The most serious attack on California's landmark recycling policies, AB
2706, recently passed the Assembly Floor and has been scheduled for a
policy committee hearing next Tuesday. The Los Angeles County
Sanitation Districts and Stanislaus County are sponsoring this
legislation to eliminate incineration and other types of transformation
from the definition of disposal and allow them to count towards the 25%
and 50% source reduction, recycling and composting goals established
under AB 939.
AB 2706 would accomplish the following:
1. Transformation (referred to as "energy recovery") would have its
own place in the hierarchy above landfilling, but below recycling and
composting.
2. Transformation would be deleted from the definition of disposal
and, instead, be considered as diversion.
3. Transformation would be allowed to count towards the 25% and 50%
source reduction, recycling, and composting goals without any
restrictions.
4. Local governments would be allowed to add an energy recovery
component to their source reduction and recycling element.
Incentivizing garbage burning makes as little sense today as it did
during the 1980s:
- AB 2706 would undermine waste prevention and recycling efforts;
- AB 2706 would encourage incineration projects which discourage future
efforts to reduce waste;
- AB 2706 would eliminate the environmental benefits which accrue from
using recycled materials;
- AB 2706 would lead to less energy generation than recycling;
- AB 2706 promotes a waste management alternative that is more costly
than landfilling or recycling; and
- AB 2706 is unnecessary because of transformation credit already
provided for in AB 939.
AB 2706 will be heard in Senate Governmental Organization Committee
next Tuesday, June 4, 1996 at 8:30 AM. Your help is urgently needed to
stop this bill. Here is how you can help:
1. Write a letter in opposition to Senate Governmental Organization
Committee. Please include any local references to why garbage burning
would be bad for your community. Address it to:
Senator Ralph Dills
Senate Governmental Organization Committee
State Capitol, Room 5048
Sacramento, CA 95814
2. Please address a copy of your letter to the author, Assembly
Member Sal Cannella.
3. Please fax a copy of your letters to CAW at (916) 443-3912. We
can take of distributing the letter to the appropriate members of the
committee. If you have any questions, call us at (916) 443-5422.
SUPPORT(5/28/96): American Plastics Council; California Refuse Removal
Council; Cities of Ceres, Hughson, Modesto, Turlock, Waterford, Pico
Rivera, Big Bear Lake, Commerce, Lakewood; League of Cities; Los
Angeles County Sanitation Districts; Norcal Waste Systems; Ogden Energy
Systems; Solid Waste Association of North America; Stanislaus County;
Turlock Scavenger Co.
OPPOSITION (5/28/96): Alameda County Waste Management Authority;
California Communities Against Toxics; California League of
Conservation Voters; California Public Interest Research Group
(CalPIRG); Californians Against Waste; Environmental Defense Fund;
Environmental Justice Resource Network; Madres del Este de Los Angeles;
Natural Resources Defense Council; Planning and Conservation League;
Sierra Club California