Meeting the 50 Percent Challenge: Recycling Market Development Strategies Through the Year 2000

IV.  Core Elements of the 1996 Market Development Plan

A. Goals
B. Criteria for Recommended Actions
C. Priorities for Board Action
D. Basis for Board Decisions Regarding Priority Action
E. Summary of the 1996 Market Development Plan

A. Goals

In 1990, California generated 45 million tons of solid waste. Of that amount, approximately 40 million tons were being landfilled in California and 5 million tons were being recycled or composted. By 1995, generation had decreased to 44 million tons, but diversion had increased; with 12 million tons being recycled or composted. Thus, through the conscientious efforts of State and local government, businesses, and private citizens, California had achieved its 25 percent diversion goal for 1995. This important achievement demonstrated the economic viability of diversion programs, conserved natural resources and landfill capacity, and created jobs in local communities. However, Californians face an even bigger challenge in achieving the mandated 50 percent diversion level, which will require that 25 million tons per year (MTPY) be recycled or composted by the year 2000. This is a 13 MTPY increase over 1995 diversion levels.

The Board's primary goal in preparing the 1996 market development plan is to help create markets for this additional 13 MTPY of collected material. To do so, the Board will seek to build partnerships with local governments, businesses, and solid waste and environmental organizations. In addition, the Board will work cooperatively with local government and the private sector to develop the collection infrastructure and innovative recycling technology necessary for diverting 25 MTPY of postconsumer material from disposal.

A second goal is to develop markets for materials that, while not contributing greatly to the 50 percent diversion goal, are important for other reasons such as legislative mandates, health and safety impacts, or cost considerations.

B. Criteria for Recommended Actions

The recommendations contained in this plan are based on four qualitative criteria:

1. Relative contribution toward achieving the 50 percent diversion goal.
Meeting the year-2000 diversion mandate was the primary factor. Materials representing a significant portion of the waste stream were targeted (i.e., paper, compostables, inerts, and wood).

2. Special collection or environmental problems.
The plan includes those materials which are costly to collect, process, and dispose of due to their unique physical properties. Such commodities pose unique collection and environmental problems. Thus, tires were selected as a targeted commodity due to their significant environmental problems when landfilled or illegally dumped and because the Board has tire-specific discretionary funds to address tire market barriers. Plastics were targeted since the Board administers two minimum-content plastics programs (trash bags and rigid plastic packaging containers) mandated by State law, and postconsumer resin must be available to support compliance with these laws. In addition, most California jurisdictions have invested in infrastructure to collect plastics, and the Board wants to ensure that there are sufficient markets for the collected plastics.

3. Anticipated impact on creating or enhancing markets.
The plan includes Board actions which would likely be effective in creating or enhancing markets.

4. Time frame for implementation.
Since the Board must achieve the 50 percent diversion mandate by the year 2000, the timeframe for implementing priority actions was an important consideration. To ensure that the mandate is achieved, the Board selected recommendations that it can implement in the next two to three years.

Table A: Market Capacity Goals

* Market capacity includes the amount of materials diverted for recycling, composting, and energy recovery.
** "Inert" materials (e.g. concrete rubble) from construction and demolition sites.
*** The total includes more than just the listed materials.

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C. Priorities for Board Action

Based on the above criteria, the Board has established the following materials and programs for priority market development efforts:

Paper, Compostables, Inerts, and Wood--These materials are targeted due to their large contribution in the California waste stream and the need to aggressively divert these materials to achieve the 50 percent diversion goal.

Tires and Plastics--These materials are targeted because they pose special collection and environmental problems and because there are specifically mandated Board market development programs.

Industrial Market Development and Buy Recycled Programs--These programs (R-Team and Buy Recycled) are targeted for priority effort due to their impact on creating or enhancing markets.

For planning purposes, the Board assumes that 25 MTPY of market capacity will be needed in the year 2000, as shown in Table A, Market Capacity Goals. Additional, but unquantified, reductions in waste generation will likely occur due to waste prevention (source reduction) efforts. The 25 MTPY market capacity includes existing domestic and export capacity, and the new capacity needed to absorb additional materials diverted for recycling, composting, and energy recovery to meet the 50 percent diversion goal.

D. Basis for Board Decisions Regarding Priority Action

The Board based its decisions on the following staff assessments of major market development opportunities and program strategies:

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E. Summary of the 1996 Market Development Plan

The Board will undertake 16 priority actions to stimulate use of secondary materials and demand for products made from these materials. The list continues the priority materials selected in the 1993 plan (paper, plastic, and compostables) and expands the priority list to include three additional materials:

• Tires, because they are an environmental problem in California and because the Board has discretionary funds available to promote tire markets.
• Urban wood, which represents about 7.5 percent of California's waste stream and faces unknown impacts due to reduction of biomass electricity facilities.
• Inerts, which represent 19 percent of the waste stream.

Additionally, the priority actions in the 1996 plan depart from those in the 1993 plan by recognizing the importance of targeting collection efficiency, by reducing the emphasis on mandatory programs, and by emphasizing instead voluntary actions through partnerships and alliances. The following table summarizes the priority market development activities the Board will implement during the next two to three years. Additional actions may be undertaken in response to particularly attractive options to significantly divert additional material. Actions are not listed in priority order. Detail on each action is given in the section following the table.

Summary of Priority Market Development Activities

A. Paper

1. Develop regional supply data for recovered paper to assist paper recyclers in identifying existing and potential feedstocks.
2. Increase office paper recovery.
3. Increase use of mixed paper in nonpaper products, particularly building products such as wall panels and medium-density fiberboard.
4. Support compliance with the Minimum Content Newsprint Program.
5. Facilitate the development of export markets for all grades of waste paper.

B. Compostables and Mulches

1. Increase use of compost and mulches by agriculture, landscapers, and nurseries.
2. Increase cost-effective production of environmentally safe compost and mulch by providing information and assistance to the composting and mulching community and to regulators, including Local Enforcement Agencies (LEA).

C. Plastics

1. Assist in compliance with Rigid Plastic Packaging Container Program and the (minimum content) Trashbag Program.
2. Increase use of recycled plastic by durable goods manufacturers and promote design for recyclability principles with those manufacturers.

D. Construction and Demolition Materials  (concrete, asphalt, asphalt roofing, urban wood, drywall)

1. Assist the California Department of Transportation with testing and specification development for recycled-content road products.
2. Investigate opportunities for wood waste markets.
3. Conduct studies on uses of ground drywall.

E. Tires

1. Increase waste tire diversion by developing alternative uses including use of waste tires as a fuel supplement at cement kilns and cogeneration facilities, and by supporting emerging pyrolysis and devulcanization technologies.
2. Increase use of crumb rubber by developing and promoting crumb rubber markets.

F. Buy Recycled

1. Increase procurement of refurbished and recycled-content products by the private and public sectors.

G. Industrial Market Development

1. Increase the number and capacity of reuse and recycling businesses in California.

A review of these 16 priority actions reveals several very important issues which the Board will address so that California can achieve a 50 percent disposal reduction by the year 2000:

• Success of the priority actions relies heavily on public education and the sharing of information among local governments, private industry, the Board, and other State agencies.
• Since these actions are intended to set the direction and priorities for the Board's market development programs over the next 2-3 years, the Board will begin assessing the progress toward achieving the 50 percent diversion within the next several months in order to begin making any necessary program adjustments to this plan. Thus, market analysis, program evaluation, and diversion tracking will be done on a regular basis to ensure that sufficient progress is being made to reach the 50 percent mandate.
• The interrelationship between waste prevention and market development must be tracked. Preventing waste (the top waste management priority for the Board) may reduce material available for recycling/market development, but will also contribute to landfill diversion.
• Further development of local governments partnerships is needed to incorporate these actions into the local governments' market and industrial development programs. Local government efforts must be tailored to reflect their unique conditions, infrastructures, budgets, and expertise and take full advantage of the information, partnerships, and opportunities available in each of the priority actions.

In conclusion, California can achieve the 50 percent diversion goal by 2000, but this will happen only through the support, commitment, and cooperation of the Board, local governments, recycling businesses, and the public.

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Last updated: November 01, 2007