May 11 - Rule to Lessen Smog Would Hurt Efforts to Reduce Trash at Landfill, Officials Say (Modesto Bee)

The Economic and Technology Advancement Advisory Committee held its final meeting on Monday and adopted progressive recommendations for achieving AB 32 goals through increased recycling and composting.

While the final report has not been released, we expect the recycling and composting sections to be substantively the same as those in the latest draft.

Areas to note:

• Pages 103 to 108 (of the PDF) list the recycling and composting recommendations.
• The introduction/summary lists 5 key opportunities for GHG reductions. Opportunity #4 has to do with emission reductions through forestry and ag, and includes a recommendation on compost use. (Page 20 of the PDF)

The final report will be released within the next few days (we will post it when it will be available), and the ARB Board will adopt it on the 28th. It will then be given to ARB staff for consideration in the AB 32 Scoping Plan.

Today is the deadline for submitting comments to the ETAAC committee, and CAW has submitted a letter supporting recommendations J through N of the Industrial Sector (on page 89 of the report).

• Read our letter to the committee.
• See our previous blog entry for a description of these recommendations.
• Submit additional letters supporting these recommendations. (Letters should be sent to Steve Church at the ARB)
• Attend ETAAC's upcoming meetings on January 25th and February 11th.

The first formal meeting of the state’s Climate Action Team subgroup on Recycling and Waste Management will be taking place next week. The Recycling and Waste Management Subgroup is part of the Governor’s Climate Action Team, which is the primary vehicle for state agencies such as the Department of Conservation and the CIWMB to make policy recommendations for the implementation of AB 32.

This meeting is the starting point in the process for developing a proposal that could include a credit system for the production and utilization of recycled/composted materials, as well as host of other programs to remove barriers to composting and increase commercial and residential recycling.

Monday’s meeting will be an opportunity to urge the CAT subgroup to recommend to ARB a set of strong policies that will encourage the ARB to focus on waste reduction, recycling, and composting as greenhouse gas reduction measures.

The meeting of the newly expanded Recycling and Waste Management Subgroup (formerly “Landfill Subgroup”) will be held Monday at the Cal/EPA building, and the audio from the meeting will be webcast. Although this is only an introductory meeting and not much will actually be decided, this CAT subgroup process will be a good opportunity for recyclers, composters, and industries that use recycled materials to support including recycling in the development of the AB 32 Scoping Plan.

• Agenda
• Webcast (Audio Only)