SB1383_mixdown.mp3
SB1383_mixdown.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix
SB1383_mixdown.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.
Paul:
My name's Paul Clemens. My title is deputy director of Public Works for the City of Reading. My job duties are in relation to the solid waste utility, the landfill and fleet. So I oversee all of those operations. So anything to do with trash collection and recycling the landfill and then also over fleet in regards to maintenance repair of all city vehicles.
Katie:
And Paul, we're here today to talk to the community about SB 1383, which some people may have heard about in the news recently. Some people may have no idea what that is or what that means. Can you tell us what SB 1383 is?
Paul:
It is a short-lived climate pollutant bill, basically, so it's trying to address greenhouse gases and their production. And one of the things that produces a lot of greenhouse gases when organics decompose. So this bill is trying to get organics out of landfills. And so that's organic material. That is food waste, that's organic material that is cuttings from trees, trimming things you do around your house when you're doing some spring cleaning outside, things like that. So it also addresses food recovery. So it's pretty broad bill, piece of legislation and what it requires from not only haulers but also jurisdictions as far as cities, municipalities, counties all have a role to play in that.
Steve:
Paul, you mentioned specific to the organics in the landfills. Is that an issue both here in Shasta County and statewide and really nationwide? Why the why the focus on this and why now?
Paul:
Two things. One is prior to this bill, there were other bills like AB 32, which dealt with greenhouse gases. There was AB 341 which dealt with mandatory commercial recycling for businesses. Ab 1826 also built on that same bill, started with some of the organics and making sure that they're getting pulled out of landfills. And now we're at 1383, which is diving deeper into that. And so one of the reasons to try to pull this material out of landfills is a landfill is full when it reaches a certain elevation. So there's a limited amount of space available locally. We have the landfill that is owned by the county and operated by the city, and that's Richard W Currie West Central Landfill, also out by Igo. It's known to be out there and then there's a landfill that's owned by Waste Management in the city of Anderson, just outside city in the city of Anderson. So locally we have those two options, but once those are full, then that requires waste that's going to be buried to be transported and oftentimes long distances away in order to do that. And that has a significant increase in cost, which poses an upward pressure on rates when that happens. So the more we can conserve landfill space now, the better off will be as we go down the road.
Katie:
Paul When you say organic materials, keeping organic materials out of the landfill, you're talking about like home food. Maybe you can explain for the community what what that actually looks like, like you're standing in your kitchen. What are you supposed to be doing with with these food scraps?
Paul:
Well, when the service is available, our our goal is to be able to have residents put their food waste in their green waste cart, along with their other organic material. It's actually a terminology that's kind of changing from what we would call green waste to organics or organic waste. And material is kind of an overall description of what would go in there. So if you're in your kitchen and you're cooking any of your food scraps when you're doing your plate, scrapings after dinner would go in there if you're prepping your vegetables and you're cutting off ends and different pieces like that, different things like that that would go in there. Your meat, even a lot of people like what, meat and fish, but yeah, even even meat, fish, food, toilet paper. That is another thing that goes in there. And so all of those items out of your kitchen like that that basically you're making your meal prep with would go in your organics currently.
Steve:
What would you say for your average reading? Resident Those items that you discuss in that process of cooking or being in the kitchen or having those food scraps and food waste. Right now, folks are either composting at home or throwing that stuff in the garbage. Those are the two main things that are currently occurring.
Paul:
That's correct.
Katie:
What's the next step? So once you've separated out your food scraps or your green waste or your what happens with that material once it leaves your home? What does the city do with that?
Paul:
So we're actually working on a couple of different options. The first. Is kind of the obvious, as you mentioned, compost like people do at home in their backyards. So we already have a green waste collection program and a green waste and composting facility at the transfer station. So the first option would be for mixed waste. So the from residential customers where they have it in with their grass trimmings or tree cuttings and things like that, that is something that would be composted. And one place that can be composted is here at the city of Redding. The other, based on permitting and different requirements, would be the county is working with their hauler. Waste Management and Waste Management is developing a facility at the Anderson landfill to be able to accept both source separated food waste. So from restaurants, schools, grocery stores, things like that, as well as a ability to compost mixed waste or mixed organics, which would be food waste and green waste together. So the composting is the first piece of it. We also have an outlet where when we have additional waste that we can't compost additional green waste, and that is compost solutions. So we put material there, there's a cost to do that, but that's one of our other options. We also are working on contracting with a company outside of Chico called North State Bio Energies, and they already have a program going where they accept source separated food, but it has to be free of contamination. So one of the big contaminations like plastics and glass and things like that, aren't allowed to be in there.
Paul:
So that's our other option is to take it down there. That's about 75 mile drive one way that we would be taking material there, but it helps divert it from landfills and it helps us comply with 1383. Another option that we're looking at that a couple of different city departments have partnered together on, and that is a pyrolysis project. So the wastewater treatment plant is working on doing a pilot project for Pyrolysis, where basically they use a flameless heat to address biosolids and they come out with a product that's referred to as a bio char. It's basically a carbon product that can be added to compost and also is a desirable product. Some people sell it. It helps with water retention and soils, things like that. And so in that process, what we would do is we would bring in food waste, we would process it here at the transfer station and it would turn into kind of a soupy slurry type of material. And then we would take that and we would introduce it into the digesters at the wastewater treatment plant there. They would collect the methane off of it, and then it would mix with their biosolids coming out and go through that pyrolysis process and become that biochar product that we talked about. So those are our options that we're looking into and working on implementing in order to be able to comply with SB 1383.
Steve:
And Paul, how does the process work? You mentioned the source separated foods for bringing them to the station down out of Chico. You mentioned plastics and other things can contaminate those. How does Solid Waste ensure that that stuff isn't contaminated? That when time comes to bring that down, is that at the at the transfer station, at the landfill, you and your team are sorting that before it goes on. The vehicles or any part at all is contaminated with plastic or other elements that shouldn't be in the food waste sections. It's just a lost at that point. It has to be tossed.
Paul:
There's a couple of different processes for the source separated food waste that would go to the facility down by Chico that we mentioned on that one. That type of monitoring would take place as it's being collected. So when it's being collected from restaurants, grocery stores, places like that, we would be looking at it as we're servicing the container, as we're emptying the container and doing a lot of education and outreach and working with those business owners and those businesses and their staff to try to make sure that we get a clean product that can be accepted at these other facilities for the option of if we were to do kind of a closed loop within the city option of taking the material to the wastewater treatment plant, then there are some different pieces of machinery that would be used in order to screen the material and clean it up. But it still helps to have a clean material. So you have to do less screening and you have less, less waste still and less maintenance on your equipment, things like that. So it's still going to be important to follow the rules of the programs, whether we're a resident putting it in our green waste bin and whether we are a commercial customer that is source separating and putting that material aside for collection.
Katie:
And I'm going to I'm going to hopefully back us up just a little bit. I think we got too far down the process. There's still a lot within SB 1383 that people probably still don't understand. There's a food recovery hierarchy pyramid that kind of goes through the. Process of SB 1383, which is to prevent food from going wasted, to recover any food that can be used to feed the hungry, and then finally to recycle anything that any wasted green waste like. Like you were talking about. Maybe you can just take us through that hierarchy and give us the background behind why SB 1383 is trying to do all three of these things.
Paul:
So, like you mentioned, there's another element in SB 1383 that has to deal with edible food recovery and recent surveys. Studies indicate that one in four Americans are food insecure. Even though there's enough food that's produced, there's a lot that's wasted, that's edible. Food is considered edible. So one of the goals of SB 1383 is to recover a good portion and percentage of that wasted edible food and get it to places where it can be used and distributed to those that are in need or experience Food insecurity. So locally we have some food banks and a number of the businesses and restaurants already are doing some of this in this food. It would be called food donation right now, but 1383 takes it a step further where it actually makes it a requirement where they have to have a contract in place between the generator, the edible food generator and the food bank. And then it has to be tracked and it has to be reported. So there's a lot more that goes into it. Also, in regards to the edible food recovery piece of it, it's tiered. So there's a tier one and Tier two. So restaurants, grocery stores, things like that are in Tier one, some of these large places that are required to participate within the first year. Then there are other facilities like schools, places that have cafeterias, government buildings that actually are considered a tier two. And those have to become compliant with 1383 and food donation in the year 2024. So they have a little bit of time before they have to comply with that. And one of the goals of 1383 is to establish the ability or the capacity to handle all of this. So whether it's food that is being thrown out and being recycled or composted or whether it's food that's edible, that can be used appropriately, one of the things 1383 wants us to do is have capacity to do that. And so working with food banks and outlets so that the food doesn't get separated and then still end up getting wasted.
Steve:
So the first step of this sounds like prevention. And so what are we asking residents to do with regard to prevention and what are we asking businesses to do on the prevention.
Paul:
Side as far as preventing food waste?
Katie:
Yeah, I mean, like, if you're obviously if you're if you're buying too much food at home, you're going to waste it at the end of the day because you're just buying too much. So we are asking people to at least look at how much food they're preparing for their family on an average week and to watch that more closely so that they aren't actually wasting food at the end of the week, right?
Paul:
That's correct.
Katie:
And then for businesses, I'm sure businesses are already pretty good at tracking their waste because wasted product means wasted money. But we're also asking commercial businesses to take a look at that as well and track more closely the food that isn't being used on a daily basis, because eventually it's going to have to be diverted one way or another, either through recovery methods or through recycling methods, right? Correct.
Paul:
And that's all part of education and outreach. And one of the things that another item that 1383 requires is working with the public to provide information that can be utilized in order to comply with the new bill. So there is an education and outreach campaign that is going to be taking place, where there's going to be a lot of information, letters, flyers that go to businesses that are required to comply to residents when it's time to start putting material in their green waste containers, when we're ready to start those programs. So that is something else that will come out. And those items, like you mentioned, that hierarchy of one of the ways to prevent is by not over buying. So that will be included in information that gets sent out to the public as well.
Steve:
So speaking of residents specifically, if I'm a Redding resident and you lives and Solid Waste Services, what do I need to know? And when when do some of these new changes take effect? And when do I need to begin to change some of those actions or behavior that I do with my food scraps and food waste?
Paul:
Well, for currently, if you want to start doing backyard composting or anything like that, we do encourage that. But for now, until we're ready for these programs to implement and take off and we have our facilities ready to receive them and compost them, we're asking residents that they don't jump ahead of it right now. The reason being we do have currently in our green waste program and composting facility, we have a stockpile of material, so we're not able to process all the material that comes in on a daily basis. So if we were to begin receiving that type of material right now, it could create problems in our current stockpile of green waste material and great issues with animals and vectors and odors and other problems for us. So we do ask that residents wait until they get the go ahead from the city to start putting that material in their green waste can. But one of the things I'll start thinking about is you can start that practice now as far as looking at, like you said, what we're buying, what we're eating, what we're disposing of, how would we prepare this? What's an easy way to have something in our kitchen where we could start putting food scraps in that we would put it into our green waste container? Is there a compostable bag that could be used? And then also it will mean that we'll be a little bit of a change, right, as you start getting these items out of your gray garbage can, what you put out for service.
Paul:
So if you're putting your recyclables in your blue, you're putting your food waste and and these other items in your green waste, there's not really going to be a whole lot of other things or heavy materials that should be going in your garbage. Right. So some people will be evaluating their level of service. Do they need a smaller garbage can? Do they need a bigger green waste can? So some of those things are items that people can begin thinking about now as we get ready to comply. And then also that when there's new regulations like this, even though we try to do our best to keep rates down, there is definitely upward pressure on rates. When you have to buy additional equipment and you have to purchase equipment that's specialized to be able to handle these different programs and you have to add staffing and due to transportation or additional collection activities that are required. So while we try to do our best to keep our rates reasonable and keep them down, this will put upward pressure on rates eventually. So that's something to keep in mind as well.
Katie:
And Paul, do you have a ballpark? So SB 1383 actually went into effect early this year in January. When can people roughly expect to start the change? Obviously, the city will notify everybody. Maybe you can say speculate on how people will be notified and about when they can expect to start making this change.
Paul:
I would say for residents we should be looking somewhere around May to be looking at making some of these changes and implementation, but definitely by summertime.
Steve:
And I'm just trying to think logistically. So when these changes go into effect again, if I'm a resident and I utilize my green bin for food waste, I'm not composting at home but begin to put food waste in the green bin. What are your thoughts on keeping the green bins clean? I mean, will that begin to make green bins kind of, for lack of a better word, gross If wet food waste going in there just kind of on a logistical standpoint, is the thought that residents throughout the course of the week will just toss their green beans in with, as you mentioned, yard waste and other stuff and it would all jive together and then be weekly.
Paul:
Yeah, I mean, it will be in there and you are moving it from one container to the next. And so if it's not bagged, there could be some some odor issues or making it a little less pleasant, as you mentioned. But some of the things you could do are freezing certain items. So in Redding it does get hot. So having food waste set out in your green container out in the sun and 100 plus degree temperatures can create a little odor issue and a problem. So one of the things you could do is put that in something that you freeze so you can freeze it, put it in a bag that you freeze. Maybe it's the compostable bag you put it in and you freeze it and then you put it out the night before and you dump it in when you get ready to take your garbage out. So typically the amount of food that will be going into these cans volume wise isn't going to be huge on an individual basis. But as a group as a whole citywide, it will account for quite a bit of material. It's a heavy material with a lot of water weight, things like that. So but freezing, it is one of the things you can do that will help keep odors down and maybe keep that that unpleasantness away a little bit.
Katie:
And this is a state mandate that's coming down as well. But what about people who are just like, I don't want to do this. I don't feel like separating this out and I think it's gross and I'm not going to do it. What happens then?
Paul:
One of the requirements of SB 1383 was that the city adopt what's considered an enforceable ordinance. So in the beginning phases, for the first two years, the state is really to taking the lead in the responsibility for enforcement. But as part of that, it's required that we actually put into place an ordinance that can be enforced that requires people to donate food, to recycle food, to recycle organics, to utilize the services that we're required to provide. So by law or by ordinance, by requirement. And as harsh as that may sound to people or unpleasant it may sound, that is really the way to try to encourage people to continue doing the right thing. And as you said, there may be some who say, I don't want to be told what to do or I don't think it's worth it or I don't believe in greenhouse gas emissions or any of those types of things. But really, even just when you get down to the logistics of the situation, we have a landfill that's only got so much room. Once that's filled up, the cost of transporting material will go up significantly and you'll have to establish where that can go. So we may end up at that time if a person pushes it out and then we be forced to try to do something then, but we can get ahead of it. It's the right thing to do. It's an environmental thing to do. It's also supports the community. When we can recover food that's edible food and use it, yes, there's an expense to that. But these things are being put in place to try to address some of the situations that we face that we're all facing.
Steve:
Paul, with regard to businesses, obviously this applies to businesses as well. It sounds like the business side of things might roll out before the residential. So I guess to that point, is that is that indeed the case? And if so, what do business owners and any restaurants or businesses that have food waste, what do they need to be aware of at this point in time?
Paul:
Yes, it will roll out for businesses beforehand as we phase in the approach. And the reason is since it source separated and we have a location to take it to, that's where we'll start with the program. And I would say for businesses being aware of some of the space constraints that you might have and also there is a mechanism in SB 1383 that does allow for some exemptions to be given. Maybe it's a de minimis exemption, meaning that the amount of material being generated is less than a minimal amount, so maybe it's less than five gallons a week or something like that, and that allows them to be exempt from the program for a period of time. The other is just having good training with staff and we know that sometimes there's turnover in staff and that can require additional training and time. So having labeling in the kitchen, identifying spaces where you would put your food waste at, and how you would address that in your daily operations, it's a good time to start thinking about that and keeping that in mind. The containers that we will supply to businesses as we roll out the program will be similar to the green waste container that people have at their homes. They'll be smaller because food waste is heavy, but that will be our initial way of getting the program going.
Paul:
Later on, we'll have the equipment necessary for some who may want a small one yard container or something like that. But again, those are quite heavy and the truck that we're getting, we have on order in order to address this issue with businesses because they have the same concern over containers and odor, their carts getting smelly and stuff like that would be a little different from for them because they won't have green waste in there. And the piece of equipment that we have on order actually has a system onboard to be able to rent out carts. And so that's something that we would be able to do after emptying them, the same truck would be able to rent them out and to try to help keep odor and different issues like that down in some of our businesses. But again, I would say just like in a home or resident, it might be looking at some smaller pails or buckets that they would have in their kitchen area or their food prep area or when they're bussing tables and plate scrapings, have an area that's identified where that stuff can go and get to the right container to be dealt with appropriately.
Katie:
And I think it's safe to say people should be aware by now that trash isn't going away any day soon. We're creating more and more trash every day. This is this is going to be the new normal, not only for California, but I'm sure they're going to start rolling out programs like this around the nation if they haven't already in certain places. Maybe you could talk a little bit about the environmental impact on just why this whole program is so important from just the trash management standpoint.
Paul:
Well, just kind of like you mentioned earlier about landfill space and volume. So you go back in time and maybe a lot of us remember making trips to the dump or wherever with our with our parents or family. And everything went in, whether it was metal, plastic, car parts, tires, mattresses, everything went into the landfill. All right, and you just buried it. But now, as we start to pull these things out, it's when we fill up a landfill or when a landfill is created. You also have to monitor water. So groundwater gets monitored both above the landfill and below the landfill in order to make sure that we're not impacting groundwater. And any time you have an open landfill working, you've got a working phase, you've got to divert water around it, you've got to capture your water. You need to treat water to make sure that we're not impacting the environment. Once it's in place, we have to put in methane collection wells to make sure that methane isn't escaping the landfill, which, you know, is worse for the environment than carbon dioxide. So we're trying to minimize all of those impacts, but also make it a resource, right, so that it can be used because resources, natural resources are limited.
Paul:
So by trying to use this material that right now is considered garbage or waste, reduce the amount that actually can't be used is huge for being able to keep landfills that we currently have open and operating for as long as we can. Because as mentioned, it's it's a limited amount of space and once you fill it, you have to figure out what you're going to do after that. And that gets to be pretty spendy. And there's a lot of examples in larger cities down by San Francisco, different areas LA where they had landfills that filled up, you're still have to monitor them, but then it gets really spendy to start shipping material to different places to be able to accept it, whether you have to ship it by train to another state or it has to be trucked to a different part of the state, all of those have other environmental impacts when we start doing that.
Steve:
With regard to our landfill that you mentioned here in Shasta County, what capacity full is it as of today? And if program like SB 1383 isn't put into effect and things don't change, what's your forecasting on on how long until our landfill here fills up?
Paul:
It's kind of hard to determine at current rates and volumes. We have about 12 to 15 years left on the landfill at West Central, but there is another phase that can be planned and permitted if it gets approved, to be able to expand and extend that life a little bit, a little bit longer. But if we're able to divert volume of material, then that can be extended. And it just depends on how successful some of these programs are. Right. If we're trying to divert 75% of material that was previously being generated, you know, that can actually do a lot to extend the life of the landfill.
Katie:
And so I guess the general overall idea is if we can keep food waste and other organics out of the landfill, that saves space, and then those organics are turned into compost, which can be used in other places. Is that the general idea?
Paul:
Yeah, that's that's the idea in general.
Katie:
And then once that compost is created, you know, a year from now, two years from now, is that is that compost how is that compost used? Does this the city's creating compost or or maybe it's shipping this to other places that create compost. What happens to that compost is that then resold back into the communities it used by agricultural farms. Do you know what happens to that compost?
Paul:
Currently, it takes us about 90 days to create compost from green waste that comes into the facility. By the time we process it, screen it, put it into what's called an aggregate, an ag bag, and it sits in there for about 90 days or so. And we pull it out, make sure it has the right consistency and moisture content, carbon, nitrogen content, and then it can be sold. And the compost that we currently make all get sold back into the local public. And then also we're looking at using it as we try to create additional compost and generate additional compost. Finished product would be using it in some of our parks and different facilities that are city owned. And there's also a procurement piece in 1383 that requires us to try to utilize that type of product back into the local community.
Steve:
Be back into user rate, mentioned that if things continue the way they are, we're in trouble. But you also mentioned that with SB 1383, with some of these processes and protocols need to be put into place, there is a potential for user rate increase down the road as well. Is that fair to say?
Paul:
Yes. Even though we're putting less in the landfill, prices still go up. If your fuel goes up, cost of materials go up. Labor rates go up. So even though we might be generating less material that's going to the landfill, we still have a significant amount of material that's being dealt with in some way. It's either being transported and utilized, composted of being processed and introduced in our wastewater treatment facility as part of their PYROLYSIS program that we're looking to do and see if that works. Sending it to an out of area facility to be part of their program or it gets utilized and methane is collected off of it as it breaks down. So all of these things will have an upward pressure on rates.
Katie:
But I guess on the other side of that, you know, if the landfill gets full because we aren't diverting this organic material, the rates are likely going to go up anyway if we're going to have to start shipping out our material to other places, right?
Paul:
Yes, that's correct. You can look around in different areas where they've had to start shipping material. And for instance, we we have a rate somewhere around 80 something dollars tonne at the transfer station at the city of Redding. If you go up to the landfill, then the rate there is cheaper, right? Because we're not having to handle it, load it, transport it and move it versus taking it there directly themselves. So the rate directly at the landfill is cheaper. If you look at areas like, say, somewhere over on the coast towards Eureka where they have to all their waste inland to another facility, you'll see that tipping fees are quite a bit higher because of transportation costs. So you can imagine if transporting waste from Redding ended up transporting it to Nevada or transporting it down south or somewhere like that, those costs would then be covered by the tipping fee. And so you can imagine what that would do to a tipping fee in order to cover those transportation costs.
Katie:
Hauling costs. So really, I mean, this is this is a state law. It's a state mandate. Nobody likes to be told what to do. But but ideally, I mean, this is this is actually the most environmentally conscious and and potentially a smart financial move as well to try to save our landfill for as long as we possibly can.
Paul:
It's a very aggressive bill, SB 1383 is, and it's really trying to accomplish a lot of good things. Change is hard for all of us in one way or another, but in this sense, even though it can be difficult, there's a cost to it. It becomes the norm. And it's good for the environment and it's good for the community, and it's good to try to get these resources utilized the best that we can. Right. If we have wasted food that can be used and it can create security for some, how beneficial is that? If we can protect our environment and need to recover or mine, we can reduce mining resources or taking new resources by being able to create a resource out of something that we already have that's already available and that's able to save, you know, or reduce the impact to the planet and to our local environment. Then it's the right thing to do, even though it's going to take a lot of work, a lot of effort, and it's going to be a heavy lift for communities and jurisdictions. But we can probably most of us go back to remember when recycling first became required and it was difficult and a lot of people didn't want to do it. But now having a blue can or having something to put your recyclable material in is kind of second nature to most people in their in their household activities. And this is be something similar. Green waste was later added and it's become the norm. I think we'll now hit this process and even though there's other areas that are already performing this type of service who already have some of these types of requirements and some bigger cities, they're kind of a little bit ahead of the curve on this, but it's being done and it becomes the norm. And I think it will be the same thing for us, that it's a it's a good thing to do regardless of the heavy lift that it will be. But eventually it will be a very positive thing for our community.
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