Solid waste: management: funding.

(1) Existing law requires the State Air Resources Board, no later than January 1, 2018, to approve and begin implementing a comprehensive short-lived climate pollutant strategy to reduce statewide emissions of specified pollutants, including reducing methane emissions by 40% below 2013 levels by 2030. Existing law requires methane emissions reduction goals to include specified targets for reducing organic waste in landfills. Existing law requires the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, in consultation with the state board, to adopt regulations that achieve the specified targets for reducing organic waste in landfills. This bill would require the department, in adopting those regulations, to conduct at least one public workshop to discuss funding strategies for new and expanded organic waste reduction infrastructure, including, but not limited to, existing public and private funding models and opportunities for new statewide funding sources. (2) The California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989, which is administered by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, generally regulates the management and recycling of solid waste. The act requires the operator of a disposal facility to pay to the State Board of Equalization a fee based on the amount of all solid waste disposed of at each disposal site. The act requires the department to establish the amount of the fee, as specified, and limits the fee to a maximum of $1.40 per ton. Existing law requires the moneys collected from the fee to be deposited in the Integrated Waste Management Account and requires the moneys in the account to be used by the department, upon appropriation, for specified purposes, including, among others, the administration and implementation of the act. This bill would require the department to use the moneys in the account also to maintain a prudent reserve for the administration and implementation of the act. The bill would also make nonsubstantive changes.