Santa Barbara County 440,000 residents $2 billion tourism dollars $3 billion agricultural industry 1000 restaurants 150,000 tons organics landfilled 2,700 square miles 1 food composting facility
AB 1826 – Overview Goal: phased elimination of landfilled “organics” “Organics” defined as food, green waste, non-hazardous wood waste and food-soiled paper Multi-Family subject only to green waste portion of the law Green Waste a minor issue – food is the challenge
AB 1826 – Jurisdiction Responsibilities Plan by January 2016: Program design Customer identification Outreach Reporting – added to Electronic Annual Report Complex – 55 pages of Q & A online No enforcement or penalties at this time
AB 1826 Enforcement, penalties, pricing incentives optional Exemptions can be granted “Case-by-Case” Methodology to determine affected businesses is flexible Agencies are tasked with overcoming barriers to success
Options for Customer Identification Employee based tool Waste Characterization - 36% the organics default Santa Barbara has developed its own system Other options acceptable if reasonable Options can be combined Law fuzzy on shared services like in strip malls
Customer Identification - Sorting
AB 1826 – Outreach
Education & Monitoring: On Site
Monitoring: Load Checks
Organics – Beneficial Reuse
Food Forward
Food Forward
Tajiguas Resource Recovery Project Regional effort Transparent process Recycling recovery Organics transformation Energy production Diversion increased to 85%+ GHG impact = removal of 24,000 cars