[GreenYes] California reaches 50% waste diversion goal

[Gary Liss <gary@no.address>]

Apologies for Cross-Postings


California reaches environmental milestone: State 
announces 50% waste diversion goal met

WHITTIER­Thank you California, you?ve done it!

After more than a decade of infrastructure and 
effort, early years of doubt and nay saying and a 
seismic shift in public opinion, California now 
diverts 52 percent of the 76 million tons of 
solid municipal wastes it generates yearly. The 
official 52 percent statewide diversion rate 
meets a legislatively imposed mandate and places 
the state at the forefront of national efforts to reduce and recycle our trash.

Meeting at the Puente Hills Landfill Materials 
Recovery Facility in the City of Whittier today, 
the California Integrated Waste Management Board 
announced that the goal first set forth in the 
Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989 has been 
reached, reversing a time when residents and 
workplaces routinely landfilled 90 percent of their garbage.

?I am proud of how California has once again 
shown the nation what can be done through 
perseverance and ingenuity,? said Board Chair 
Margo Reid Brown. ?Achieving this goal required a 
long-term commitment from all sectors of private 
and public enterprises. I deeply appreciate what has been accomplished.?

Calculated through a series of comprehensive 
standards used by the California Integrated Waste 
Management Board, the new rate reflects the 
impact of population and economic growth during 
the year. The Board reviews waste generation and 
disposal tonnages and annual reports submitted to 
the State by hundreds of cities, counties and 
regional waste management compacts. In addition, 
waste tonnages are calculated based on landfill 
disposal fees collected by the State Board of 
Equalization and paid to the Waste Board. The 
Waste Board receives approximately $1.40 for 
every ton of waste disposed in California landfills.

The Act required individual cities and counties 
to cut their disposal rates in half, but left the 
mechanics for doing so largely up to each 
jurisdiction, in light of their individual needs 
and available resources. The Board provided State 
sweeping oversight, as well as technical guidance 
and financial assistance on programs to increase waste diversion.

When it comes to disposal tonnages, the Puente 
Hills Landfill is the largest in the state. In 
2005, it received more than 3.9 million tons of 
garbage. Overall, the facility encompasses more 
than 1,300 acres, of which 433 acres are used for 
disposal. The landfill is permitted to receive up 
to 13,200 tons of agricultural, municipal, 
construction and demolition, industrial, 
biosolids, tires and other waste daily.

The state?s landmark Integrated Waste Management 
Act of 1989 charged the Board with implementing 
far-reaching provisions and moving cities and 
counties­and ultimately the state, itself­to 
higher waste diversion levels. In 1990, 
California diverted just 10 percent of its waste 
stream, causing consternation in some circles as 
to the remaining landfill capacity needed to meet disposal requirements.

Today, California views the folly of throwing so 
much away in reminisce. Nearly 500 cities, 
counties and regional waste management compacts 
around the state contribute to a multi-million 
dollar infrastructure of waste handling options 
for residents and businesses alike. Curbside 
waste pickup services, recycling bins, waste 
sorting facilities, green waste composting, used 
oil collection centers, hundreds of permitted and 
active landfills, household hazardous waste 
amnesty days or centers, recycled content 
procurement practices, broadcast and written 
public education campaigns, electronic waste 
stewardship, waste tire tracking manifests, 
?green? buildings, public recognition awards and 
myriad other programs abound, routing tons of 
salvageable materials to innovative markets that 
didn?t exist just a few years ago.

The outcome is a statewide municipal waste 
diversion record, a blossoming recycling-oriented 
economy and the creation and expansion of robust 
markets for recyclable materials that leads the 
nation by example. In California, waste recycling 
and management ranks on a scale comparable to the 
state?s vaunted entertainment industry in terms 
of produced yearly revenue and is responsible for 
the creation of thousands of jobs.

By reducing the trash thrown away and recycling 
it or reusing it, California has created a 
mainstream industry of statewide importance 
comprised of 5,300 establishments. Recycling now 
accounts for 85,000 jobs, generates $4 billion in 
salaries and wages and produces $10 billion worth 
of goods and services annually.

The environmental impacts of recycling are 
astounding. Each year recycling saves enough 
energy to power 1.4 million California homes and 
reduces water pollution by 27,047 tons. 
Furthermore, each year recycling saves 14 million 
trees and helps to reduce air pollution by 
165,142 tons. All of these efforts are working to 
reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an amount 
equal to taking 3.8 million passenger cars off the highway.

The California Integrated Waste Management Board 
is the State?s leading authority on recycling and 
waste reduction. It promotes a zero waste 
California in partnership with local government, 
industry, and the public. This means reducing 
waste whenever possible, promoting the management 
of all materials to their highest and best use, 
and protecting public health and safety and the environment.


The California Integrated Waste Management Board 
is one of six boards, departments, and offices 
within the California Environmental Protection 
Agency (<http://www.calepa.ca.gov>Cal/EPA).

# # #

Zero Waste California
Visit 
<http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/Pressroom/2006/August//>www.ciwmb.ca.gov 
to learn more about reducing waste.

From: http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/Pressroom/2006/August/30.htm
August 24, 2006, 2006-Release 30
For more information contact: Jon Myers | Lanny Clavecilla
(916) 341-6300; E-mail the 
<mailto:opa@no.address>Public Affairs Office <opa@no.address>



Gary Liss & Associates
916-652-7850
Fax: 916-652-0485
www.garyliss.com 

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