News

September 21, 2009

California Looks to Recycling to Reduce Waste

California authorities are exploring how restaurants and other businesses in the state should be required to cut their garbage output through recycling.

One-day "stakeholder workshops" were held in July and August 2009 to discuss such aspects as what materials should be recovered from the trash and what difficulties a recycling mandate might pose for the state's commercial establishments. Also listed on the agenda was how to police the regulations. The input delivered during those meetings has yet to be aired by their host, the California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB).

In preparation for the workshops, the CIWMB made available a 36-page white paper on recycling. The document notes that the 2 million commercial establishments in California currently generate more than half the state's solid waste. Reducing that output would greatly help the agency achieve its objective of cutting statewide carbon-dioxide emissions by the equivalent of 5 million metric tons annually, according to CIWMB.

Recovering just half the plastic, paper, cardboard, metals, glass and lumber discarded by businesses and apartment buildings—another target of mandatory recycling—would cut 2.7 million tons in emissions, the agency says. Residences in the state are already required to recycle via municipal or county mandates.

The white paper asserts that the CIWMB already has the authority to require recycling by commercial establishments in the state. It notes that a number of legislative proposals pending in the state legislature might redefine or preempt that authority.

It notes that restaurants and other establishments generate about 3.5 million tons annually of food waste, like the scraps left on plates and trays. Using mandates to divert just half that volume to composting facilities instead of landfills would be a big step forward in helping the CIWMB achieve its goal, says the agency. But it acknowledged that the state currently lacks the infrastructure to support reprocessing on a large scale.

The paper also acknowledges that enforcement of a mandate "is one of the most difficult and controversial issues to address." It floated the possibility that the state would require local governments to administer and police the requirement, just as they do with residential recycling rules.

The CIWMB says it would begin drafting a recycling requirement for all commercial establishments in January 2010, with a completion target of early 2011. During the formal rulemaking process, restaurants and other stakeholders would presumably be invited to comment on the measure.