AB 3178: Integrated waste management plans: source reduction and recycling element: diversion requirements.

The California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989, which is administered by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, establishes an integrated waste management program. Existing law requires each city, county, and regional agency, if any, to develop a source reduction and recycling element of an integrated waste management plan. The act requires the source reduction and recycling element to divert from disposal 50% of all solid waste subject to the element through source reduction, recycling, and composting activities, with specified exceptions.

Existing law requires a city, county, or regional agency to submit an annual report to the department summarizing its progress in reducing solid waste. Existing law requires the department to review a jurisdictions compliance with the diversion requirements every 2 or 4 years, as specified, and authorizes the department to issue an order of compliance if the department finds, after considering specified factors, the jurisdiction failed to make a good faith effort to implement its source reduction and recycling element.

This bill would make findings, including, among others, that under Chinas National Sword import policy, many recyclable materials are now banned and may no longer be imported into that country, which has had a profound impact on California efforts to meet state recycling objectives. The bill would require the department, when evaluating a jurisdictions good faith effort to implement a diversion program, to also consider, until January 1, 2022, whether Chinas National Sword import policy caused the absence or loss of a market for recyclable materials that necessitated the disposal of those materials as a temporary measure to avoid a public health threat, as specified. The bill would also require the department to consider the extent to which the jurisdiction has made efforts to reduce contamination and improve the quality of recycled materials and the extent to which the lack of an available market for one or more types of recyclable materials, which prevented the jurisdiction from fully implementing its diversion programs, was the result of circumstances beyond the reasonable control of the jurisdiction.