Existing law requires the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, in consultation with the State Air Resources Board, to adopt regulations to achieve certain reduction targets in the organic waste disposed in landfills and to analyze the progress that the waste sector, state government, and local governments have made in achieving those reduction targets, as provided. Existing law authorizes the department to provide incentives to facilitate progress towards the reduction targets if the department determines that sufficient progress has not been made.
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) , requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect, as provided. Existing regulations describe the advantages and uses of a program environmental impact report.
This bill would require the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery to prepare and certify, by January 1, 2027, a program environmental impact report that streamlines the process with which jurisdictions can develop and site small and medium compostable material handling facilities or operations, as defined, for processing organic material, as specified.