State Announces L.A., 4 Other Southland Cities Exceeded Trash-Cutting Mandate

2 Cities' Efforts Also OK'd; Ontario, La Habra Heights Placed on Compliance Schedule

SACRAMENTO—The California Integrated Waste Management Board—the state's primary recycling agency—announced Wednesday that the city of Los Angeles exceeded the State requirement to reduce the amount of garbage in landfills by 1995.

"I am extremely pleased that Los Angeles has done such a good job in implementing programs that it could report waste diversion rates of 45 percent in 1995 and 46 percent in 1996, far ahead of the 25 percent requirement for 1995," said Waste Board Chairman Dan Eaton.

The Waste Board also approved the diversion rates calculated by the cities of Calabasas, Sierra Madre, Westlake Village, and Carson, in which all the communities reported that they exceeded the State mandate of diverting 25 percent of their solid waste from landfills in 1995. In addition, the Board approved the recycling rates for the cities of Needles and El Monte even though they were lower than the State mandate, and placed the cities of La Habra Heights and Ontario on a schedule to bring their efforts into compliance with State law.

The Waste Board approved the following rates for 1995 and 1996 reported by the other cities that exceeded the requirements: Calabasas, 29 percent and 45 percent; Sierra Madre, 25 percent and 40 percent; and Westlake Village 30 percent and 23 percent. The Waste Board had previously allowed Carson to calculate its waste diversion based on a more accurate analysis conducted in 1997. That year, the city reported a 49 percent diversion rate.

Needles reported diversion rates of 24 percent each year, while El Monte based its report on a 1995 study that showed a diversion rate of 14 percent. Although short of the required 1995 rate, the Board agreed that officials with both cities are showing a good-faith effort to implement programs necessary to keep waste out of landfills. The Board directed its staff to monitor the cities' future progress, as well as work with local officials to determine if there are additional reasons for the low recycling rates. If needed, the Board will provide technical assistance.

Meanwhile, the Board placed La Habra Heights and Ontario on timetables to adopt and fully implement the waste diversion programs they need to meet the 2000 recycling mandates. The Board had previously determined that Ontario had not adequately implemented programs identified in its recycling plan, nor demonstrated a good-faith effort. The city previously reported a waste diversion rate of just 17 percent for 1995. Today, the Board determined that La Habra Heights had not implemented any recycling programs in the past nine years, and in fact had a slightly lower diversion rate in 1995 (35 percent) and 1996 (34 percent) than it had in 1990, the first year it calculated its recycling rate (36 percent).

Under terms of the compliance schedule, the cities must implement all programs identified in their existing plans or in new recycling plans by August 1, 2000, and must develop a schedule for implementing them by September 30 of this year. The cities must also document their progress in quarterly reports to the Board beginning on November 1 of this year, and work with Board staff to determine areas where improvements and new programs could be implemented.

The schedule requires the Board to hold public hearings after August 1, 2000, to determine if the communities have complied with the conditions of the order. Failure to comply with earlier deadlines may result in an earlier hearing, and the Board could impose fines of up to $10,000 a day for failure to comply. Likewise, a public hearing could be scheduled earlier if either or both cities comply with the order ahead of schedule.

The 1995 and 2000 recycling requirements were established in 1989 with the passage of the Integrated Waste Management Act. Cities and counties are required to implement recycling programs to meet these requirements. Wednesday's announcement came as part of a Board Biennial Review of jurisdictions' implementation of recycling and other waste diversion programs and their recycling rates. To date, the Board has approved the 1995 and 1996 diversion rates for 325 cities and counties. Of those, 67—at the end of 1996—had already met or surpassed the 50 percent recycling mark for 2000. The Board expects to complete the reviews of all 430 cities and counties later this year.

The Waste Board is required to conduct its review every two years as an evaluation of a jurisdiction's progress in implementing programs it had previously outlined to the Board. Because annual recycling figures do not have to be reported until August of the following year, the Board's staff was unable to begin examining the combined 1995 and 1996 data until late 1997.

Once the Biennial Review is complete, the Board either finds the city or county in compliance, or enacts a compliance schedule to assist the jurisdictions in meeting the goal. Failure to meet the compliance schedule can mean the city or county could face fines of up to $10,000 per day. Besides Ontario and La Habra Heights, the Board today placed all of Kings, Yuba, and Sutter counties, and the city of Avenal on compliance schedules. Previously, the Board had done so with Hawthorne, Hawaiian Gardens, and Coachella.

Many communities have found that a combination of waste prevention, recycling, and composting programs are the most effective means of reducing the amount of garbage going to landfills. Some of the recycling programs include purchasing recycled-content products; drop-off and buy-back centers and curbside programs for recyclables collection; and regional composting programs and community education events on how to compost yard wastes.

In addition, many cities and counties have implemented waste reduction programs in the schools, as well as provided teaching materials and curricula to K – 12 teachers. Waste audits for businesses, and brochures, public service announcements, and newsletters have also become popular methods of educating residents about waste reduction and the importance of conserving natural resources.

The six-member Integrated Waste Management Board is responsible for protecting the public's health and safety and the environment through management of the estimated 56 million tons of solid waste generated in California each year. The Board's mandate is to work in partnership with local government, industry, and the public to achieve a 50 percent reduction in waste disposed by the year 2000, while ensuring environmentally safe landfill disposal capacity. Currently, California's diversion rate is at an all-time high of 33 percent.

The Waste Board is one of six boards and departments within the California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA).

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