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 - Upper Valley Waste Management Agency (UVWMA) held a hazardous waste (HW), electronic waste (e-waste), paper shredding and compost distribution event on Saturday April 26. A HW event for businesses was held on Friday April 25. UVWMA’s HW collections contractor, Clean Earth, collected HW dropped off by the public. Upper Valley Disposal Services (UVDS) collected e-waste, a subcontractor of UVDS provided paper shredding. E-waste collection and paper shredding was provided at no additional cost, due to the franchise agreement with UVDS. UVWMA has received and paid for the invoice from Clean Earth for the event, the cost totaled $21,984.45. Included in the cost is mobilization of Clean Earth for the temporary event and disposal of collected hazardous wastes.
One business made an appointment and paid for disposal of hazardous materials on Friday April 25. On Saturday April 26, residents from each of the UVWMA member communities participated in the household HW collection. See Attachment A - 2025 Rutherford Event Data for survey data from the event. There were 233 attendees at this event, only a slight decrease from the 2024 event with 235 attendees.
35.75 cubic yards of compost were distributed to 37 residents, counting towards the annual SB 1383 required organic product procurement target for UVWMA.
UVWMA staff have scheduled the fall HW collection events for Friday October 31 1:00pm - 4:00pm (business) and Saturday November 1 8:00am - 1:00pm (residential), to take place at the fairgrounds in Calistoga.
SHARPS AND MEDICATIONS DISPOSAL - SB 212 requires pharmaceutical companies to pay for a statewide medication and sharps take back program. SB 212 was approved by the Office of Administrative Law on January 7, 2021. The regulations were effective immediately. Manufacturers are required 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 countyofnapa.org/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.
A medication collection bin was installed outside the Calistoga Police Department in fall 2018. The bin was recently removed at the request of the Napa County Sheriff Department due to placement requirements for medication collection bins. There is now a medication collection bin located inside the Calistoga Police Department.
BEVERAGE CONTAINER RECYCLING PROGRAM - UVWMA applies as a regional agency for payments that CalRecycle issues for beverage container recycling programs. Staff uses 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 submitted an application for the “FY 2024-25” funding cycle, the application has been approved by CalRecycle and payment has been received. Funds can be expended between early 2025 (after award) and January 5, 2027. UVWMA staff are now expending the “FY 2023-24” funding cycle, funds for that cycle can be expended through March 1, 2026.
CALRECYCLE - UVWMA staff have begun expenditures towards the second cycle of CalRecycle’s SB 1383 Local Assistance Grant Program. UVWMA was approved for the funding, the check for $300,000 has been received and UVWMA’s proposed plan for use of the funding has been approved by CalRecycle. UVWMA plans to use the funding to procure compost that is required to be purchased by SB 1383, contract with a consultant to update best practices for food recovery capacity assessments, print materials for public education and outreach, purchase interior compost bins and bags for the business assistance program, contract with environmental outreach and education firm to onboard multifamily dwellings for compost and contract with a community based social marketing firm to conduct outreach to the general public on the need to place all organics in compost bins. Funds must be expended by April 1, 2026.
Each year, CalRecycle Local Assistance and Market Development (LAMD) staff conduct a conference call and site visit with jurisdictions. UVWMA’s conference call is scheduled for June 26, 2025 and will cover annual reporting and compliance with SB 1383. The site visit will be scheduled upon the direction of CalRecycle staff.
The electronic annual report (EAR) for UVWMA is due on August 1, 2025. UVWMA staff complete the EAR for all member jurisdictions each year, reporting to CalRecycle on compliance activities relating to AB 939, AB 1826, AB 341 and SB 1383.
SB 1383 IMPLEMENTATION - UVWMA and UVDS staff continue work together to reach out individually via phone, email and site visit to non-compliant accounts to provide education and assistance with meeting SB 1383 organics recycling requirements.
Jurisdictions are required to enforce upon non complaint entities. UVWMA staff keep records of outreach efforts, allowing for referral of non compliant entities to code compliance when necessary. UVWMA is required to keep records of enforcement actions taken by jurisdiction code compliance staff for annual reporting to CalRecycle.
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 to order to adequately determine overall compliance. This further inspection is typically called “lid flips”. Residential lid flips are scheduled to begin the week of July 7, potentially continuing into the week of July 14 if necessary. Recycle, compost and trash carts will be inspected at a total of 120 residential accounts, 30 in each of the member jurisdictions. If contaminates are found, educational tags will be left on the cart informing the resident of the error. Commercial lid flips will begin after the residential routes are completed, approximately 30 commercial accounts will be inspected.
UVWMA plans to procure organic products (compost) on behalf of member jurisdictions to meet 2025 targets. SB 1383 local assistance grant funding will be used to pay for compost purchases. The targets for 2025 are 4,343 cubic yards or 1,737 tons of finished compost. UVDS and UVWMA staff are discussing purchasing a batch of bagged compost and making it available at anytime for residents to pick up at no charge. UVWMA staff will provide an update on this at a later meeting date.
SB 1383 requires jurisdictions to provide a way for the public to make a complaint about an alleged violation of SB 1383. Napa County’s website, the host for UVWMA information, has a complaint form at countyofnapa.org/SB1383. UVWMA member jurisdictions Town of Yountville, City of St Helena and City of Calistoga direct the public to the Napa County website to log SB 1383 complaints. After UVWMA receives a complaint, it has 90 days to commence an investigation if UVWMA determines it is a violation of SB 1383. UVWMA received its first SB 1383 complaint in February 2025 about a business that did not provide the SB 1383 required three bin (recycle, compost and landfill) system in the guest area. SB 1383 requires organic waste generators that are commercial businesses to provide containers for the collection of organics and recyclables in all areas where disposal containers are provided for customers. UVWMA staff worked with the business to bring their customer disposal area into compliance with SB 1383, this complaint was resolved as of May 2025.
SB 1383 requires counties to assess, in collaboration with local cities and waste agencies, the amount of organics processing facility capacity and food recovery capacity available to jurisdictions within the county. Napa County identified a need for new or expanded edible food recovery capacity in every jurisdiction in Napa County in the recent planning period of 2025 - 2034. Due to the lack of capacity, jurisdictions were required to submit an implementation schedule to CalRecycle detailing how jurisdictions will access new or expand edible food recovery capacity. Food recovery capacity does not adhere to jurisdictional boundaries and food recovery capacity expansion will require a collaborative effort between all jurisdictions in Napa County. All cities in Napa County and Napa County collaborated to create and submit the same implementation schedule. Napa County will continue to lead countywide edible food recovery efforts and the regional group continues to meet about every six weeks.
UVWMA staff have begun scheduling and conducting educational site visits and inspections for Tier 1 and Tier 2 commercial edible food generators. There are seven Tier 1 and 13 Tier 2 commercial edible food generators within UVWMA’s boundaries. UVWMA staff have completed two inspections and seven educational site visits in May and June. SB 1383 regulations require UVWMA to educate and inspect the Yountville Veterans Home for compliance with SB 1383’s food recovery requirements, the Yountville Veterans Home is a Tier 2 commercial edible food generator. The Yountville Veterans Home is outside the boundaries of UVWMA and historically UVWMA has not provided assistance at that location.
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.
OUTREACH - UVMWA and UVDS staff have scheduled dates to conduct outreach at the St Helena Farmers Market. Other outreach activities for the remaining 2025 calendar year are being scheduled and will be included in a future agenda item.
Effective immediately, UVDS customers may start placing paper cups in their single stream recycling bins. This includes hot and cold paper cups with lids and straws removed. UVWMA and UVDS staff will be working to disseminate this information to the public. Various print materials such as signs, stickers, in-mold graphics and informational guides will be updated and older materials showing paper cups in the trash will be used up rather than thrown out.
8.5” x 11” handouts that reflect the change in paper cups are included as Attachment B - Recycle, Compost, Trash handouts.
An additional new effort related to single stream recycling, UVWMA and UVDS staff are working to educate residential and commercial customers to no longer bag recyclables, recyclables should be placed loose in recycling bins and carts. Previously customers could place recyclables in clear bags, however due to procedures at the recycling facility in Ukiah, bagged recyclables are no longer acceptable.
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 UC Master Gardeners have scheduled 2025 countywide workshop dates. The up valley workshop for 2025 took place on May 18, 2025 at the up valley campus. 16 people attended the backyard compost workshop on May 18. This compost workshop offered the option for attendees to choose either to learn about backyard composting or worm composting. After completing the workshop, attendees were able to choose between purchasing a discounted backyard compost bin or taking home a free worm compost toolkit.
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.