Arroyo Grande Municipal Code Ch. 15.14 SB 1383 CALGREEN Recycling and Model Water Efficient Landscaping…

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Editor's note— The former Ch. 15.06 has been renumbered as Ch. 15.14, at the discretion of the editor, as Ord. No. 721, § 8, adopted Jan. 24, 2023, added a new Ch. 15.06.

The city council of the city of Arroyo Grande finds and declares:

A. State recycling law, Assembly Bill 939 of 1989, the California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989 (California Public Resources Code Section 40000, et seq., as amended, supplemented, superseded, and replaced from time to time), requires cities and counties to reduce, reuse, and recycle (including composting) solid waste generated in their city to the maximum extent feasible before any incineration or landfill disposal of waste, to conserve water, energy, and other natural resources, and to protect the environment.

B. State recycling law, Assembly Bill 341 of 2011 (approved by the governor of the state of California on October 5, 2011, which amended Sections 41730, 41731, 41734, 41735, 41736, 41800, 42926, 44004, and 50001 of, and added Sections 40004, 41734.5, and 41780.01 and Chapter 12.8 (commencing with Section 42649) to Part 3 of Division 30 of, and added and repealed Section 41780.02 of, the Public Resources Code, as amended, supplemented, superseded and replaced from time to time), places requirements on commercial businesses and multi-family premises that generate a specified threshold amount of solid waste to arrange for recycling services and requires cities to implement a mandatory commercial recycling program.

C. State organics materials recycling law, Assembly Bill 1826 of 2014 (approved by the governor of the state of California on September 28, 2014, which added Chapter 12.9 (commencing with Section 42649.8) to Part 3 of Division 30 of the Public Resources Code, relating to solid waste, as amended, supplemented, superseded, and replaced from time to time), requires commercial businesses and multi-family premises that generate a specified threshold amount of solid waste, recyclable materials, and organic materials per week to arrange for recycling services for that waste, requires cities to implement a recycling program to divert organic materials from commercial businesses and multi-family premises subject to the law, and requires cities to implement a mandatory commercial organic materials recycling program.

D. SB 1383, the Short-lived Climate Pollutant Reduction Act of 2016, requires CalRecycle to develop regulations to reduce organic waste in landfills as a source of methane. The regulations place requirements on multiple entities including cities, residential households, multi-family premises, commercial businesses, commercial edible food generators, haulers, self-haulers, food recovery organizations, and food recovery services to support achievement of the SB 1383 statewide organic waste disposal reduction targets.

E. SB 1383, the Short-lived Climate Pollutant Reduction Act of 2016, requires cities to adopt and enforce an ordinance or enforceable mechanism to implement relevant provisions of SB 1383 Regulations.

F. Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary in any other code or regulation of the city, the provisions of this chapter shall control, and to the extent any provision is in conflict with this chapter, the provision in this chapter shall supersede any conflicting language and shall prevail.

(Ord. No. 711, § 2(Exh. B), 11-9-2021)

This chapter shall be entitled "SB 1383 CALGreen Recycling and Model Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance Requirements."

(Ord. No. 711, § 2(Exh. B), 11-9-2021)

A. "Bin" means a container with capacity of approximately one to eight cubic yards, with a hinged lid, and with wheels (where appropriate), that is serviced by a front end-loading collection vehicle, including bins with compactors attached to increase the capacity of the bin.

B. "Bulky Item" means discarded appliances (including refrigerators), furniture, tires, carpets, mattresses, yard trimmings and/or wood waste, and similar large items which can be handled by two people, weigh no more than two hundred (200) pounds, and require special collection due to their size or nature, but can be collected without the assistance of special loading equipment (such as forklifts or cranes) and without violating vehicle load limits. Bulky items must be generated by the customer and at the service address wherein the bulky items are collected. Bulky items do not include abandoned automobiles, large auto parts, trees, construction and demolition debris, or items herein defined as excluded waste.

C. "CalRecycle" means California's Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, which is the department designated with responsibility for developing, implementing, and enforcing SB 1383 Regulations on cities (and others).

D. "California Code of Regulations" or "CCR" means the State of California Code of Regulations. CCR references in this chapter are preceded with a number that refers to the relevant title of the CCR (e.g., "14 CCR" refers to Title 14 of CCR).

E. "Cart" means a plastic container with a hinged lid and wheels that is serviced by an automated or semi-automated collection vehicle. A cart has capacity of twenty (20), thirty-five (35), sixty-four (64) or ninety-six (96) gallons (or similar volumes).

F. "City" means the city of Arroyo Grande, a municipal corporation acting through its city council, and all the territory lying within the municipal boundaries of the city.

G. "Commercial business" or "commercial" means of, from, or pertaining to non-residential premises where business activity is conducted, including, but not limited to, retail sales, services, wholesale operations, manufacturing, and industrial operations, but excluding businesses conducted upon residential property which are permitted under applicable zoning regulations and are not the primary use of the property.

H. "Compactor" means a mechanical apparatus that compresses materials together with the container that holds the compressed materials or the container that holds the compressed materials if it is detached from the mechanical compaction apparatus. Compactors include two to eight cubic yard bin compactors serviced by front-end loader collection vehicles and ten (10) to fifty (50) cubic yard drop box compactors serviced by roll-off collection vehicles.

I. "Compost" has the same meaning as in 14 CCR Section 17896.2(a)(4), (or any variation thereof) includes a controlled biological decomposition of organic materials yielding a safe and nuisance free compost product.

J. "Container(s)" mean bins, carts, compactors, and roll-offs.

K. "C&D" means construction and demolition debris.

L. "Multi-Family Residential Dwelling" or "Multi-Family" or "MFD" means of, from, or pertaining to residential premises with five or more dwelling units including such premises when combined in the same building with commercial establishments, that receive centralized, shared, collection service for all units on the premises which are billed to one customer at one address. Customers residing in townhouses, mobile homes, condominiums, or other structures with five or more dwelling units who receive individual service and are billed separately shall not be considered multi-family. Multi-family premises do not include hotels, motels, or other transient occupancy facilities, which are considered commercial businesses.

M. "MWELO" refers to the model water efficient landscape ordinance (MWELO), 23 CCR, Division 2, Chapter 2.7, as adopted by AGMC Section 16.84.010.

N. "Occupant" means the person who occupies a premises.

O. "Organic Materials" means yard trimmings and food waste, individually or collectively that are set aside, handled, packaged, or offered for or in a manner different from solid waste for the purpose of processing. No discarded material shall be considered to be organic materials, however, unless it is separated from recyclable material and solid waste. Organic materials are a subset of organic waste.

P. "Organic Materials Container" shall be used for the purpose of storage and collection of source separated organic materials.

Q. "Organic Waste" means wastes containing material originated from living organisms and their metabolic waste products, including but not limited to food, green material, landscape and pruning waste, organic textiles and carpets, lumber, wood, paper products, printing and writing paper, manure, biosolids, digestate, and sludges or as otherwise defined in 14 CCR Section 18982(a)(46). Biosolids and digestate are as defined by 14 CCR Section 18982(a).

R. "Owner" means the person(s) holding legal title to real property and/or any improvements thereon and shall include the person(s) listed on the latest equalized assessment roll of the county assessor.

S. "Premises" means and includes any land, building and/or structure, or portion thereof, in the city where discarded materials are produced, generated, or accumulated. All structures on the same legal parcel, which are owned by the same person shall be considered as one premises.

T. "Recyclable Materials" means those discarded materials that the generators set out in recyclables containers for collection for the purpose of recycling by the service provider and that exclude excluded waste. No discarded materials shall be considered recyclable materials unless such material is separated from organic materials, and solid waste. For the purpose of collection of recyclable materials through contractor's collection services, recyclable materials shall be limited to those materials identified by the collection contractor as acceptable recyclable materials.

U. "Recyclable Materials Container" shall be used for the purpose of storage and collection of source separated recyclable materials.

V. "Residential" shall mean of, from, or pertaining to a single-family premises or multi-family premises including single-family homes, apartments, condominiums, townhouse complexes, mobile home parks, and cooperative apartments.

W. "SB 1383" means Senate Bill 1383 of 2016 approved by the governor on September 19, 2016, which added Sections 39730.5, 39730.6, 39730.7, and 39730.8 to the Health and Safety Code, and added Chapter 13.1 (commencing with Section 42652) to Part 3 of Division 30 of the Public Resources Code, establishing methane emissions reduction targets in a statewide effort to reduce emissions of short-lived climate pollutants as amended, supplemented, superseded, and replaced from time to time.

X. "SB 1383 Regulations" or "SB 1383 Regulatory" means or refers to, for the purposes of this chapter, the short-lived climate pollutants: organic waste reduction regulations developed by CalRecycle and adopted in 2020 that created 14 CCR, Division 7, Chapter 12 and amended portions of regulations of 14 CCR and 27 CCR.

Y. "Service Level" refers to the size of a customer's container and the frequency of collection service.

Z. "Single-Family" or "SFD" refers to any detached or attached house or residence of four units or less designed or used for occupancy by one family, provided that collection service feasibly can be provided to such premises as an independent unit, and the owner or occupant of such independent unit is billed directly for the collection service. Single-family includes townhouses, and each independent unit of duplex, tri-plex, or four-plex residential structures, regardless of whether each unit is separately billed for their specific service level.

AA. "Solid Waste" has the same meaning as defined in State Public Resources Code Section 40191, which defines solid waste as all putrescible and non-putrescible solid, semisolid, and liquid wastes, including garbage, trash, refuse, paper, rubbish, ashes, industrial wastes, demolition and construction wastes, abandoned vehicles and parts thereof, discarded home and industrial appliances, dewatered, treated, or chemically fixed sewage sludge which is not hazardous waste, manure, vegetable or animal solid and semi-solid wastes, and other discarded solid and semisolid wastes, with the exception that solid waste does not include any of the following wastes:

1. Hazardous waste, as defined in the State Public Resources Code Section 40141.

2. Radioactive waste regulated pursuant to the State Radiation Control Law (Chapter 8 (commencing with Section 114960) of Part 9 of Division 104 of the State Health and Safety Code).

3. Medical waste regulated pursuant to the State Medical Waste Management Act (Part 14 (commencing with Section 117600) of Division 104 of the State Health and Safety Code). Untreated medical waste shall not be disposed of in a solid waste landfill, as defined in State Public Resources Code Section 40195.1. Medical waste that has been treated and deemed to be solid waste shall be regulated pursuant to Division 30 of the State Public Resources Code.

4. Recyclable materials, organic materials, and construction and demolition debris when such materials are source separated.

Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary, solid waste may include de minimis volumes or concentrations of waste of a type and amount normally found in residential solid waste after implementation of programs for the safe collection, recycling, treatment, and disposal of household hazardous waste in compliance with Section 41500 and 41802 of the California Public Resources Code as may be amended from time to time. Solid waste includes salvageable materials only when such materials are included for collection in a solid waste container not source separated from solid waste at the site of generation.

BB. "Solid Waste Container" shall be used for the purpose of storage and collection of solid waste.

CC. "Source Separated" or "Source-Separated (materials)" means materials, including commingled recyclable materials and organic materials, that have been separated or kept separate from the solid waste stream, at the point of generation, for the purpose of additional sorting or processing those materials for recycling or reuse in order to return them to the economic mainstream in the form of raw material for new, reused, or reconstituted products, which meet the quality standards necessary to be used in the marketplace, or as otherwise defined in 14 CCR Section 17402.5(b)(4). For the purposes of the ordinance, source separated shall include separation of materials by the generator, responsible party, or responsible party's employee, into different containers for the purpose of collection such that source-separated materials are separated from solid waste for the purposes of collection and processing.

DD. "Source Separated Organic Materials" means organic materials that are source separated and placed in an organic materials container.

EE. "Source Separated Recyclable Materials" means recyclable materials that are source separated and placed in a recyclable materials container.

FF. "State" means the state of California.

GG. "Ton" or "Tonnage" means a unit of measure for weight equivalent to two thousand (2,000) standard pounds where each pound contains sixteen (16) ounces.

HH. "Yard Trimmings or "Green Waste" means those discarded materials that will decompose and/or putrefy, including, but not limited to, green trimmings, grass, weeds, leaves, prunings, branches, dead plants, brush, tree trimmings, dead trees, small pieces of unpainted and untreated wood. Yard trimmings does not include items herein defined as excluded waste. Yard trimmings are a subset of organic materials. Acceptable yard trimmings may be added to or removed from this list from time to time by mutual consent or at the sole discretion of the city.

(Ord. No. 711, § 2(Exh. B), 11-9-2021)

A. Persons applying for a permit from the city for new construction and building additions and alternations shall comply with the requirements of this section and all required components of the California Green Building Standards Code, 24 CCR, Part 11, known as CALGreen, as amended, if its project is covered by the scope of CALGreen and any other applicable requirements of the city. If the requirements of CALGreen are more stringent than the requirements of this section, the CALGreen requirements shall apply.

Project applicants shall refer to city's building and construction codes (reference AGMC Chapter 15.04) for complete CALGreen requirements.

B. For projects covered by CALGreen the applicants must, as a condition of the city's permit approval, comply with the following:

1. Where five or more multi-family dwelling units are constructed on a building site, provide readily accessible areas that serve occupants of all buildings on the site and are identified for the storage and collection of recyclable materials container and organic materials container materials, consistent with the three or more-container collection program offered by the city, or comply with provision of adequate space for recycling for multi-family premises and commercial premises pursuant to Sections 4.408.1, 4.410.2, 5.408.1, and 5.410.1 of the California Green Building Standards Code, 24 CCR, Part 11 as amended provided amended requirements are more stringent than the CALGreen requirements for adequate recycling space effective January 1, 2020.

2. New commercial or multi-family construction or additions resulting in more than thirty (30) percent of the floor area shall provide readily accessible areas identified for the storage and collection of recyclable materials container and organic materials container materials, consistent with the three or more-container collection program offered by the city, or shall comply with provision of adequate space for recycling for multi-family premises and commercial premises pursuant to Sections 4.408.1, 4.410.2, 5.408.1, and 5.410.1 of the California Green Building Standards Code, 24 CCR, Part 11 as amended provided amended requirements are more stringent than the CALGreen requirements for adequate recycling space effective January 1, 2020.

3. Comply with CALGreen requirements and applicable law related to management of C&D, including diversion of organic waste in C&D from disposal, and all written and published city policies and/or administrative guidelines regarding the collection, recycling, diversion, tracking, and/or reporting of C&D.

(Ord. No. 711, § 2(Exh. B), 11-9-2021)

A. Property owners or their building or landscape designers, including anyone requiring a building or planning permit, plan check, or landscape design review from the city, who are constructing a new (single-family, multi-family, public, institutional, or commercial) project with a landscape area greater than five hundred (500) square feet, or rehabilitating an existing landscape with a total landscape area greater than two thousand five hundred (2,500) square feet, shall comply with Sections 492.6(a)(3)(B) (C), (D), and (G) of the MWELO, including sections related to use of compost and mulch as delineated in this Section 15.06.050.

B. The following compost and mulch use requirements that are part of the MWELO are now also included as requirements of this chapter. Other requirements of the MWELO are in effect and can be found in 23 CCR, Division 2, Chapter 2.7.

C. Property owners or their building or landscape designers that meet the threshold for MWELO compliance outlined in Section 5(a) above shall:

1. Comply with Sections 492.6 (a)(3)(B)(C), (D) and (G) of the MWELO, which requires the submittal of a landscape design plan with a soil preparation, mulch, and amendments section to include the following:

a. For landscape installations, compost at a rate of a minimum of four cubic yards per one thousand (1,000) square feet of permeable area shall be incorporated to a depth of six inches into the soil. Soils with greater than six percent organic matter in the top six inches of soil are exempt from adding compost and tilling.

b. For landscape installations, a minimum three-inch layer of mulch shall be applied on all exposed soil surfaces of planting areas except in turf areas, creeping or rooting groundcovers, or direct seeding applications where mulch is contraindicated. To provide habitat for beneficial insects and other wildlife up to five percent of the landscape area may be left without mulch. Designated insect habitat must be included in the landscape design plan as such.

c. Organic mulch materials made from recycled or post-consumer materials shall take precedence over inorganic materials or virgin forest products unless the recycled post-consumer organic products are not locally available. Organic mulches are not required where prohibited by local fuel modification plan guidelines or other applicable local ordinances.

2. The MWELO compliance items listed in this section are not an inclusive list of MWELO requirements; therefore, property owners or their building or landscape designers that meet the threshold for MWELO compliance outlined in shall consult the full MWELO for all requirements.

D. If, after the adoption of this chapter, the California Department of Water Resources, or its successor agency, amends 23 CCR, Division 2, Chapter 2.7, Sections 492.6(a)(3)(B) (C), (D), and (G) of the MWWELO September 15, 2015 requirements in a manner that requires city to incorporate the requirements of an updated MWELO in a local ordinance, and the amended requirements include provisions more stringent than those required in this section, the revised requirements of 23 CCR, Division 2, Chapter 2.7 shall be enforced.

(Ord. No. 711, § 2(Exh. B), 11-9-2021)