California Assembly Bill 341, which sets new limits for solid waste diversion, goes into effect July 1st. Most important to businesses in California, the law requires businesses who generate more than 4 cubic yards of trash per week and multi-family complexes of five units or more to participate in recycling, either through a jurisdiction's program, private company or by self-hauling recyclable materials to the recycler.
These Mandatory Commercial Recycling (MCR) regulations were originally started under Assembly Bill 32 as a greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction measure.
In theory, the more we recycle or the more efficiently we use the resources we have already extracted from the earth, the more GHG emissions we keep from being generated. This is because the bulk of emissions generated during a product's life-cycle occur when we are gaining new, virgin materials and preparing them for manufacturing.
According to the World Resource Institute, approximately 40 percent of those emissions could be avoided by recycling and re-using the resources we have already extracted.
But there are some issues which cause one to wonder if the GHG emission reductions gained from recycling are negated by the current recyclables re-manufacturing system, where:
• 80 percent of the materials collected for recycling in California go overseas to be remanufactured.
• The energy generation system in China and through out Asia is dirty, coal-fired power plants, which drives the GHG emissions way up.
• Transporting the materials overseas and back again drives emissions up, more.
• Little or no domestic re-manufacturing remains in the U.S. or California; and,
• China has set a 75 percent recycling goal. As China builds a socio-economic middle class, their need for recyclable materials from the U.S. will decline.
As my colleagues and I discussed the lack of markets for recyclable materials in California, and what happens when we no longer have China's markets, we realized that we had a possible solution to California's economic and employment situation.
We formed a very diverse stakeholders group – Recycling BIN – Build Infrastructure Now which includes California businesses, recyclers, economic development specialists, recycling market development specialists, local government, state government and environmentalists.
The Recycling BIN Coalition would like to see appropriate state agencies convene a special task force to plan and implement strategies that will move our recycling based economy from a majority export state to primarily domestic utilization.
The Task Force should consider:
• Providing business development capital for Recycling Market Development loans from sources such as cap and trade funds.
• California manufacturers that use post consumer materials should qualify for tax credits on equipment purchases and materials used.
• Lowering the barriers to business formation and expansion; reconciling conflicts within regulations/permits; developing a "Red Team" to work with businesses to guide them through California's permitting process.
• Promoting statewide infrastructure planning for compost and Construction & Demolition Debris processing facilities by working with local governments through regional planning and zoning processes.
Recycling and recycled content-value added manufacturing are strategies that can assist in developing a more robust economy and helping the environment. As business leaders, we must continue to work to achieve prosperity and strengthen the economic health of our businesses, cities and state.
A copy of the white paper is available from Frank Ferral of the Greater Stockton Chamber of Commerce at [email protected].
These Mandatory Commercial Recycling (MCR) regulations were originally started under Assembly Bill 32 as a greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction measure.
In theory, the more we recycle or the more efficiently we use the resources we have already extracted from the earth, the more GHG emissions we keep from being generated. This is because the bulk of emissions generated during a product's life-cycle occur when we are gaining new, virgin materials and preparing them for manufacturing.
According to the World Resource Institute, approximately 40 percent of those emissions could be avoided by recycling and re-using the resources we have already extracted.
But there are some issues which cause one to wonder if the GHG emission reductions gained from recycling are negated by the current recyclables re-manufacturing system, where:
• 80 percent of the materials collected for recycling in California go overseas to be remanufactured.
• The energy generation system in China and through out Asia is dirty, coal-fired power plants, which drives the GHG emissions way up.
• Transporting the materials overseas and back again drives emissions up, more.
• Little or no domestic re-manufacturing remains in the U.S. or California; and,
• China has set a 75 percent recycling goal. As China builds a socio-economic middle class, their need for recyclable materials from the U.S. will decline.
As my colleagues and I discussed the lack of markets for recyclable materials in California, and what happens when we no longer have China's markets, we realized that we had a possible solution to California's economic and employment situation.
We formed a very diverse stakeholders group – Recycling BIN – Build Infrastructure Now which includes California businesses, recyclers, economic development specialists, recycling market development specialists, local government, state government and environmentalists.
The Recycling BIN Coalition would like to see appropriate state agencies convene a special task force to plan and implement strategies that will move our recycling based economy from a majority export state to primarily domestic utilization.
The Task Force should consider:
• Providing business development capital for Recycling Market Development loans from sources such as cap and trade funds.
• California manufacturers that use post consumer materials should qualify for tax credits on equipment purchases and materials used.
• Lowering the barriers to business formation and expansion; reconciling conflicts within regulations/permits; developing a "Red Team" to work with businesses to guide them through California's permitting process.
• Promoting statewide infrastructure planning for compost and Construction & Demolition Debris processing facilities by working with local governments through regional planning and zoning processes.
Recycling and recycled content-value added manufacturing are strategies that can assist in developing a more robust economy and helping the environment. As business leaders, we must continue to work to achieve prosperity and strengthen the economic health of our businesses, cities and state.
A copy of the white paper is available from Frank Ferral of the Greater Stockton Chamber of Commerce at [email protected].