Impact of San Diego`s mandatory recycling ordinance on meeting the California 50% recycling goal
When AB 939, The Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989, was chaptered into law, the Statewide recycling rate was 12%. The year 1990 was set as the base year. 1995 was a set as a target for the first 25% of the resources to be diverted. The year 2000 is the date for the 50% target. Today the Statewide average is around 30%. In San Diego, one reason landfill tonnage`s are down is that most of the cities have attained 40% diversions and beyond. The County Recycling Plan, initiated by then Supervisor Susan Golding in 1988, called for a 30% diversion of resources from County Landfills. One aspect of this plan was to use landfill fees to pay for trucks and bins. The County granted these to the cities and their contractors to begin the first residential and commercial recyclable materials` collections. The County put a ban on the burial of designated recyclables at County Landfills into effect in 1992. Wasted resources disposed at County Landfills dropped from 2.4 million tons in 1990 to 1.3 million tons in 1993, more than 45%. This program was recognized in 1990, by the California Department of Conservation, Division of Recycling as the best in the State, and by the National Recycling Coalition in 1993 as the best in the nation. The public sees recycling as a resource management issue. In some cities, the public has voted to pay for the opportunity to recycle discarded resources. The increased availability of these recovered materials has created thousands of new jobs and businesses. This is a hundred times more jobs than the number of jobs supported by the landfilling of these resources. These businesses have been started to provide the collection, processing, transportation, and remanufacturing of products related to the recovered metal, glass, fiber, plastic and organics. Most people who recycle think they can diminish the impact on the planet by putting back some of what they have used.
- OSTI ID:
- 679413
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-980632-; TRN: IM9940%%232
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 91. annual meeting and exhibition of the Air and Waste Management Association, San Diego, CA (United States), 14-18 Jun 1998; Other Information: PBD: 1998; Related Information: Is Part Of Proceedings of the 91. annual meeting and exhibition. Bridging international boundaries: Clean production for environmental stewardship; PB: [5000] p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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