AB 2514: Solid waste: organic waste: diversion: biomethane: biosolids.

(1)The California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989 generally regulates solid waste disposal, management, and recycling. The act requires each city, county, and regional agency to develop a source reduction and recycling element of an integrated waste management plan. The act requires that element to include a 50% solid waste diversion requirement, as specified, and provides that up to 10% may be achieved through biomass conversion under certain conditions, with biomass conversion defined as the production of heat, fuels, or electricity by certain means from specified materials. One of the conditions for using biomass conversion to satisfy a portion of the solid waste diversion requirement is that pyrolysis not be included in the source reduction and recycling element. Pyrolysis is not defined for that purpose or for other purposes in the act.

This bill would define pyrolysis as the thermal decomposition of organic material at elevated temperatures in the absence or near absence of oxygen.

(2)Existing law requires the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, in consultation with the State Air Resources Board, to adopt regulations, as specified, to achieve the reduction in the organic waste disposed of in landfills. The departments regulations provide for, among other things, the calculation by the department of recovered organic waste product procurement targets for each local jurisdiction and a list of eligible recovered organic waste products for purposes of the procurement targets.

This bill would require the department, no later than January 1, 2026, to amend those regulations to include, as a recovered organic waste product attributable to a local jurisdictions procurement target, pipeline biomethane converted exclusively from organic waste, as specified.

(3)Existing law requires the department, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to administer a grant program to provide financial assistance to promote in-state development of infrastructure, food waste prevention, or other projects to reduce organic waste, sort and aggregate or process organic and other recyclable materials into new, value-added products, or divert items from disposal through enhanced reuse opportunities, as provided.

This bill would, until January 1, 2030, make the Town of Windsor and the Windsor Water District eligible for that grant program for purposes of a biosolids handling project.

This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Town of Windsor and the Windsor Water District.