2003 Annual Report: Executive Summary

In California, it pays to recycle. Recycling has twice the economic impact of disposal, compares favorably to the state’s vigorous movie and video industry, accounts for approximately 85,000 jobs, and produces $10 billion worth of goods and services annually. That’s the conclusive finding of two recent studies published by the University of California, Berkeley, and the National Recycling Coalition.

Moreover, recycling generates nearly $4 billion in taxable income and $5 billion in taxable sales. Over 5,300 recycling and reuse businesses operate in California. Recycling has a place in the state’s industrial complex. Recycling and waste reduction cut California’s disposal needs. The reuse and conservation of materials significantly lessens our collective environmental footprint.

The Integrated Waste Management Board is California’s leading solid waste regulatory office. It provides leadership in nearly every aspect of waste handling activity in the state and stakeholders depend on the agency for financial backing and technical guidance. The Board allocates its yearly revenues—from fees on waste disposal, lubricating oil, and tires—to support marketing recyclable materials, reducing waste, and enforcement/cleanup projects. In grants alone during 2003, the Board directed $38.9 million to support cities, counties, and schools in their efforts to divert and safely manage their waste.

In an attempt to address the emerging waste management problem posed by e-waste, obsolete electronic products, the California Legislature passed and former Governor Davis signed the Electronic Waste Recycling Act of 2003, Senate Bill 20 by Senator Byron Sher. The Act will create a system for the safe and convenient collection and recycling of hazardous electronic products and eliminate existing electronic waste stockpiles by the end of 2007. It is the first comprehensive electronics recycling law in the nation.

The Legislature also passed and Governor Davis signed AB 1548 (Pavley), advancing the State’s commitment to encourage California teachers to use the environment as a context to teach state required concepts in science, math, language arts and other subject areas. The bill requires the Office of Education and the Environment to develop education principles for the environment for K-12 students by July 1, 2004, and a model curriculum incorporating these principles for consideration as part of a State Board of Education approved model curriculum. These principles for the environment and the model curriculum will be aligned to existing academic standards adopted by the State Board of Education.

In 2003, the Board adopted a new rallying cry, full of challenge and promise: “Zero Waste-You Make It Happen!” It symbolically raises the waste diversion bar, asking cities, counties, businesses, industry, and the public to imagine a society so conscientious of its resources that it wastes none of them. In reality, this means managing the estimated 72 million tons of waste generated each year in California by 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.

This executive summary provides a look at some of the more significant programs—markets, education, local assistance, and enforcement—that affected California’s solid waste management record in 2003. For the full story, the Board’s 2003 Annual Report provides an in-depth look at all of the complex programs that make up California’s intricate solid waste management infrastructure.

Cutting Waste, Creating Jobs
In 2003, the Board began to renew the designations of 40 Recycling Market Development Zones (RMDZ) from San Diego to the Oregon border. These zones have turned 72,000 square miles-44 percent-of California into a sprawling recycling-rich domain, where it pays to make new products with recycled content.

The Board issued $13.7 million in loans from its RMDZ Loan Account and the State Tire Fund to 12 recycling businesses in the zones. Through the assistance provided by the Board’s loans, these businesses will create an estimated 226 new jobs and divert 155,839 additional tons of used tires, electronic waste, plastics, paperboard, organic matter, and construction and demolition debris annually from California landfills.

In 2003, the Board’s Jobs Through Recycling (JTR) Project helped start or expand nine businesses. Those enterprises created more than 100 jobs and diverted more than 209,000 tons of waste. Through JTR, the Board invested more than $10 million in facility, equipment, and public infrastructure, coalescing economic development and recycling communities around the state. JTR is partially funded by the U.S. EPA.

Environmental Education
In 2003, the Board and State Board of Education began making the School Diversion and Environmental Education Law (DEEL) an academic reality. The School DEEL requires both agencies to:

• Coordinate the introduction of environmental concepts into California schools’ science curriculums.
• Establish an Environmental Ambassador Pilot Program (EAPP) to promote and assess the impact of environmental education.
• Develop and institute a unified environmental education strategy for all elementary and secondary schools.
• Offer teacher training plans.
• Provide school waste reduction tools and models.
• Create an integrated environmental education and waste management practices grant program for schools and school districts.

Seven school districts in California participated in the EAPP in 2003 and are already implementing a variety of sustainable diversion programs.

Electronics Waste
California’s fast-paced and high-tech lifestyle exacts a price: responsibility for a class of products whose service life is eclipsed by the ingenuity and innovation that propels the electronic industry. Triggered by the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) clarification in 2001 that end-of-life products containing cathode ray tubes (CRTs, or picture tubes)—mainly computer monitors and televisions—are hazardous waste, municipal landfills throughout California stopped accepting them. The subsequent stockpiling of old computers and television sets in homes and businesses posed a daunting specter for waste regulators.

In September 2003, California passed the Electronic Waste Recycling Act, the first comprehensive approach to electronic recycling in the nation. Starting July1, 2004, the Act requires the collection of a graduated recycling fee from consumers who purchase products having a monitor screen four inches or larger (measured diagonally). The Board will disperse these revenues to qualified collectors and recyclers to help cover their costs of handling electronic products covered under the new law.

Manufacturers have a responsibility to report to the Board their sales, use of hazardous materials, use of recycled-content materials, and future plans for product recycling. Moreover, the Act requires manufacturers to produce cleaner, safer products in the future and directs State agencies to employ environmentally preferred purchasing guidelines in procuring electronic equipment.

Diversion Goals in Sight
Waste diversion at the local and State level remains high and the Board anticipates further gains as programs continue to be implemented.

• California’s average statewide diversion rate was 47 percent in 2003. This continuing high mark demonstrates a compelling commitment by local governments, businesses, State agencies, school districts, and residents to waste reduction and recycling.
• More than 60 percent of all California cities, counties, and regional waste authorities met the 50 percent solid waste diversion goal mandated for 2000 by the Integrated Waste Management Act. Other jurisdictions continue to strive for 50 percent diversion. They are working diligently, under time extensions granted by the Board under Public Resources Code sections 41820 and 41785, to improve their diversion.
• In 2003, Board staff analyzed the 2002 annual reports of 98 percent of 414 State governmental agencies and facilities. In 2002, State offices generated approximately 869,942 tons of waste. Governmental offices recycled or diverted 69 percent-596,076 tons-of their used materials from disposal in 2002.
• Board staff continues to provide technical and informational assistance to school districts and local jurisdictions in an effort to develop and improve school district waste reduction programs. In spring 2003, the Board conducted a training program that highlighted how local jurisdictions, school districts, and the State can work together to implement districtwide waste reduction programs. The training also featured the Board’s Web based tools for schools that provide waste reduction program implementation tools and resources to local jurisdictions and school districts.
• In 2003, Board staff conducted a school district waste diversion survey to evaluate school waste reduction and recycling programs in the State. If the survey finds fewer than 75 percent of schools with waste reduction and recycling programs, the Board will recommend statutory changes to the Legislature to requiring implementation of such programs.

Conversion Technologies
Despite California’s remarkable successes in diverting waste from landfills, other than improved automation in materials sorting and handling, few significant advances in technology have emerged. In 2003, the Board studied several promising, new technologies that convert organic wastes into usable energy and other byproducts.

Conversion technologies like thermal gasification processes, chemical acid hydrolysis processes, and biological enzyme hydrolysis processes, represent relatively new uses of diverted waste materials. The controlled, accelerated breakdown of waste materials to produce energy, fuel supplements, and other valuable byproducts enables communities to take advantage of their excess materials in new ways.

Recent legislation allocated $1.5 million from the Integrated Waste Management Account to study the lifecycle and environmental implications of conversion technologies.

Environmental Justice
In 2003, the Board revised its standard grant agreements to require that all grantees comply with environmental justice policies. It approved a $200,000 contract with California State University, Sacramento to develop an environmental justice guide for local jurisdictions. The guide will identify service gaps and address used oil and household hazardous waste recycling and collection programs in minority communities.

The Board also approved a $100,000 environmental justice study by the Center for Justice, Tolerance, and Community at the University of California, Santa Cruz, to assess ways to increase public and community participation in Board processes and monthly meetings.

Market Development and Buy Recycled Efforts
From the “greening” of State offices and new buildings that are energy, water, and materials efficient to comparing recycled-content products against traditional building materials and major trade shows that tout the “buy recycled” concept to “close the recycling loop,” Board staff has worked tirelessly throughout 2003 to help promote and develop markets for all recyclable waste materials.

• In 2003, the Board approved $400,000 for green building contracts and technical assistance to local government and State agencies. Executive Order D-16-00 set a goal for State agencies to provide offices that offer the best in energy, water, and materials efficiency. These workplaces must also be healthy, productive, and comfortable. In 2003, the Board allocated $150,000 to a high performance school to incorporate recycled-content building materials in an educational building project.
• The Board released its “Building Material Emission Study,” demonstrating that the indoor air quality impacts of recycled-content products compare favorably with those of standard building products. The agency helped train 1,600 State, school, and building professionals on sustainable building concepts in 2003, and worked with the Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) to induct sustainable designs in future K-12 school classrooms.
• In fiscal year 2002-2003, State government purchased $226 million worth of materials and equipment. Recycled-content products accounted for 72 percent of those purchases, for a total of $163 million.
• In 2003, the Board partnered with the Department of General Services and others to emphasize environmentally preferred purchasing to encourage procurement practices and policies that minimize State government’s environmental impact.

Site Cleanup
Illegal dumping problems on public and private properties persist, despite the best waste diversion and recycling efforts. When illegal dumping presents a significant public and environmental risk and local authorities are unable to remedy the situation, the Board can finance direct cleanup operations that eliminate these threats. Cost recovery actions by the State are a consideration in such operations and liable parties can be responsible for expensive governmental work. The Board funded more than $9.6 million in cleanup work in 2003.

• More than $8 million from the Solid Waste Disposal Site Cleanup Trust Fund for 12 projects. Response to the catastrophic fire at Archie Crippen illegal disposal site in the City of Fresno-both initial fire suppression and subsequent remediation-was the largest and most complex cleanup operation ever completed by the Board.
   
• Farm and Ranch Cleanup and Abatement Account grants of more than $1.6 million to address illegal dumping problems. In 2003, a change in the law extended grant eligibility to Native American Tribes and Resource Conservation Districts. Along with higher grant limits for individual projects, this resulted in significantly greater utilization of the farm and ranch cleanup program.

Southern California Fire Response
In the wake of searing Southern California wildfires in 2003, the Board represented the California Environmental Protection Agency at the Disaster Field Office in Pasadena, and staffed offices in San Diego and Colton in a continuing role after the flames had subsided.

The Board’s role focused primarily on coordinating responses and information on the safe management of fire-related waste, including burn ash, telephone poles, household hazardous wastes, railroad ties, automotive bodies, asbestos-containing materials, fuel-contaminated soil, and animal carcasses. To make this information available, the Board created a disaster Web page for State and local agencies.

Solid Waste Facilities
In 2003, the Board continued to provide oversight for hundreds of facilities in the business of handling the disposal needs of California cities and counties. Regulation of these operations by the Board and dozens of local enforcement agencies helps ensure any threats to public health and the environment from waste disposal businesses are minimized.

The Board concurred in the revision of four major permits, allowing large landfills in the city and county of Los Angeles and the county of Santa Barbara to upgrade operations to meet the disposal needs of the areas they serve.

In addition, the Board held several training workshops to keep local enforcement staff and facility operators apprised of current and new disposal regulations, including those that affected the regulatory placement of compost handling operations, tire monofills, construction and demolition and inert material facilities, and others.

Waste Tires
The Board continued to address California’s waste tire management needs and updated the State’s Five-Year Tire Plan in 2003. That plan includes funding allocations for and performance standards on the safe storage of used tires, abatement and cleanup of tire stockpiles, alternatives to landfill disposal, market and technology development, and improvement of the waste tire hauler program.

• In 2003, the Board adopted regulations that resulted in sweeping changes in the way old tires are handled in California. The new Uniform Waste and Used Tire Manifest System provides the Board with a “cradle to grave” means of tracking tires throughout the state. More than 10,000 tire generators, haulers, and end-use operations participate in the manifest system and send the Board nearly 4,000 manifest documents weekly. The Board enters this data into a computerized database that can be used to track the movement of waste tires around the state.
• In 2003, the Board approved tire grants totaling more than $11.1 million from seven funding programs. The grants helped communities pay for waste tire cleanup and enforcement efforts, education and tire amnesty days, waste tire track and recreational surfacing projects, tire product commercialization and applied technologies, and the use of waste tires in rubberized asphalt concrete public paving works.

Household Hazardous Waste
The Board awarded $4.5 million in household hazardous waste grants to help 21 local governments manage surplus residential discards of solvents, paints, fuels, herbicides, automotive chemicals, and similar materials around the state.

Used Oil Grants
In 2003, the Board approved used oil grants from four funding programs totaling more than $17 million. Most of the money-$11 million-helped cities and counties establish used oil collection and recycling programs.

The rest of the grants were used by 16 cities and counties to promote used oil collection and recycling opportunities ($3 million); awarded to 12 nonprofit organizations using social marketing techniques to spread the message of how to safely handle used oil ($2.6 million); and for research, testing and demonstration grants ($1.3 million).

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