2000 Annual Report: Market Development

Market Development Topics

Introduction RMDZ RMDZ Loan Program Jobs Through Recycling Private Buy Recycled Priority Materials  Organics  Construction & Demolition  Paper Minimum Content Programs State Agency Responsibility

Priority Materials: Organic Materials

Organic materials--yard trimmings, grass clippings, food scraps, and wood waste--make up more than 30 percent of California’s waste stream. This does not include rice straw and other agricultural and forest residues that are not typically landfilled today but which may be in the future. Local jurisdictions and businesses have made substantial investments in programs and facilities designed to reduce, reuse, and recycle organic materials. For example, 56 percent of local jurisdictions have separate green material collection programs, and almost 100 composting facilities are permitted in the state. Despite this, millions of tons of organic materials are still landfilled every year-comprising over 35 percent of all disposal according to the IWMB's latest waste characterization study.

The IWMB’s 1998 performance plan for this priority area set a goal of significantly increasing diversion of organic materials through the sustainable and cost-effective use of these materials. The plan called for collaboration with partners in local and State government, the recycling and manufacturing sectors, and agriculture and other end-use sectors such as landscapers and nurseries. Detailed information on organic materials management programs can be found on the IWMB’s Organics Web site.

Compost Agricultural Market Program
Two major products can be made from organic materials-mulch and compost. Mulch is ground-up yard trimmings and/or wood chips that is commonly used for erosion control and weed suppression. It is usually applied in a layer to the top of the soil and is not tilled in. Compost is a soil amendment resulting from the decomposition of organic materials. It is usually incorporated into the soil. Commercial compost producers must subject the material to a “time and temperature” process that kills pathogens and weed seeds.

The use of compost and mulch typically results in long-term, cross-media benefits--a major focus of Cal/EPA’s Strategic Plan. These include increased soil organic content, reduced leaching of nitrates into groundwater and surface water, disease suppression in some crops, increased water retention, and decreased use of pesticides and herbicides in some cases.

PRC section 42241.5 directed the IWMB to develop a program to increase the use of compost products in agricultural applications. As part of this, in December 1999 the IWMB issued a new solicitation for additional demonstration projects, with emphasis on innovative projects. The IWMB solicitation focused on a “partnership” approach, involving collaborative effort among growers, composters, local jurisdictions, and cooperative extension personnel, as well as an extensive technical research and outreach component. The following three new projects were funded, the results of which could have major implications for growers around the State:

• Effectiveness of compost applications in combating Phylloxera (a major crop disease) in vineyards (University of California at Davis).
• Effectiveness of compost, in conjunction with cover crops, in increasing vegetable crop production (University of California at Davis).
• Technical and economic effectiveness of co-composting urban green material and dairy manure (City of Sacramento, in conjunction with Grover Environmental Services and Horizon Dairy).

Work on other significant projects also continued in 2000, including two that involve the use of mulch to control soil erosion in hillside vineyards. Along with a previously completed project on the use of mulch to control erosion in citrus orchards in Ventura County, and continuing work on sustainable landscaping practices (see below), these efforts form a substantial basis for the IWMB in assisting the State Water Resources Control Board in developing the plan for California’s Nonpoint Source Pollution Control Program.

The IWMB also expanded its agricultural outreach efforts by exhibiting at agricultural conferences and events such as the California Farm Bureau Federation annual meeting, Eco-Farm, Stockton Agricultural Trade Show, and numerous smaller shows. A major new feature of this effort entailed joint staffing of several trade show exhibits by the organics and used oil programs.

While the IWMB conducts compost and mulch outreach directly to agricultural growers, it also has tried to reach a broader audience by sponsoring California Heartland, a weekly half-hour PBS magazine series about California’s agriculture industry. The series, which is designed to bring awareness of the connection between farm and table and to bring agriculture into our daily lives, reaches urban audiences throughout the state. 

California Heartland is well respected by the agricultural community, as reflected by its increasing popularity during the three years since it began. It also is unique in that it is the only non-cable agriculture program that airs in all major geographical markets throughout California. It is the most popular daytime Saturday show in the San Francisco market among all programs, and rising in popularity among public television shows throughout the state. The IWMB believes that delivering its compost and mulch use message through California Heartland lends credibility to the agency and the message. In 2000, the series aired segments that showed:

• A grade school composting class at the 1999 State Fair (February).
• The recycling program at the restaurant Eat Your Vegetables! (April).
• A segment on backyard composting for homeowners (May).
• The compost curriculum at Forestville School compost garden (September).
• Sea World’s food & landscape recycling & waste prevention program (October).
• Agricultural oil recycling in San Joaquin County (October).
• After Holiday Recycling: Christmas trees and wrapping paper (December).

For more information on past and ongoing demonstration projects and on California Heartland, see the IWMB’s Organics Web site.

Procurement
Safe, high-quality compost products are critical to increasing markets. Beginning in 1993, the IWMB facilitated the development of a voluntary, independent industry association known as the California Compost Quality Council (Council). Compost producers registered with the Council must be in compliance with applicable regulations and agree to provide laboratory-verified information about their products to interested buyers. In 1999-00, the IWMB funded additional work by the Council to upgrade its testing and inspection protocols and to coordinate more closely with the U.S. Composting Council on nationwide compost standards. The number of registered compost producers grew to 16 in 2000 and they account for a significant portion of the compost market in California. In addition, the IWMB and Council held two workshops in late 2000 focusing on local government procurement and landscaper procurement of urban-derived compost and mulch.

During the year 2000, IWMB staff also initiated a number of other projects to promote the procurement of urban-derived compost and mulch products. Staff met with California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) Headquarters landscape architecture design and maintenance staff to develop a partnership strategy for promoting compost and mulch procurement. Specifically, the strategy involves working with district architecture and maintenance staff to collect data on current procurement and to develop an outreach program to promote increased procurement with district staff and their contractors. In the future, the IWMB will be working with other State and local agencies to increase the amount of urban-derived compost and mulch that is used.

IWMB staff has also initiated partnerships with the California Landscape Contractors Association to promote low-input landscape maintenance techniques. IWMB staff has also begun working with the Landscape Architects Technical Council, which licenses landscape architects in California under the auspices of the Department of Consumer Affairs, to develop a sustainable environmental education program.

Another activity scheduled for the year 2001 is developing a compost and mulch procurement tool kit for use by State and local agencies. This will assist these agencies in obtaining, promoting, and using compost and mulch. Additional information on compost procurement is available at www.ciwmb.ca.gov//Organics/Products/.

Commercial Landscaping
Organic materials in the form of green waste generated from urban landscapes continue to comprise a significant portion of California’s waste stream. The majority of this material is produced on-site by the maintenance practices of commercial landscapers. During 2000, the IWMB extended its outreach efforts to promote the benefits and advantages of using resource-efficient landscape management practices that reduce, reuse, or recycle landscape trimmings on site to the commercial landscape industry.

New outreach publications were developed in partnership with the University of California Cooperative Extension. These publications, along with fact sheets developed in-house, provide technical guidelines for landscape contractors and site managers on using resource-efficient landscape management practices. Topics include grasscycling, composting, mulching, precise fertilization and irrigation usage, selective pruning, and good design. During the year, the IWMB sponsored and staffed many landscape workshops, seminars, and exhibits at major landscape industry trade shows around the state where these publications were distributed to attendees.

The IWMB has developed partnerships with and provided dedicated contract funding to local jurisdictions to implement regional landscape management outreach programs that focus on promoting resource-efficient landscape practices to commercial landscaping contractors and property managers. The goals of these partnership programs are to diminish green waste generated from landscape sites, assist local jurisdictions with mandated diversion requirements, and promote the use of recycled organic products.

In 2000, the IWMB continued to oversee two regional outreach programs initiated the previous year-in Orange County and the Inland Empire-and expanded the program to six counties in the Bay Area while beginning new ones with the City of Sacramento and San Joaquin County. A significant aspect of these programs is to include “cross-media” issues and partner with other public agencies with overlapping or similar objectives and targets, such as municipal water districts, stormwater management agencies and the UC Cooperative Extension. The City of Sacramento program is noteworthy because of its goal of working with public agencies and developers to employ and promote resource-efficient landscape practices in newly developed and future residential areas.

A significant barrier in these programs, however, is reaching commercial building and property owners to convince them of the economic and environmental benefits of incorporating resource-efficient landscaping practices into their landscape designs and contracts. In the coming year, the IWMB plans to work with professional landscaper associations to include grasscycling and compost and mulch use in their certification programs. IWMB will also work with State landscaper licensing authorities and universities and colleges to enhance landscape management curricula, and with building owners and property managers in implementing more sustainable landscaping practices. Building maintenance and homeowner associations will also be targeted in outreach programs to encourage them to adopt sustainable landscape practices.

Another significant project the IWMB is funding is the implementation of a model landscape maintenance program at Capitol Park in Sacramento to illustrate that resource-efficient landscaping practices are cost-effective and environmentally beneficial. Current mowing, irrigation, fertilization, and pruning practices will be assessed, and Department of General Services’ staff will be provided with training and equipment to incorporate resource-efficient landscaping practices at Capitol Park. In addition, waste management practices at Capitol Park will be analyzed and improved to prevent commingling of landscape trimmings, recyclables, and trash. This project will serve as a model to other State agencies to show the benefits of reducing green waste, conserving water, and minimizing nonpoint source pollution in urban landscapes.

• Surveys conducted among workshops and trade show attendees indicate that the majority of landscapers understand and now use some aspect of resource-efficient management in their maintenance practices.
• Professional landscapers, local water districts and stormwater management agencies, and the IWMB are now working together to realize the multiple economic and environmental benefits that accrue from the use of waste-efficient and water-efficient landscaping practices.

More information on these commercial landscaping programs can be found at the IWMB’s Landscaping Web site.

Grasscycling
Waste prevention is a key component in all of the IWMB’s efforts to divert materials from landfills. Grasscycling is an area that the IWMB has focused on and is promoting to both residents and landscapers. Grasscycling is the practice of leaving grass clippings on the lawn, where they decompose and add nutrients back into the earth. Grasscycling is effective because even if a community has a curbside green waste collection program, it is costly to collect this material, and grasscycling can help keep garbage collection rates down.

The IWMB extended its efforts to promote grasscycling in 2000 by providing funding to the local government partnerships to develop outreach campaigns encouraging residents to practice grasscycling to reduce the amount of grass clippings going to landfills. Grasscycling partnerships were developed in the San Francisco Bay Area (Contra Costa, Napa, Solano, and Sonoma counties, and the City of San Jose); Los Angeles; Inland Empire (Riverside and San Bernardino Counties); Mojave Desert & Mountain Region; and Sacramento. Proper watering, fertilizing, and mowing practices were promoted via newspaper articles, radio/cable advertising, bill inserts, electric mulching mower rebates, grasscycling and composting workshops, and participation in community events. Residents in the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento traded in their gas-powered mowers and purchased over 2,400 discounted electric, rechargeable, mulching mowers in spring 2000. These new mulching mowers will divert over 360 tons of grass clippings from landfills per year and reduce air emissions by over 22 tons per year.

Food Scrap Diversion
Food scraps comprise nearly 16 percent of materials currently landfilled in California. Approximately 2.7 million tons are generated from residents and 2.8 million tons are generated from the commercial sector that includes restaurants, grocery stores, health and educational institutions. IWMB staff is continuously collecting information and providing resource information to businesses, institutions, and local jurisdictions on food waste prevention strategies, regional food donation and rescue operations, animal feed, and in-vessel composting technologies.

The IWMB is currently developing a food scrap Web site, conducting regional workshops for development of a food diversion infrastructure, and assisting local government and the commercial sector with technical and non-technical information on food scrap diversion. The food scrap Web site will serve constituents by providing specific information that will help them identify options for reducing food scraps and handling excess food materials. The site will also contain regional resources, updated program and contract information, case studies, food scrap facts, and additional resources and links.

The IWMB recently awarded $150,000 in contracts to schools and local jurisdictions to operate food diversion programs. This information will be developed into case studies. During 2000, IWMB staff participated in several local and national conferences and trade shows regarding food scrap diversion and food management.

Future projects will involve working with food-related associations and organizations, and identifying and highlighting successful programs and case studies for publication in trade magazines and journals. Working with local government, IWMB staff is planning a series of regional food residual workshops to highlight model programs and facilitate networking between food banks, animal feed programs, composters, haulers, renderers, food waste generators, and local government. Four workshops have been planned so far in early 2001, and it is anticipated that more will follow. The IWMB will also have a presence at food-related trade shows and conferences.

Biomass Conversion Technologies
In the early 1990s, a large amount of organic materials--1 to 2 million tons annually of feedstock otherwise destined for landfills--was used as fuel by biomass plants. Many of these plants operated under “Standard Offer-4” contracts, developed in the 1980s under federal and State energy directives that allowed energy to be sold at higher-than-current-market prices. With major deregulation of the energy industry in the late 1990s and termination of most of these contracts, many biomass plants went out of business and fewer organic materials were managed as biomass fuel. The banning of open-field rice straw burning will also make this issue even more critical.

Recent State and federal initiatives, though, are promoting “biomass/biobased product” technologies (such as anaerobic digestion and gasification) that can convert organic materials to fuels, energy, chemicals, and fertilizers. These technologies, which can be combined with aggressive waste prevention and recycling practices, can have major cross-media environmental benefits. These include improving air quality (by replacing open-field burning); reducing emissions of greenhouse gases from landfills; reducing the risk of wildfires at the urban-rural interface; revitalizing rural economies; and providing new sources of renewable energy.

In 2000, the IWMB participated in an informal State interagency biomass task force, along with the Air Resources Board, Energy Commission, Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, Department of Food and Agriculture, and Trade and Commerce Agency. This has led to greater coordination of planning and program implementation among these agencies. For example, the IWMB sits on an evaluation panel for the Trade and Commerce Agency’s Agricultural Biomass Demonstration grant program and is assisting the Energy Commission and Air Resource Board in developing reports related to ethanol production and alternatives to rice straw burning, respectively.

The IWMB also approved funding for a major two-day forum on the role that conversion technologies might play in utilizing municipal residuals such as nonrecyclable organic materials and low-grade paper that are now landfilled. This forum was conducted May 3-4, 2001.

Program Measurement and Analysis
In an effort to quantify the impacts and effectiveness of IWMB organics programs on the compost industry and marketplace, the IWMB is developing an Organics Materials Measurement Analysis (OMMA) monitoring program that tracks micro- and macro-level indicators related to IWMB activity. These indicators will collect and analyze information on various IWMB actions and programs over time and correlate these activities to infrastructure changes in the industry, changes in compost usage and application patterns, effectiveness of IWMB outreach programs, and impacts on various State and local agencies and jurisdictions.

As a major step in assessing program effectiveness, in 2000 the IWMB contracted for an independent survey of the compost- and mulch-producing industry in California. Preliminary results, which will be finalized in early 2001, indicate that about 170 companies process approximately 6 million tons of organic materials annually. This represents a two- to three-fold increase over the amount of material that was processed in the early 1990s.

In addition to the in-house OMMA monitoring program, the IWMB is also participating in a multi-agency process for developing and implementing environmental indicators that will be used as part of Cal/EPA’s long-term strategic planning process. The Environmental Protection Indicators for California (EPIC) project is a collaborative effort overseen by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) and includes Cal/EPA boards and departments. IWMB staff is currently involved in developing a criteria selection process for choosing these indicators.