Existing law requires the California Environmental Protection Agency, in coordination with specified state agencies, to develop and implement policies to aid in diverting organic waste from landfills through certain actions, and, in developing those policies, to promote a goal of reducing at least 5,000,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year through the development and application of compost on working lands. Existing law requires the California Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Food and Agriculture, with other specified state agencies, to, among other things, develop recommendations for promoting organic waste processing and recycling infrastructure statewide and to post those recommendations on the California Environmental Protection Agency's internet website and update them annually.
This bill would request that the California Council on Science and Technology, in consultation with its academic and research partners and specified state agencies, undertake and, within 12 months of entering into a contract, complete a report that provides an implementation strategy to achieve the state's organic waste, and related climate change and air quality, mandates, goals, and targets. If the council agrees to undertake and complete the report, the bill would require the council to provide the report to the relevant state agencies after peer review in order for one or more of the relevant state agencies to conduct at least one public meeting and publish the draft implementation strategy on its internet website. The bill would also require the council, if it agrees to undertake and complete the report, to submit the report to the Legislature. The bill would require the implementation strategy to include, among other things, recommendations on policy and funding support for the beneficial reuse of organic waste.