purchase of renewable natural gas generated from captured biogas to help meet this procurement target. • Tier I food generators (wholesale food vendors, food distributors, grocery stores, supermarkets) must enter into a contract with a food recovery service to ensure that still-edible food is collected and made available. The City will need to provide education and outreach to affected businesses and ensure they have contracts in place. The City is coordinating with other cities within the Coachella Valley Association of Governments (CVAG) and with FIND Foodbank. • Plastic Bags will not be allowed in green waste bins. The City and PSDS have confirmed that organic waste management facilities will not accept plastic bags in the organic waste streams, including compostable or biodegradable plastic bags. This would represent a change for current business customers that have been able to use plastic bags inside their green waste bins. • Recordkeeping requirements are extensive. The City will be required to work with PSDS to expand recordkeeping to include all of the elements of the regulation such as compliance monitoring documentation, educational efforts, enforcement results, purchase tracking for the City's organic purchases, etc. Challenges and Outstanding Questions Staff continues to coordinate with PSDS, the City Attorney's office, and technical consultants to understand and evaluate the implications of SB 1383 and related regulations. Examples of some of the challenging situations we are exploring include the following: • Ensuring that all types of landscapers and gardeners comply with the requirement to dispose of green waste properly. • Addressing the needs of multi-family residential developments that are less than 5 units or have individual cart service. • Addressing the apparent requirement to process organic materials that are not currently accepted by our nearby waste processors, including compostable food ware that is not currently accepted by locally available green waste or food waste processors. • Ensuring that all customers know what is specially allowed to be disposed of in each of the three disposal bins (trash [gray], organics [green], and recycling [blue]), especially new organic waste food bins. • Ensuring that all customers have the appropriate level of service and can accommodate the new organics service, especially vacation rental properties. 4 City Council Staff Report April 8, 2021 --Page 5 SB 1383 Organics Waste & Recycling Implementation Some of the issues that have emerged from Staff's analysis of the impact of SB 1383 on the City's current solid waste and recycling operations will require consideration of an amendment to the Franchise Agreement in the near future related to the following topics: • Change to Tax Roll Billing. PSDS currently individually bills and collects payment from most residential customers on a quarterly basis, with all commercial and some multi- family residential customers billed monthly. The City itself does not issue bills for solid waste and recycling services provided by PSDS, or receive any payments. Pursuant to the terms of the Franchise Agreement, PSDS is responsible for all billing and collections, and retains all revenue for its operations. The City is evaluating with PSDS transitioning the billing and collection system to one that places the charges as an assessment on the property tax roll in much the same way as the City currently places charges for sewer service on the property tax roll. However, customers subscribing to PSDS for optional services like walk-in service or extra carts, would be directly billed by PSDS for those optional services. • Defining the roles of City and PSDS staff in the enforcement process. The City will be working closely with PSDS to monitor compliance and to take appropriate educational and enforcement actions. Staff will be coordinating with Code Enforcement and the City Attorney's office to determine what implications this may have on our current code enforcement approaches. It will be important to have an enforcement system in place where the City can issue citations based on violations documented by PSDS at the time they attempt to collect solid waste and recycling from customers. • Different sized organics collection bins to accommodate different needs. The City anticipates that there may be a variety of needs related to organic waste and recycling services. Many residential customers will likely require a 96-gallon cart that most homes currently have for typical green waste. This cart would be used to dispose both the typical green waste and food waste, comingled. Some residential customers that do not generate large volumes of typical green waste could be offered a smaller 64- gallon cart. Other residential customers that generate no typical green waste could be offered a 5-gallon pale to accommodate food waste only. Allowing for smaller bins for customers with very little green or food waste will ensure that the waste does not sit in an oversized bin and become a nuisance. However, these different sized containers would result in a less automated organics waste collection system, and likely require significant capital investment for PSDS for new bins and new disposal trucks (rear loading versus automated side loading). A very small 5-gallon pale option for organics waste disposal will require PSDS to operate a rear loader truck with a two-person crew (as opposed to a one-person automated side loading truck). PSDS's operations will require more time and incur more costs for collection. PSDS advises that the lead time to acquire new trash trucks is approximately 8-12 months. Path to Compliance Staff have been coordinating with PSDS to plan for implementation of SB 1383 requirements for some time, and will continue. Below are some key activities and anticipated time frames: 5 City Council Staff Report April 8, 2021 --Page 6 SB 1383 Organics Waste & Recycling Implementation April • Begin systematic enforcement of current organics and recycling requirements to have a strong foundation for expanded efforts in 2022. • Complete discussions of Franchise Agreement changes and begin drafting amendments to the Franchise Agreement to implement SB 1383. • Begin drafting Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP) policy to address SB 1383 requirements and current practices. • Develop compliance roadmap/timeline for commercial businesses May • Draft amended Franchise Agreement to implement SB 1383 • Complete draft EPP policy • Develop outreach and education campaigns for specific groups June • Finalize amended Franchise Agreement and fiscal impact, including changes to residential and customer solid waste/recycling charges • Review amended Franchise Agreement and cost implications for SB 1383 implementation with Sustainability Commission • Present updated EPP Policy to City Council and provide implementation update • Modify existing ordinances and associated policies to address SB 1383 updates • Launch outreach campaigns -Commercial and Residential July • Present amended Franchise Agreement, fiscal impact, and proposed solid waste and recycling fee increases to City Council for review/approval • Finalize ordinance changes and policies and review with Sustainability Commission • Continue outreach efforts September • Present ordinance and policy changes (if needed) to City Council for review/approval • Continue outreach efforts October • Issue compliance letters for 2022 • Continue outreach efforts November • Follow up on compliance letters • Continue outreach efforts 6 City Council Staff Report April 8, 2021 --Page 7 SB 1383 Organics Waste & Recycling Implementation December • Follow up on compliance letters • Continue outreach efforts • Container conversion and rollout ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT: This action is not subject to the California Environmental Quality Act ("CEQA") pursuant to CEQA Guidelines sections 15060(c)(2) and (c)(3) because it has no potential of creating a direct physical change in the environment, or a reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment. FISCAL ANALYSIS The City's recycling efforts are funding through a Recycling Fee that is incorporated into the solid waste and recycling charges billed to customers by PSDS. PSDS in turn remits the Recycling Fee to the City with those funds held in a Special Revenue Fund -the Recycling Fund (Fund 125). All recycling efforts undertaken by the City are funded solely by the Recycling Fund. However, currently the Recycling Fee only generates approximately $100,000 annually to support the City's recycling efforts and will not sustain all of the additional SB 1383 implementation and enforcement obligations imposed by the state on the City. Additional revenues in the form of an increase to the Recycling Fee charged to customers and/or a subsidy from the General Fund will be required in the future to ensure these recycling efforts can continue. The activities described in this report will require significant staff resources leading up to January 1 and after implementation. In addition to staff time to oversee and participate in technical assistance efforts and to perform record keeping and reporting, the types of costs anticipated include the following: • Outreach and education to both businesses and the community, including mailings, advertisements, radio spots, and social media postings at an estimated cost of $25,000. Staff is coordinating with other cities on obtaining a grant for coordinated outreach . • Focused Sustainability Scholarships for businesses. These scholarships can be used by businesses to expand container storage areas, purchase recycling containers, and for service fees. A total of $50,000 will be set aside. • The City will need to assess its organics waste generation and ensure that containers are added to collect organic waste from offices and other City Buildings where necessary. This may involve the purchase of organic waste collection containers and enhanced collection services. The cost for containers is estimated to be about $5,000. 7 City Council Staff Report April 8, 2021 --Page 8 SB 1383 Organics Waste & Recycling Implementation SUBMITTED: Manager, Office of Sustainability Marcus Fuller Assistant City Manager y 8