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Office of Public Affairs
For Immediate Release: April 21, 2022
News Release #2022-4
Media Contact: Lance Klug
916-341-6293 | lance.klug@calrecycle.ca.gov

SACRAMENTO –Recycling just got simpler for Californians thanks to a first-ever way to find the dos and don’ts for local recycling programs in all 58 counties. The community-specific information at the new iRecycleSmart.com website and database helps residents and businesses understand how to get truly recyclable items recycled and take part in the state’s new food and yard waste recycling program.

“Californians take pride in recycling, and iRecycleSmart.com makes it easier to get the right materials in the right bin to reduce our trash footprint, protect our ocean and build a circular-use economy here in our state,” CalRecycle Director Rachel Machi Wagoner said. “With the climate in crisis and a relentless stream of single-use waste overtaking our seas and polluting our communities, California can lead the world on a path to end trash pollution.”

New Tool Part of 3 Simple Steps to Recycle Smart

Maximizing the reuse and recycling of all materials sold in California is vital to the state’s larger effort to build a circular, remanufacturing economy with less pollution. Californians can find these simple steps to help the planet at iRecycleSmart.com:

1. See what’s recycled where you live with California’s first-ever local recycling database. Recycling rules vary based on what communities can sell to remanufacturers. Putting the right things in your curbside bin makes sure your recycling gets recycled.
2. Keep your recycling clean by taking a moment to empty and dry your materials. Food or liquid gunk can spoil everyone’s recycling in a collection truck.
3. Recycle your food and yard waste into green products like compost and clean energy. Landfilled food and yard waste gives off a climate super pollutant with 84 times the planet-heating power of carbon dioxide. Find your local food scraps recycling rules.

By cutting our waste and ensuring that products sold in our state can be recycled and remanufactured in our state, California can cut trash and climate pollution while bringing more green jobs to local communities.

Go to iRecycleSmart.com for more recycling tips, tools and resources.

Tackling the Trash Problem

• In 2020, California landfilled 40 million tons of waste, including enough plastic to fill 104,000 Olympic sized pools.
• Food, yard and other organic waste makes up 56% of what we throw away, making landfills a top source of climate pollution.
• Recycling food and yard waste and redirecting unsold food to feed people in need are among the fastest and easiest ways Californians can fight climate change right now.
• CalRecycle programs helped Californians recycle:
  • 445 billion beverage containers
  • 5 billion pounds of electronic waste
  • 2 billion gallons of used oil
  • 264 million tires
  • 6 million gallons of paint
  • 7 million mattresses.
• California set the highest plastic minimum recycled content goals in the world, requiring 50 percent recycled plastic in new containers by 2030.

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Office of Public Affairs
For Immediate Release: April 1, 2022
News Release #2022-03
Media Contact: Lance Klug
916-341-6293 | lance.klug@calrecycle.ca.gov

SACRAMENTO – A new plan could bring Californians an extra $100 million in bonus recycling credits and direct $155 million to expand mobile recycling and reverse vending machine locations for consumers to cash in their bottles and cans. The budget proposal would boost redemptions and expand recycling sites using $330 million of surplus unredeemed container deposits that grew with a record increase in beverage purchases during the pandemic.

“This surplus belongs to California consumers and we want to get that money back in their pockets through bonus recycling credits and more convenient redemption options,” CalRecycle Director Rachel Machi Wagoner said. “These targeted investments would create more chances to recycle in areas without recycling centers and offer double California Redemption Value (CRV) refunds to get surplus deposits back to Californians.”

Pandemic beverage sales spike continues to break records

Californians recycled 18.5 billion bottles and cans from July 2020 through June 2021, a roughly 800 million container increase from the previous fiscal year. But sales grew even more during that time as people continued to consume more beverages at home. The new $330 million proposal would use various strategies to reach unserved areas, provide more ways to redeem and offer bonus recycling credits for Californians to cash in their unredeemed bottles and cans

The plan includes:

• $55 million to boost returns in rural and underserved communities with state-funded mobile recycling programs.
• $100 million to add about 2,000 reverse vending machines through grants to high schools, colleges and retailers that are obligated to redeem containers in-store.
• $100 million to double consumer refunds with bonus recycling credits once new mobile recycling and reverse vending machine programs are in place.
• $50 million to maximize the quality of recycled beverage containers to help more get recycled into new beverage containers, required by AB 793 (Ting, Irwin of 2020).
• $25 million for new infrastructure and technology to support redemptions and administration costs.

“Californians want to recycle and they’re doing their part with the return of 18.5 billion bottles and cans last (fiscal) year. That’s a nearly 70 percent recycling rate,” Director Rachel Machi Wagoner said. “We can get closer to 100 percent recycling by giving Californians more redemption options and new opportunities to succeed.”

Additional details were made available today upon release of the Administration’s Spring Finance Letters from the Department of Finance. The Legislature will have the opportunity over the next few months to review this proposal and collaborate with the Administration during the ongoing budget enactment process.

Beverage Container Recycling is a Key to Building California’s Circular Economy

Maximizing the reuse and recycling of all materials sold in California is vital to the state’s larger effort to build a clean, circular-use economy in California. On top of creating new redemption opportunities and jobs across the state, the $330 million in investments of surplus container deposits will help California:

• Meet its 80 percent beverage container recycling goal.
• Provide clean materials to help reach the state’s recycled glass and plastic minimum content goals.

By ensuring that products sold in our state can be collected, recycled and remanufactured in our state, California can meet its waste reduction and climate goals while bringing more green jobs and green industries to our local communities.

At a Glance: California’s Beverage Container Recycling Program

The Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act of 1986 set a financial value on beverage containers to encourage recycling and reduce litter.

• Californians have recycled more than 445 billion bottles and cans since 1986.
• Californians recycled 18 billion (68 percent) CRV beverage containers in 2020.
• AB 1311 (Wood, 2021) provides more flexibility for recyclers to add new ways to redeems and allow more flexible operating rules to help regional challenges.
• Local pilot projects allow communities to design customized takeback programs to meet their region’s unique needs.
• California set the highest plastic minimum recycled content goals in the world, requiring 50 percent recycled plastic in new containers by 2030.

Locate the nearest certified recycling centers or retailers required to redeem CRV deposits in-store. Report issues redeeming CRV at 1-800-RECYCLE or complaints@calrecycle.ca.gov.

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New California Statewide Mandatory Organic Waste Collection

Beginning in 2022, SB 1383 requires every jurisdiction to provide organic waste collection services to all residents and businesses.

• “Jurisdiction” means a city, county, a city and county, or a special district that provides solid waste collection services.
• “Organic waste” includes food, green material, landscape and pruning waste, organic textiles and carpets, lumber, wood, paper products, printing and writing paper, manure, biosolids, digestate, and sludges.

Jurisdictions can select from a variety of organic waste collection services to match their unique communities and local infrastructure, while producing clean streams of organic feedstock that can be recycled into high-quality, marketable recycled products, including compost, renewable natural gas, electricity, and paper.

Jurisdictions will educate all residents and businesses about collection requirements, including what materials to put in curbside bins. Education to residents and businesses may vary by jurisdiction and educational content may be provided electronically, through hard copy materials, or through direct outreach.

Collection Requirements

Single-Family Home Residents and Multifamily Complexes of Less than Five Units

• Residents are required to subscribe to and participate in their jurisdiction’s organics curbside collection service.
• Residents are required to properly sort their organic waste into the correct containers.
• Some jurisdictions will allow residents to self-haul their organic waste. If this is the case, the jurisdiction will provide information about the requirements for self-hauling.

Multifamily Residents and Multifamily Complexes

• Multifamily complexes of five units or more are required to either:
  1. To subscribe to and participate in their jurisdiction’s organics curbside collection service OR
  2. To self-haul organic waste to a specified composting facility, community composting program, or other collection activity or program.
• The following activities would be conducted by the multifamily complex property owner or the manager:
  • Multifamily complexes are required to provide organic waste collection services for:
    • Employees
    • Tenants
  • They must supply and allow access to an adequate number, size, and location of containers with the correct labels or container colors.
  • They must also
    1. Annually educate employees and tenants on how to properly sort organic waste into the correct bins, AND
    2. Provide information to new tenants within 14 days of occupation of the premises.

Multifamily Complex Residents

Residents of multifamily complexes must properly sort their organic waste into the correct containers.

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Trail supporters say they’re OK with a land swap backed by Rep. Paul Cook

A proposed land swap in the San Bernardino National Forest would relocate part of the Pacific Coast Trail to create an alternative recycling center and end illegal recycling in the region.

A bill by Rep. Paul Cook, R-Yucca Valley, authorizes the exchange of 73 acres of federal land for 71 acres of San Bernardino County land in the northeast section of the forest. The trade would allow Big Bear Disposal, Inc. to build a recycling plant that local contractors could use to recycle construction materials.

The bill, now pending before the U.S. Senate, also requires the relocation of part of the Pacific Crest Trail, which runs through the federal land, prior to the exchange.

At least one group that advocates for environmental policies that protect the trail approves of the potential deal.

“We’ve come to an agreement on making sure that the community gets the facility that it needs, but making sure that the trail is fully protected in the process,” said Mark Larabee, associate director of communications and marketing for the Pacific Crest Trail Association.

The Pacific Crest Trail, which is designated as a National Scenic Trail, spans more than 2,600 miles from Mexico to Canada, touching California, Oregon and Washington.

The proposed land swap wouldn’t mark the first time the trail has been rerouted, Larabee said. However, he added, other adjustments have been initiated by the Trail Association as a way to make it better for users.

“Most of the time the reroutes are to make sure the trail is in the best place it can be to provide the best experience that it can be,” Larabee said. “We’ve taken the trail off forest roads and put it on the crest, so it’s out in the beautiful landscape rather than walking on a dirt road.”

The Pacific Coast Trail Association’s approval of the proposed land swap is contingent upon the disposal company paying for any necessary environmental reviews and the relocation of the trail, which could be a multi-year process, Larabee said.

“There still has to be a lot of work done to make sure the trail is protected and that the new location is sustainable,” Larabee said.

“But we’re working together to make sure that happens properly.”

If signed by the president, San Bernardino County would try to negotiate a long-term lease with Big Bear Disposal, which would be responsible for building and operating the facility, said county spokesman David Wert.

The facility, which would be built near the Big Bear Transfer Station on Holcomb Valley Road, has long been needed in the valley, where illegal recycling has grown over the past 20 years or so, said Michael Perry, a consultant for Big Bear Disposal, a private disposal company that serves Big Bear Lake.

Local contractors have been recycling wood, concrete, asphalt, metal and other construction materials on properties throughout the valley, often in violation of zoning laws. The activity has an adverse effect on the environment and neighbors through potential groundwater contamination, dust and noise, Perry said.

“Frankly, they have nowhere else to go right now,” Perry said. “We’re trying to get them a solution.”

Hauling the materials — south, to facilities in San Bernardino, or north in the High Desert — also is costly for the contractors, Perry said.

“The cost to drive this material all the way down there, and pay somebody to dispose of it, is not feasible,”  Perry said. “That’s why they end up doing it here, locally. And that’s why we had this grow up here over the last, I’d say, 20 years.”

The legislation also could help address a safety concern.

Truckers hauling trees down the mountain typically travel through a narrow, winding pass, to a processing facility in the valley, leading to traffic congestion and multiple accidents, according to Cook’s office.

The facility would be further away from unincorporated Big Bear City and closer to where the trees are actually processed, according to Cook’s office.

“I’ve worked closely with our local governments to ensure this land exchange is done correctly and that all the stakeholders have their concerns resolved,” Cook wrote in a prepared statement. “This will alleviate traffic and make mountain roads in the area safer. I look forward to this bill becoming law.”

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According to 2008 Statewide Waste Characterization data, the commercial sector generates nearly three fourths of the solid waste in California. Furthermore, much of the commercial sector waste disposed in landfills is readily recyclable. Increasing the recovery of recyclable materials will directly reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) emissions. In particular, recycled materials can reduce the GHG emissions from multiple phases of product production; including extraction of raw materials, preprocessing and manufacturing. A cobenefit of increased recycling is avoided methane emissions at landfills from the decomposition of organic materials. Use of composted organic materials also provides environmental benefits such as carbon storage in soils and reduced use of fertilizers, pesticides, and water.

Mandatory Commercial Recycling was one of the measures adopted in the Assembly Bill 32 Scoping Plan by the Air Resources Board (ARB) pursuant to the California Global Warming Solutions Act (Chapter 488, Statutes of 2006). The Mandatory Commercial Recycling Measure focuses on increased commercial waste diversion as a method to reduce GHG emissions. It is designed to achieve a reduction in GHG emissions of 5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalents. To achieve the measure’s objective, an additional 2 to 3 million tons of materials annually will need to be recycled from the commercial sector by the year 2020 and beyond.

The regulation was adopted at CalRecycle’s January 17, 2012 Monthly Public Meeting. This regulation reflects the statutory provisions of AB 341 (Chapter 476, Statutes of 2011 [Chesbro, AB 341]) and provides additional procedural clarifications. The regulation was approved by the Office of Administrative Law on May 7, 2012 and became effective immediately. On June 27, 2012 the Governor signed Senate Bill 1018 which included an amendment that requires a business that generates 4 cubic yards or more of commercial solid waste per week to arrange for recycling services.

Key Elements of the Law

Chapter 476, Statutes of 2011 (Chesbro, AB 341) sets forth the requirements of the statewide mandatory commercial recycling program. Below are basic descriptions:

Purpose

To reduce GHG emissions by diverting commercial solid waste to recycling efforts and to expand the opportunity for additional recycling services and recycling manufacturing facilities in California.

Key Roles

• Business Commercial Recycling Requirements. A business (includes public entities) that generates four cubic yards or more of commercial solid waste per week or is a multifamily residential dwelling of five units or more shall arrange for recycling services. Businesses can take one or any combination of the following in order to reuse, recycle, compost or otherwise divert solid waste from disposal:
  • Self-haul.
  • Subscribe to a hauler(s).
  • Arrange for the pickup of recyclable materials.
  • Subscribe to a recycling service that may include mixed waste processing that yields diversion results comparable to source separation.

  A property owner of a commercial business or multifamily residential dwelling may require tenants to source separate their recyclable materials to aid in compliance with this section.

  CalRecycle advises businesses to contact their local recycling coordinator to find out how to recycle in their community and if there are any specific requirements in their community. Communities may have mandatory commercial recycling ordinances with different thresholds or more specific business recycling requirements than the state law. The local recycling coordinator also may have related business opportunities and/or resources to share.

  Recycling benefits identified by CalRecycle include:

  • Opportunities for businesses or multifamily complexes to save money.
  • Creating jobs in California by providing materials for recycling manufacturing facilities.
  • Reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
  • Keeping valuable materials out of landfills.
  • Creating a healthy environment for the community and future generations by recovering natural resources.

• Local Government Requirements. Each jurisdiction shall implement a commercial solid waste recycling program that consists of education, outreach and monitoring of businesses, that is appropriate for that jurisdiction and is designed to divert commercial solid waste from businesses, whether or not the jurisdiction has met the requirements of PRC Section 41780.Each jurisdiction shall report the progress achieved in implementing its commercial recycling program, including education, outreach and monitoring, and if applicable, enforcement efforts and exemptions, by providing updates in its electronic annual report.
• CalRecycle Review. CalRecycle will review each jurisdiction’s commercial recycling program that consists of education, outreach and monitoring. The following is an overview of the review process:
  • An evaluation as part of its formal AB 939 review, conducted every two or four years pursuant to PRC 41825, of each jurisdiction’s programs, which includes an annual jurisdiction site visit, review of the Electronic Annual Report, and other information a jurisdiction may deem relevant.
  • If the jurisdiction is found to not have made a good-faith effort in implementing its programs, possibly including its mandatory commercial recycling program, CalRecycle can place the jurisdiction on a compliance order as part of the AB 939 review, and if it fails to adequately meet the conditions of the compliance order, then CalRecycle could consider a penalty hearing.

Implementation Dates: Mandatory Commercial Recycling Program

• July 1, 2012, Local Jurisdiction Commercial Recycling Program Implementation: On or after July, 1, 2012, each jurisdiction shall implement an education, outreach and monitoring program. Efforts may be phased in over time.
• July 1, 2012, Commercial Recycling Requirements: On and after July 1, 2012, a business that generates four cubic yards or more of commercial solid waste per week or a multifamily residential dwelling of five units or more shall recycle.
• August, 2013, Jurisdiction Annual Reports: Each jurisdiction shall report the progress achieved in implementing its commercial recycling program, including education, outreach and monitoring, and if applicable, enforcement efforts and exemptions, by providing updates in its electronic annual report required by Section 41821.
• August, 2014, CalRecycle Review: First review of jurisdictions’ that are in a biennial review cycle on their implementation of the regulation, with reviews conducted every biennial or quadrennial review cycle thereafter depending on each jurisdiction’s review status.

Source:  https://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/Recycle/Commercial/

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We hope that you find the new website helpful and easy to use.  If you have any questions or concerns, please contact our office.  We look forward to working with you.

Big Bear Disposal, Inc.

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