The California Air Resources Board voted to implement a mandatory commercial recycling program as part of its adoption today of  the AB 32 Scoping Plan, the blueprint for implementing California’s landmark global warming legislation. The ARB also highlighted the importance of providing financial incentives and working with local governments to implement recycling programs.   

CAW spearheaded a two-year effort to ensure recycling was appropriately represented in the Scoping Plan, and we were pleased to learn that the state has identified recycling as one of the key strategies that will help California achieve its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 (a reduction of 174 million tons of CO2). CAW is particularly proud of the leadership role that the ARB and CIWMB have taken with regards to commercial recycling, specifically with the following improvement that was made from earlier drafts of this plan:

At a public hearing of the Air Resources Board yesterday, CIWMB Chair Margo Brown announced her agency’s support for including mandatory commercial recycling in the implementation of the state’s landmark global warming law, AB 32. This bold leadership from the CIWMB shows an acknowledgement of the impressive greenhouse reductions that can come from increased recycling and we strongly urge the Air Resources Board to adopt this recommendation.

CAW, along with support from other environmental organizations, waste companies, recyclers, and local governments, has advocated for the inclusion of this measure since the earliest stages of AB 32 implementation, and the time has come to expand the success of California’s recycling efforts to our state’s businesses. With the inclusion of commercial recycling in AB 32 implementation, California will offer a model for regional, national, and international climate efforts, and CAW looks forward to working with the ARB and CIWMB on the difficult task of implementing this pioneering policy.

The final AB 32 Scoping Plan is scheduled for adoption at the December board meeting of the ARB.

• Read CAW’s most recent letter to the ARB on this issue
  (Co-signed by the state’s leading environmental organizations, industry leaders, and local governments)
• Read previous letters
• Support our efforts by making a tax-deductible donation

The ARB just posted the final draft of the AB 32 Scoping Plan. The recommendations for the Waste and Recycling sector are completely inadequate and not a sufficient improvement over the previous draft. While the plan acknowledged that there may be significant greenhouse gas savings available from recycling, it failed to provide discrete actions for meeting the AB 32 goals through increased recycling.

Strategies to increase recycling, such as a mandatory commercial recycling program, would help the state achieve its AB 32 targets in a cost-effective manor, provide significant co-benefits, and help stimulate economic growth through green job creation. There is no justification for California to pass up this “low-hanging fruit” in its global warming efforts. We strongly urge the ARB and CIWMB to revise this element of the scoping plan before final adoption.

• Read the report
• Read CAW’s recent letter to the ARB
• Learn about the greenhouse gas benefits of recycling

Several news stories this morning described the unintended effects of climate change regulations on Australian paper recycler Visy.

“The company, renowned as one of the nation's greenest, says the government's proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) would force it to immediately close two recycling and paper manufacturing plants, News Limited newspapers report.

'The CPRS does not recognise the carbon benefits from recycling, leading to severe collateral impacts on Australia's domestic recycling/remanufacturing industries,' Visy said in its submission to the government.” (The Australian)

These types of stories underscore the urgent need for standardized protocols and methodologies for quantifying the GHG benefits of recycling.