HomeMy WebLinkAbout20210601_Organic Waste RecyclingCity of San Luis Obispo, Office of the City Council, 990 Palm Street, San Luis Obispo, CA, 93401-3249, 805.781.7114, slocity.org
June 1, 2021
The Honorable Nancy Skinner
Chair, Senate Budget & Fiscal Review Committee
State Capitol, Room 5050
Sacramento, CA 95814
Via Email: senator.skinner@senate.ca.gov
The Honorable Phil Ting
Chair, Assembly Budget Committee
State Capitol, Room 6026
Sacramento, CA 95814
Via Email: assemblymember.ting@assembly.ca.gov
RE: Budget Request - $225 Million (General Fund): Local Assistance for Organic
Waste Recycling Program Development and Implementation
Dear Senator Skinner and Senator Ting,
The City of San Luis Obispo writes to support the League of California Cities (Cal Cities)
request for $225 million (General Fund) in local assistance to help cities and counties develop
and begin implementing organic waste recycling programs as required by CalRecycle’s new
Organic Waste Reduction Regulations (SB 1383 Regulations).
Local governments are the backbone for achieving California’s solid waste management and
recycling goals. CalRecycle’s new SB 1383 regulations adopted in November of last year
require local governments to reduce landfill disposal of organic waste by 75 percent by 2025
and to increase edible food waste recovery by 20 percent. These new SB 1383 Regulations
are the most far-reaching solid waste management changes in decades and CalRecycle has
estimated implementation will cost $20 to $40 billion over the next decade, including the
addition of 50 to 100 new organic waste recycling facilities.
The first compliance obligations for local governments begin in early 2022 and local
governments are working to develop a comprehensive suite of local collection, enforcement,
and funding programs. These activities include hiring new staff and consultants, adopting
ordinances, arranging for appropriate collection services, establishing inspection and
enforcement programs, procuring recovered organic waste products, providing education and
outreach, developing edible food recovery programs, and reporting to CalRecycle.
To comply with the requirements of SB1383, the City of San Luis Obispo will need to raise
solid waste rates for all community members, many of whom are still recovering from the
economic challenges created by the recent pandemic. The City will be required to find new
and cost-effective ways to meet purchasing and procurement targets regulated by the
legislation including procurement of over 3,000 tons of compost (or the equivalent in
renewable resources). To help meet the requirements, the City tentatively plans to organize at
least two compost giveaway events for our community, each of which would come at a cost.
Our local JPA, the Integrated Waste Management Authority (IWMA) has taken on new
contracts, hired new staff and is developing new programs to bring our region into compliance
and has accrued more costs due to SB1383 than budgeted for prior to the publication of
regulations. Funding will help support both the City’s efforts, as well as regional efforts made
by the IWMA in bringing our jurisdictions into compliance.
The City of San Luis Obispo supports the Cal Cities’ budget request of $225 million (General
Fund) for local assistance to cities and counties for local organic waste recycling program
development and initial implementation activities. Specifically, the budget request should:
• Require the Controller directly allocate grants to cities and counties as follows:
▪ Roughly $72 million to fund minimum payments of $200,000 to each county and
$125,000 to each city.
▪ Approximately $153 million to cities and counties on a per capita basis.
• Allow cities and counties to use these funds to hire staff and consultants necessary to
design and implement SB 1383 organic waste recycling programs, develop the various
ordinances, programs, services, education and outreach activities, and organic waste
recycling capacity planning requirements and any other requirements imposed under the
SB 1383 Regulations.
• Allow cities and counties to use these funds to pay for initial implementation costs.
• Allow cities and counties to pool any or all of their allocations to work together on
implementation efforts to maximize efficiency and promote local flexibility.
This funding request alone is not sufficient to achieve the state’s organic waste recycling
targets, especially in light of the estimated $20 to $40 billion anticipated total implementation
cost; however, it will go a long way to help local governments and accelerate the development
of the programs necessary to achieve those goals and to carry out early implementation
activities.
In addition to this request for local program development assistance, the City of San Luis
Obispo recognizes that there remains additional need to dedicate funding for infrastructure
development. California must significantly increase the number of organic waste recycling
facilities to achieve the state’s goals. We believe there is merit to supplementing this request
with an infusion of state funding into CalRecycle’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Grant and
Loan Programs to provide financial assistance to develop additional organic waste recycling
infrastructure. We believe that some portion of those funds should be targeted to regional
organic waste recycling and procurement solutions and to rapidly scale up edible food
recovery programs. Finally, we suggest allocating funding to CalRecycle to develop a
statewide program environmental impact report for the siting and construction of organic
waste composting facilities, as such a document could significantly reduce the time necessary
to construct new composting facilities.
Developing suitable programs for organics diversion, obtaining the necessary approvals of
programs and costs to rate payers through elected bodies, awarding contracts, and then
implementing these programs will take time and resources. This $225 million all ocation will
go a long way to helping locals develop and implement effective organic waste recycling
programs; however, we also note that further statutory and regulatory changes may be
necessary to maximize program effectiveness and efficiency and address challenges that may
arise in program implementation.
For these reasons, the City of San Luis Obispo respectfully requests the Legislature
appropriate $225 million (General Fund) for local assistance as outlined above.
Sincerely,
Heidi Harmon
Mayor
City of San Luis Obispo
cc: San Luis Obispo City Council
State Assembly Member Jordan Cunningham, info@jordancunningham.org
State Senator John Laird, Senator.Laird@senate.ca.gov
The Senate Budget Committee, SBUD.Committee@senate.ca.gov
The Assembly Budget Committee, AsmBudget@asm.ca.gov
Derek Dolfie, League of California Cities, dddolfie@cacities.org
League of California Cities, cityletters@cacities.org
Brooks Stayer, IWMA, bstayer@iwma.com