TITLE
Recommendation to request City Attorney to prepare an ordinance amending Chapters 8.60, 18.67 and 21.42 of the Long Beach Municipal Code to comply with the State-mandated legislation Senate Bill (SB) 1383, the Short-Lived Climate Pollutants: Organic Waste Methane Emissions Reduction. (Citywide)
DISCUSSION
In September 2016, Governor Brown signed into law SB 1383, the Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (SLCP): Organic Waste Methane Emissions Reduction, establishing methane emissions reduction targets in a statewide effort to reduce emissions of SLCP. SB 1383 is the most significant waste reduction mandate to be adopted in California in the last 30 years. It establishes targets to achieve a 75 percent reduction of statewide disposal of organic waste by the year 2025, and no less than 20 percent of currently disposed edible food is recovered for human consumption for 2025. SB 1383 grants CalRecycle the regulatory authority required to achieve these reduction targets.
On June 18, 2021, the Public Works Department submitted a memorandum to the City Council outlining the requirements of the SB 1383. On August 3, 2021, the Public Works Department, along with representatives from CalRecycle and SCS Engineers, presented a Study Session to the City Council further explaining SB 1383 mandates, the City’s efforts to reach compliance, and the need to update the Long Beach Municipal Code (LBMC) to reflect the requirements of SB 1383.
As described in the June 18, 2021 memorandum, and as discussed in the August 3, 2021 Study Session, staff reviewed all the requirements of the legislation and highlighted that the City will not be in full compliance by January 1, 2022. This is due to the lack of funding from the State to implement the legislation, lack of public facilities in the State/Southern California to process organic material, industrywide shortages of trucks and containers, and the shift of staffing priorities during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. This law pr...
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