Latest news with #CalRecycle
Los Angeles Times
6 days ago
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Despite record amounts of trash, some Angelenos are optimistic we'll dig our way out
It doesn't take an awful lot of investigating to see that we're swimming in an ocean of waste: There are the maxed-out landfills, illegal trash dumping in the desert, choked-up rivers, strangled sea turtles and skyrocketing trash collection fees. But there's disagreement about what it portends about our future relationship with waste. Many in the waste and environmental space believe the current situation is so untenable that strict anti-plastic and waste laws will soon be implemented — and we'll have less persistent waste. Others, however, are more cynical, and point to a slew of economic, production, marketing, judicial and policy indicators that suggest things are likely only to get worse. By the time 2050 rolls around, 'great swaths of California land will have become sacrifice zones contaminated with microplastics and toxic chemicals from uncontrolled dumping of organics with high levels of plastics, synthetic textile and other nonorganic contamination,' said Jan Dell, president and founder of the Laguna Beach-based nonprofit Last Beach Cleanup. 'Some residences and neighborhoods will be declared uninhabitable.' She noted the rampant dumping that's already happening in the Antelope Valley, and suggested that even if the state's landmark plastic legislation is implemented in a way that legislators intended — which includes a requirement that would reduce the amount of single-use plastic sold and distributed in the state — 'CalRecycle will never make [it] ... work. They can't even effectively ban foam cups.' She and others, including Susan Keefe of Beyond Plastics, another nonprofit, said the plastic and packaging industries have invested too much in ramping up plastic production to allow legislation or bans to stop them. And consumers have become so accustomed to the convenience of single-use plastic that change is unlikely to happen without a push from the government. 'It's hard to be super positive when you see how much waste we generate,' said Keefe, Beyond Plastic's Southern California director. 'I think that we're going to see more illegal dumping, more waste incineration plants built, and we'll run out of landfills. If we continue on the trajectory that we're on, I don't see how we're not going to be swimming in it.' But others, including several waste experts and community organizers across the Los Angeles region, say change is afoot. And by the time 2050 rolls around, we'll all have adopted new, less polluting, ways of consuming and discarding products. There are no data or widespread evidence to back up these claims; just hope, determination and a few small-scale examples in which community-organized composting and educational outreach campaigns — with help from groups such as LA Compost and Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, or LAANE — appeared to have taken hold and made local change. 'By 2050 we'll be in a completely new paradigm,' said Ryan Jackson, executive director of LA Compost — a composting advocacy organization — and former director of the city's Department of Public Works. 'We'll be in a resource recovery model, where nothing's wasted, and we'll be enjoying a circular economy. ... It feels dramatic, but from what we've seen up close with our organization, it's very much possible.' Jackson sees the shift as one driven organically by neighborhoods and communities that have had an opportunity to see how they could live differently. Members of his organization, which has worked in schools, community gardens and farmers markets from Long Beach to Calabasas, say they've witnessed positive shifts in behavior and attitudes when community compost hubs have been established. But, along with others, he says that government needs to play a role, too. 'We're looking at a future [in 2050] where we think the city will be in a much better place because RecycLA will have been in effect for 30 years,' said Victor Sanchez, the executive director of Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, or LAANE. RecycLA is a 2017 Los Angeles-based recycling program, which — in a public partnership with private waste hauling companies — promotes recycling and requires the diversion of waste material from landfills on an escalating basis. Its primary purpose is to get L.A. closer to 'zero waste' — a plan adopted by the county's supervisors in 2022, which lays out a framework designed to reduce the use of landfills, maximize the use of natural resources and recover materials for beneficial use or reuse. The idea behind it is to create a circular economy, in which products and packages are designed and manufactured with materials that can be reused, composted or recycled. So far, the law has been met with mixed success. Diversion from landfill has increased, but so too has a surge of illegal waste dumping in the Antelope Valley suggesting the law may be having some unintended consequences. Critics point to a dearth of recycling and composting infrastructure in the city and county as part of the problem. There has also been trouble at the state level. In 2022, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 54, which requires that product and packaging manufacturers maintain financial responsibility for their products from beginning to end — theoretically incentivizing companies to produce items that won't contribute to a glut of waste. Specifically, the law requires that by 2032, plastic and packaging companies reduce single-use plastic packaging by 25% from 2025 levels. It also requires that the remainder of single-use plastic packaging and foodware items still being sold and marketed are 100% compostable or recyclable. In addition, packaging producers will have to bear the costs of their products' end-life (whether via recycling, composting, landfill or export) and figure out how to make it happen — removing that costly burden from consumers and local governments. Newsom's administration has since backtracked on regulations that would have helped to achieve these goals, and instead has written new draft regulations that critics contend are industry-friendly and watered down. Despite these regulatory failures, and an acknowledgment that 'capital' and corporate interests have a knack for influencing the implementation of laws and for finding loopholes in legislation — such as the time California banned plastic bags at retail stores, only to discover they'd created an exception for thicker 'reusable' plastic bags, and plastic bag waste actually increased — there is reason to hope, said Sanchez. Yes, there have been some short-term failures, he said, but 'that's going to happen when you overhaul an entire system, right?' He said he has seen 'beacons of hope' in his work with communities where people are 'breathing the air ... dealing with the smell and constant pollution,' of nearby landfill and waste sites. He said these communities know the risks, dangers and destructive consequences of our current waste system. And in many cases, they are successfully fighting for change — by pushing to shut down polluted landfills and mobilizing workers in these systems to demand fair compensation and safe working conditions. 'The challenge that's upon us is to build more shared ownership and awareness around waste. We have to make the case as to why it's important to invest in a system that works, because, at the end of the day, it's about investing in ourselves. It's really existential,' he said. Even representatives from the city's private waste industry are hopeful — despite being on the wrong side of a lawsuit suggesting many of them are delivering unpermitted waste to the Antelope Valley. A lawsuit filed this year in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles by Antelope Valley residents claims that waste-hauling companies including Athens Services and California Waste Services are dumping hazardous substances without authorization, which the companies deny. Athens noted that the law encourages the distribution of compostable material to 'farmers and other property owners for beneficial use.' Jessica Aldridge, director of sustainability and zero waste services at Athens Services, an L.A.-based waste hauling company, was not in a position to answer questions about the lawsuit, but said her company is optimistic about what 'the environmental community, social justice and waste communities are trying to achieve.' She agreed with Sanchez that while there may be some temporary political and regulatory setbacks, California lawmakers 'have a positive goal in mind, and they're setting up the regulations and the infrastructure' in pursuit of a cleaner environment and a more circular economy. But Keefe, the Beyond Plastics advocate, says all this hope for circular economy laws and small community action is misplaced, that we're not going to make a dent in waste generation as long as single-use plastic manufacturers produce and sell their products. 'Plastic recycling is a myth,' she said, pointing to the abysmally low amount of plastic that is actually recycled, as well as the lawsuit that California's attorney general filed last year against ExxonMobil. The suit alleges that the fossil-fuel company knowingly deceived the public about plastic recycling for years, leading to the plastic pollution crisis we are facing today. 'Until we stop focusing on plastic recycling, we're never going to get there,' said Keefe.
Los Angeles Times
11-07-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
Amid state inaction, California chef sues to block sales of foam food containers
Redwood City — Fed up with the state's refusal to enforce a law banning the sale of polystyrene foam cups, plates and bowls, a San Diego County resident has taken matters into his own hands. Jeffrey Heavey, a chef and owner of Convivial Catering, a San Diego-area catering service, is suing WinCup, an Atlanta-based foam foodware product manufacturing company, claiming that it continues to sell, distribute and market foam products in California despite a state law that was supposed to ban such sales starting Jan. 1. He is suing on behalf of himself, not his business. The suit, filed in the San Diego County Superior Court in March, seeks class action status on behalf of all Californians. Heavey's attorney, William Sullivan of the Sullivan & Yaeckel Law Group, said his client is seeking an injunction to stop WinCup from selling these banned products in California and to remove the products' 'chasing arrows' recycling label, which Heavey and his attorney describe as false and deceptive advertising. They are also seeking damages for every California-based customer who paid the company for these products in the last three years, and $5,000 to every senior citizen or 'disabled' person who may have purchased the products during this time period. WinCup didn't respond to requests for comments, but in a court filing described the allegations as vague, unspecific and without merit, according to the company's attorney, Nathan Dooley. At issue is a California ban on the environmentally destructive plastic material, which went into effect on Jan. 1, as well as the definition of 'recyclable' and the use of such a label on products sold in the state. Senate Bill 54, signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2021, targeted single-use plastic in the state's waste stream. The law included a provision that banned the sale and distribution of expanded polystyrene food service ware — such as foam cups, plates and takeout containers — on Jan. 1, unless producers could show they had achieved a 25% recycling rate. 'I'm glad a person in my district has taken this up and is holding these companies accountable,' said Catherine Blakespear (D-Encinitas). 'But CalRecycle is the enforcement authority for this legislation, and they should be the ones doing this.' The intent of the law was to put the financial onus of responsible waste management onto the producers of these products, and away from California's taxpayers and cities that would otherwise have to dispose of these products or deal with their waste on beaches, in rivers and on roadways. Expanded polystyrene is a particularly pernicious form of plastic pollution that does not biodegrade, has a tendency to break down into microplastics, leaches toxic chemicals and persists in the environment. There are no expanded polystyrene recycling plants in California, and recycling rates nationally for the material hover around 1%. However, despite CalRecycle's delayed announcement of the ban, companies such as WinCup not only continue to sell these banned products in California, but Heavey and his lawyers allege the products are deceptively labeled as 'recyclable.' In his suit, Heavey includes a March 15 receipt from a Smart & Final store in the San Diego County town of National City, indicating a purchase of 'WinCup 16 oz. Foam' cups. Similar polystyrene foam products could be seen on the shelves this week at a Redwood City Smart & Final, including a 1,000-count box of 12-ounce WinCup foam cups selling for $36.99. Across the aisle, the shelves were packed with bags of Simply Value and First Street (both Smart & Final brands) foam plates and bowls. There were 'chasing arrow' recycling labels on the boxes containing cup lids. The symbol included a No. 6 in the center, indicating the material is polystyrene. There were none on the cardboard boxes containing cups, and it couldn't be determined if the individual foam products were tagged with recycling labels. They were either obstructed from view inside cardboard boxes or stacked in bags which obscured observation. Smart & Final, which is owned by Chedraui USA, a subsidiary of Mexico City-based Grupo Comercial Chedraui, didn't respond to requests for comment. Heavey's suit alleges the plastic product manufacturer is 'greenwashing' its products by labeling them as recyclable and in so doing, trying to skirt the law. According to the suit, recycling claims are widely disseminated on products and via other written publications. The company's website includes an 'Environmental' tab, which includes a page entitled: 'Foam versus Paper Disposable Cups: A closer look.' The page includes a one-sentence argument highlighting the environmental superiority of foam over paper, noting that 'foam products have a reputation for environmental harm, but if we examine the scientific research, in many ways Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) foam is greener than paper.' Heavey's suit claims that he believed he was purchasing recyclable materials based on the products' labeling, and he would not have bought the items had they not been advertised as such. WinCup, which is owned by Atar Capital, a Los Angeles-based global private investment firm sought to have the case moved to the U.S. District Court in San Diego, but a judge there remanded the case back to the San Diego Superior Court or jurisdiction grounds. Susan Keefe, the Southern California Director of Beyond Plastics, an anti-plastic environmental group based in Bennington, Vt., said that as of June, the agency had not yet enforced the ban, despite news stories and evidence that the product was still being sold in the state. 'It's really frustrating. CalRecycle's disregard for enforcement just permits a lack of respect for our laws. It results in these violators who think they can freely pollute in our state with no trepidation that California will exercise its right to penalize them,' she said. Melanie Turner, a spokesoman for CalRecycle, said in a statement that expanded polystyrene producers 'should no longer be selling or distributing expanded polystyrene food service ware to California businesses.' 'CalRecycle has been identifying and notifying businesses that may be impacted by SB 54, including expanded polystyrene requirements, and communicating their responsibilities with mailed notices, emailed announcements, public meetings, and workshops,' she said. The waste agency 'is prioritizing compliance assistance for producers regulated by this law, prior to potential enforcement action,' she said. Keefe filed a public records request with the agency regarding communications with companies selling the banned material and said she found the agency had not made any attempts to warn or stop the violators from selling banned products. Blakespear said it's concerning the law has been in effect for more than six months and CalRecycle has yet to clamp down on violators. Enforcement is critical, she said, for setting the tone as SB 54 is implemented. According to Senate Bill 54, companies that produce banned products that are then sold in California can be fined up to $50,000 per day, per violation. According to a report issued by the waste agency last week, approximately 47,000 tons of expanded polystyrene foam was disposed in California landfills last year.
Business Wire
18-06-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
RE:CIRCLE Ontario Fights Food Waste in California with Innovative TraceOS Tracking System
ONTARIO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- RE:CIRCLE Ontario LLC, a RE:CIRCLE Solutions Inc. company and leader in organic waste recycling, feed production and diversion strategies, today announced the launch of its proprietary, industry-first waste repurposing and carbon avoidance data tracking system, 'TraceOS.' RE:CIRCLE Ontario's significant industry expertise in effective and proven repurposing strategies transforms waste into value while enabling businesses to achieve their sustainability initiatives and reduce dependency on landfills. The company's integrated services include collection and transportation of organic waste from inbound partners – like grocery retailers, food and beverage producers and other key players in the food ecosystem – to its state-of-the-art processing site in Ontario, California. Once there, RE:CIRCLE Ontario's nutritional experts and advanced processing methods test the nutritional value and energy potential of pre-consumer organic food waste that cannot be sold or donated. The material is then processed into feed, converted via farms, anaerobic digestion or commodity recycling specialist partners. RE:CIRCLE Ontario follows the disposal route with the greatest possible utility – in line with the food recovery hierarchy – where food waste is repurposed into animal feed, biofuel, biofertilizer or valuable secondary raw materials with landfill being last resort. 'With California law prohibiting food waste disposal in landfills, organic waste management is now critical for grocery and foodservice businesses,' said Clemens Stockreiter, Founder of RE:CIRCLE Solutions. 'Effective diversion and repurposing strategies are necessary to ensure compliance, meet sustainability goals and reduce costs. That's where RE:CIRCLE comes in – we don't just recycle, we revitalize waste and upcycle it for the highest possible utility with immense environmental value. Our services are seamless and scalable, and our first-of-its-kind TraceOS system further provides customers with online access and transparency into these sustainability efforts.' TraceOS provides customers with auditable tracking of the volume or composition of their food waste. It quantifies the impact of their recycled material on reducing landfill dependency, maximizing resource recovery and greenhouse gas avoidance. Its proprietary online dashboard enables customers to view the impact of their sustainability goals, where each batch and ton is recycled, and progress in reducing carbon footprint in real time, at their fingertips. Additionally, RE:CIRCLE Ontario provides customers with comprehensive tracking of recycled material as it moves through RE:CIRCLE's innovative repurposing system. TraceOS's certified, auditable reports provide data in line with relevant reporting standards (CalRecycle, Food Loss & Waste Champions 2030, EPA). It delivers actionable insights to offer a level of complete transparency and management control unmatched by the industry. RE:CIRCLE Ontario LLC is a fully owned subsidiary of RE:CIRCLE Solutions Inc. and a Southern California leader in organic waste recycling and feed production, which offers critical waste diversion strategies that repurpose unsold pre-consumer food waste for the highest possible potential as animal feed, biofuel, biofertilizer or valuable secondary raw materials.
Yahoo
31-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Lawmakers ask Newsom and waste agency to follow the law on plastic legislation
California lawmakers are taking aim at proposed rules to implement a state law aimed at curbing plastic waste, saying the draft regulations proposed by CalRecycle undermine the letter and intent of the legislation. In a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom and two of his top administrators, the lawmakers said CalRecycle exceeded its authority by drafting regulations that don't abide by the terms set out by the law, Senate Bill 54. "While we support many changes in the current draft regulations, we have identified several provisions that are inconsistent with the governing statute ... and where CalRecycle has exceeded its authority under the law," the lawmakers wrote in the letter to Newsom, California Environmental Protection agency chief Yana Garcia, and Zoe Heller, director of the state's Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, or CalRecycle. The letter, which was written by Sen. Catherine Blakespear (D-Encinitas) and Sen. Benjamin Allen (D-Santa Monica), was signed by 21 other lawmakers, including Sen. John Laird (D-Santa Cruz) and Assemblymembers Al Muratsuchi (D-Rolling Hills Estates) and Monique Limón (D-Goleta). CalRecycle submitted informal draft regulations two weeks ago that are designed to implement the law, which was authored by Allen, and signed into law by Newsom in 2022. The lawmakers' concerns are directed at the draft regulations' potential approval of polluting recycling technologies — which the language of the law expressly prohibits — as well as the document's expansive exemption for products and packaging that fall under the purview of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration. The inclusion of such blanket exemptions is "not only contrary to the statute but also risks significantly increasing the program's costs," the lawmakers wrote. They said the new regulations allow "producers to unilaterally determine which products are subject to the law, without a requirement or process to back up such a claim." Daniel Villaseñor, a spokesman for the governor, said in an email that Newsom "was clear when he asked CalRecycle to restart these regulations that they should work to minimize costs for small businesses and families, and these rules are a step in the right direction ..." At a workshop held at the agency's headquarters in Sacramento this week, CalRecycle staff responded to similar criticisms, and underscored that these are informal draft regulations, which means they can be changed. "I know from comments we've already been receiving that some of the provisions, as we have written them ... don't quite come across in the way that we intended," said Karen Kayfetz, chief of CalRecycle's Product Stewardship branch, adding that she was hopeful "a robust conversation" could help highlight areas where interpretations of the regulations' language differs from the agency's intent. "It was not our intent, of course, to ever go outside of the statute, and so to the extent that it may be interpreted in the language that we've provided, that there are provisions that extend beyond ... it's our wish to narrow that back down," she said. These new draft regulations are the expedited result of the agency's attempt to satisfy Newsom's concerns about the law, which he said could increase costs to California households if not properly implemented. Newsom rejected the agency's first attempt at drafting regulations — the result of nearly three years of negotiations by scores of stakeholders, including plastic producers, package developers, agricultural interests, environmental groups, municipalities, recycling companies and waste haulers — and ordered the waste agency to start the process over. Critics say the new draft regulations cater to industry and could result in even higher costs to both California households, which have seen large increases in their residential waste hauling fees, as well as to the state's various jurisdictions, which are taxed with cleaning up plastic waste and debris clogging the state's rivers, highways, beaches and parks. The law is molded on a series of legislative efforts described as Extended Producer Responsibility laws, which are designed to shift the cost of waste removal and disposal from the state's jurisdictions and taxpayers to the industries that produce the waste — theoretically incentivizing a circular economy, in which product and packaging producers develop materials that can be reused, recycled or composted. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
31-05-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
Lawmakers ask Newsom and waste agency to follow the law on plastic legislation
California lawmakers are taking aim at proposed rules to implement a state law aimed at curbing plastic waste, saying the draft regulations proposed by CalRecycle undermine the letter and intent of the legislation. In a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom and two of his top administrators, the lawmakers said CalRecycle exceeded its authority by drafting regulations that don't abide by the terms set out by the law, Senate Bill 54. 'While we support many changes in the current draft regulations, we have identified several provisions that are inconsistent with the governing statute ... and where CalRecycle has exceeded its authority under the law,' the lawmakers wrote in the letter to Newsom, California Environmental Protection agency chief Yana Garcia, and Zoe Heller, director of the state's Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, or CalRecycle. The letter, which was written by Sen. Catherine Blakespear (D-Encinitas) and Sen. Benjamin Allen (D-Santa Monica), was signed by 21 other lawmakers, including Sen. John Laird (D-Santa Cruz) and Assemblymembers Al Muratsuchi (D-Rolling Hills Estates) and Monique Limón (D-Goleta). CalRecycle submitted informal draft regulations two weeks ago that are designed to implement the law, which was authored by Allen, and signed into law by Newsom in 2022. The lawmakers' concerns are directed at the draft regulations' potential approval of polluting recycling technologies — which the language of the law expressly prohibits — as well as the document's expansive exemption for products and packaging that fall under the purview of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration. The inclusion of such blanket exemptions is 'not only contrary to the statute but also risks significantly increasing the program's costs,' the lawmakers wrote. They said the new regulations allow 'producers to unilaterally determine which products are subject to the law, without a requirement or process to back up such a claim.' Daniel Villaseñor, a spokesman for the governor, said in an email that Newsom 'was clear when he asked CalRecycle to restart these regulations that they should work to minimize costs for small businesses and families, and these rules are a step in the right direction ...' At a workshop held at the agency's headquarters in Sacramento this week, CalRecycle staff responded to similar criticisms, and underscored that these are informal draft regulations, which means they can be changed. 'I know from comments we've already been receiving that some of the provisions, as we have written them ... don't quite come across in the way that we intended,' said Karen Kayfetz, chief of CalRecycle's Product Stewardship branch, adding that she was hopeful 'a robust conversation' could help highlight areas where interpretations of the regulations' language differs from the agency's intent. 'It was not our intent, of course, to ever go outside of the statute, and so to the extent that it may be interpreted in the language that we've provided, that there are provisions that extend beyond ... it's our wish to narrow that back down,' she said. These new draft regulations are the expedited result of the agency's attempt to satisfy Newsom's concerns about the law, which he said could increase costs to California households if not properly implemented. Newsom rejected the agency's first attempt at drafting regulations — the result of nearly three years of negotiations by scores of stakeholders, including plastic producers, package developers, agricultural interests, environmental groups, municipalities, recycling companies and waste haulers — and ordered the waste agency to start the process over. Critics say the new draft regulations cater to industry and could result in even higher costs to both California households, which have seen large increases in their residential waste hauling fees, as well as to the state's various jurisdictions, which are taxed with cleaning up plastic waste and debris clogging the state's rivers, highways, beaches and parks. The law is molded on a series of legislative efforts described as Extended Producer Responsibility laws, which are designed to shift the cost of waste removal and disposal from the state's jurisdictions and taxpayers to the industries that produce the waste — theoretically incentivizing a circular economy, in which product and packaging producers develop materials that can be reused, recycled or composted.
