TO: Board of Directors
FROM: Amanda Griffis - Supervising Environmental Resource Specialist
REPORT BY: Amanda Griffis - Supervising Environmental Resource Specialist
SUBJECT: California Integrated Waste Management Act
RECOMMENDATION
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CALIFORNIA INTEGRATED WASTE MANAGEMENT ACT
DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Staff to provide an update on the status of activities relevant to the Act.
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BACKGROUND
WASTE REDUCTION, RECYCLING, HAZARDOUS WASTE PROGRAMS UPDATE
HAZARDOUS WASTE COLLECTIONS - The fall hazardous waste (HW) collection event is scheduled for November 13 1:00pm - 4:00pm (business) and November 14 8:00am - 1:00pm (residential). The event will be held at the Calistoga Fairgrounds. UVWMA’s HW collections contractor, Clean Earth, will collect and dispose of HW materials collected. Business will schedule appointments and pay disposal costs for their materials, residents are not charged a fee and are not required to schedule appointments.
Electronic waste will be collected by Upper Valley Disposal Services (UVDS) and document shredding will be provided by a third-party vendor during the hazardous waste event. The electronic waste collection and document shredding are one of the three times per year events provided by UVDS per the franchise agreement. The electronic waste collection and document shredding will be for residents only, not businesses. The maximum drop off for document shredding will be five banker boxes.
UVWMA purchased and distributed bagged compost to residents at the 2025 Calistoga HW event. The compost was purchased from UVDS and counted towards the agency’s SB 1383 annual procurement target. Due to the high cost per bag, UVWMA staff are considering available alternate methods to distribute compost to the public at the HW event in Calistoga. The cost for one cubic foot bag is $5, which equates to $270.27 per ton. Versus when purchased loose in bulk, the cost is $35 per ton.
Staff will promote the event via the banner in downtown Calistoga, online and print newspaper ads, flyers around town, the fall UVDS newsletter and social media. A copy of flyers promoting the event will be provided at the October meeting.
SHARPS AND MEDICATIONS DISPOSAL - SB 212 requires pharmaceutical companies to run statewide stewardship programs that provide safe and convenient disposal options for pharmaceutical and home-generated sharps waste at no cost to the consumer. Medication collections will be available in receptacles and via pre paid mail back options at no cost to consumers. Sharps will be collected via a secure mail back container at no cost to consumers. Secure sharps mail back containers are to be provided at the point of sale or with five days by stewardship programs and containers can also be requested online. More information on these programs can be found at napacounty.gov/hazwaste.
In addition to the above-mentioned stewardship programs, Clean Earth accepts non-controlled medications and sharps at up-valley hazardous waste collection events. Clover Flat Landfill accepts sharps at no charge during regular business hours. A medication collection bin is located at the St. Helena, Calistoga and Yountville Police Department; non-controlled and controlled medications are accepted.
Staff have begun coordinating with law enforcement and jurisdiction staff for Countywide participation in the DEA National Prescription Drug Take Back Day on October 24, 2026. Staff will coordinate for a sharps collection contractor, allowing each site countywide to safely collect and dispose of both unused or unneeded medications and medical sharps.
BEVERAGE CONTAINER RECYCLING PROGRAM - UVWMA applies as a regional agency for payments that CalRecycle issues for beverage container recycling programs. Staff use the $25,000 of funds for beverage container recycling and litter reduction activities. Examples include the purchase of recycling bins for public buildings, community parks, main streets, businesses, schools and public gathering areas, and expenditures related to the installation of water refill stations. UVWMA has begun expending the “FY 2024-25” funding cycle, funds can be expended thru January 5, 2027. UVWMA have received the payment for the “FY 2025-26” funding cycle, funds can be expended between early 2026 (after award) and February 2, 2028.
CALRECYCLE - UVWMA completed and submitted the CalRecycle Electronic Annual Report (EAR) for calendar year 2025 for UVWMA in August. The report is required annually for activities relating to compliance with AB 939, AB 1826, AB 341 and SB 1383.
UVWMA received notice from CalRecycle’s Local Assistance and Market Development Branch that the Jurisdiction and Agency Compliance and Enforcement Branch (JACE) will soon reach out to UVWMA for a SB 1383 compliance evaluation. This will include an inspection of all SB 1383 required records from January 1, 2022 to date. UVWMA staff have continued preparing the required records, with the assistance of UVDS and member jurisdiction staff. UVWMA staff received the notice of a forthcoming records inspection in December 2025 but have not yet received the official notice from JACE of a scheduled due date for the records inspection. Jurisdictions who have received compliance evaluation notices and statuses of those reviews can be found on the CalRecycle website: calrecycle.ca.gov/organics/slcp/enforcement/calrecycleenforcement/
Staff have continued expenditures towards the CalRecycle SB 1383 local assistance grant. The grant cycle closes on November 1, 2026 and the final report is due on that same date.
In February 2026, the UVWMA board approved an agreement for a maximum of $90,000 with SCS Engineers for a waste characterization study. The funding for this agreement is from the CalRecycle SB 1383 local assistance grant. UVWMA applied for this grant as the lead. The grant awarded funding based on population, as such UVWMA applied as the lead with the entirety of the unincorporated area of Napa County participating as well. The awarded funding is to be expended throughout the UVWMA area and all Napa County unincorporated areas. UVWMA and Napa County staff worked with SCS Engineers to finalize a field methodology plan that includes how many samples will be taken and a list of what items will be evaluated, sorted and documented. The waste characterization, or the on the ground sorting and categorizing of waste, has been completed at Clover Flat Landfill and Devlin Road Transfer station. SCS Engineers and UVWMA staff had a preliminary results meeting in August and SCS expects to have a draft final report to UVWMA by the end of August. A copy of the final report will be provided at a future meeting.
SB 1383 IMPLEMENTATION - UVWMA and UVDS staff continue work together to reach out directly via phone, email and site visit to non-compliant accounts to provide education and assistance with meeting SB 1383 organics recycling requirements.
SB 1383 requires jurisdictions to meet container contamination minimization requirements. One way to meet these requirements is by conducting route reviews of all hauler routes for prohibited container contaminants once per year. Within routes, containers may be randomly selected along the route for further inspection and enough containers must be inspected in order to adequately determine overall compliance. This further inspection is typically called “lid flips”. Residential lid flips were conducted in July. Recycle, compost and landfill carts were inspected at approximately 120 residential accounts throughout the agency area. If contaminates were found, educational tags were left on the cart informing the resident of the error. A summary of the lid flips will be provided at the October meeting. Commercial lid flips will begin soon, approximately 30 commercial accounts will be inspected.
UVWMA continues outreach, education and assistance to ensure Tier One and Tier Two commercial edible food donors are compliant with SB 1383 requirements.
In summer 2024, UVWMA partnered with the City of Napa and Napa County to release funding to expand the countywide capacity for edible food recovery. Two projects were awarded, $50,000 to Feeding it Forward (FIF) to retrofit an electric van with refrigeration and $40,000 to Community Action of Napa Valley (CANV) to purchase a Ford Transit van to pick up smaller loads of excess edible food. Both the FIF and CANV grant agreements ended in June 2026. FIF and CANV have completed grant expenditures and staff have received the required final reports. FIF has expanded their countywide food recovery capacity by 29% or 42,000 pounds with the use of the refrigerated van. CANV collected an additional 800,000 pounds with the addition of the Ford Transit van. Both reports are included as Attachment A - Food Recovery Capacity Building Grants Final Reports.
UVWMA is partnering with the City of Napa and Napa County to execute an agreement with Abound Food Care. In 2022, Abound Food Care was selected after a competitive RFQ process to complete the SB 1383 required food recovery capacity assessment. Staff have assessed the need to work with a food recovery expert to determine the current need for capacity for SB 1383 required edible food recovery, determine if/how much the aforementioned grants expanded capacity and suggest how to best expand capacity if needed. Costs for the grant will be shared based on number required donors, likely 28% UVWMA, 20% Napa County and 52% City of Napa.
The 2026 organic products (compost) target for the agency area is approximately 1,053 tons or 2,634 cubic yards. Targets are assigned by CalRecycle based on jurisdiction population. Napa County’s target is not divided into just the agency area, so staff estimated the target for the agency’s portion of Napa County based on UVDS account numbers in comparison to account numbers with the two other franchised haulers serving Napa County unincorporated areas. Historically the agency has paid for the compost purchased and distributed using CalRecycle grant funding on behalf of member jurisdictions. The second, and likely final, round of CalRecycle SB 1383 local assistance grant funding ends in November 2026. The remaining grant funding will likely be sufficient to cover remaining expenditures for compost through the end of the calendar year. Moving forward the agency will need to decide on how procurement of organic products will be handled, whether costs will remain with the agency or go to member jurisdictions. The cost for compost in 2025 was approximately $40,000.
OUTREACH - UVWMA’s multi family dwelling outreach consultant, Soluna Outreach Solutions, has continued with outreach and education to multi family dwelling managers and owners on SB 1383 requirements in English and Spanish.
UVWMA and UVDS staff are coordinating with City of Calistoga staff to notify business owners of the recently passed mandatory commercial service ordinance in the City of Calistoga. UVDS staff are working to determine which businesses are not currently on UVDS service, via the City of Calistoga water and wastewater commercial customer list.
UVWMA and UVDS staff are working to promote the newly adopted UVDS bill assistance program. A copy of the flyer is included as Attachment B - Bill Assistance. The program will be promoted via in person outreach events, social media and the fall UVDS newsletter. Residents who are already enrolled in PG&E’s CARE program are eligible for a $45 per quarter bill discount, they must call UVDS to request enrollment and provide verification. The agency will pay for the difference between the discounted rate and actual cost for residents who participate.
BUSINESS ASSISTANCE PROGRAM - UVWMA and UVDS offer free assistance to any business requesting help in improving waste diversion, it is also available to any business working to become complaint with SB 1383 and is often offered in the initial direct outreach to businesses who are notified they are not compliant with SB 1383. Assistance includes: a walk through to assess needs, UVDS suggested service changes to allow for compliance with SB 1383, recycling and composting interior bins, staff trainings, interior and exterior signs, interior bins stickers and on going support. Businesses may request assistance by calling UVDS at 707-963-7988 or emailing UVWMA at upvalleyrecycles@countyofnapa.org.
ZERO WASTE EVENT SUPPORT - UVWMA staff have created and made available a Request for Zero Waste Event Support application. The purpose of the form is to request from UVWMA a one-time reimbursement of up to $250 for efforts relating to making events that are free and open to the public zero or low waste. Reimbursements for the following items will be considered: temporary recycling and/or compost service, temporary bins for waste sorting stations, clear bags for recycling or compostable bags for compost, compostable service ware and signs for bins. The application was included in the October 2022 agenda packet, requests can be made via email to upvalleyrecycles@countyofnapa.org.
HOME COMPOSTING WORKSHOPS - Workshop co-sponsors, UVWMA, Napa County, City of Napa, and Napa County Master Gardeners have scheduled countywide 2026 workshop dates. The up valley workshop took place on May 16, 2026 at the up valley campus. The up valley compost workshop was a dual workshop, where attendees choose to either learn about backyard composting or worm composting. There were only six attendees at this workshop, a decrease from the 2025 workshop with 16 attendees. One compost workshop remains, scheduled for September 19, 2026 in the City of Napa.
FILM PLASTIC COLLECTION PILOT - SB 54 California’s Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act, required producers of packaging and single use plastic to join a Producer Responsibility Organization (PRO). Through the PRO, they must fund the end of life of those materials, which includes processing and recycling. Additionally, the PRO must remit to the state $500 million each year, starting in 2027 and ending in 2037 to be placed in the California Plastic Pollution Mitigation Fund. Circular Action Alliance (CAA) was selected by CalRecycle as the PRO for SB 54.
In early 2026, CAA released a request for proposals (RFP) for pilots to test residential and commercial plastic film and flexible plastic collection. Upper Valley Disposal Services (UVDS) was awarded a residential pilot by CAA in spring 2026. Examples of materials that will be collected for recycling include plastic bags, plastic overwrap, zipper lock pouches (e.g. grape packaging), chip bags, frozen vegetable bags and woven net bags. All costs for the pilot will be reimbursed by CAA and costs incurred will not affect rate payers. The pilot will be limited to only Town of Yountville residents. Yountville was selected for the pilot due to its size - population and square miles. Educational materials can be delivered to all town residents and pick up of collected materials can be simplified with this pilot program. UVDS is finalizing the agreement with CAA, which has delayed the roll out of the program to Town of Yountville residents. The board, town staff and town residents will be notified when a start date is confirmed.
FISCAL & STRATEGIC PLAN IMPACT
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Is there a Fiscal Impact? |
No |
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINATION: The proposed action is not a project as defined by 14 California
Code of Regulations 15378 (State CEQA Guidelines) and therefore CEQA is not applicable.