Mike Lee of the San Diego Union Tribune reports on San Diego County's new Construction and Demolition Debris recycling ordinance which will begin July 1st. The ordinance will require developers and individual builders to pay a deposit on planned construction projects which they could recover after proving a 50% recycling rate.

Since late last year, San Diego has introduced a package of measures designed to keep the city in compliance with California's recycling target. San Diego is at 55 percent, and city officials expect the construction recycling program to boost the number to 62 percent.

Previously, San Diego has been able to reduce the amount of Construction Debris being disposed in one of it's landfills by imposing fees on the dumping of certain materials. This new deposit ordinance is the latest waste diversion measure instituted by the county as the Miramar landfill nears capacity and could close by 2012.

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CAW and C & D

• CAW supports measures that aim to reduce C & D materials being landfilled. The California Integrated Waste Management Board's 2003 Waste Characterization Study showed that C & D represents nearly 22% of the waste stream. Much of this material can and should be recycled into new products.

• SB 735 (Wiggins) was vetoed by the Governor last year. This measure would have required the Department of Transportation to track the use of Recycled Materials in construction projects.