Deukmejian OKs Bills Targeting Trash : Measures Approved to Promote Recycling, Ease Load on Landfills

Hoping to turn around California’s dubious distinction as the nation’s top producer of garbage, Gov. George Deukmejian on Friday signed an eight-bill package to promote recycling and reduce by half the amount of trash going into landfills by the year 2000.

The new program is expected to drive up garbage collection fees for most Californians and require the curbside separation of garbage in many communities. But supporters said the alternative--continued reliance on landfills--would be even more costly in terms of both dollars and environmental damage.

With California generating about 2,500 pounds of trash per resident each year, the legislative program represents an effort to deal with the problem before it becomes a full-blown crisis.

Estimates are that California, with 10% of the nation’s population, produces 20% to 25% of U.S. garbage. Most of it is buried, but experts predict that by the mid-1990s California will exhaust most of its unused landfill space.

Deukmejian, who signed two of the eight bills during a public ceremony in his office, said the legislation puts “California far ahead of other states in addressing the waste management problem.”

‘Most Innovative Plan’

The governor called the package “probably the most innovative plan ever put forth by the state.”

Assemblyman Byron D. Sher (D-Palo Alto), chairman of the Assembly Natural Resources Committee and author of the principal solid waste bill, said, “We hope that these bills will turn California from a throwaway ethic into a reduce-it or recycle-it ethic.”

The recycling program, at Deukmejian’s insistence, makes an allowance for a substantial amount of incineration, but environmentalists said they believe the new law could actually end up reducing the amount of garbage being burned.

Corey Brown, a lobbyist for the Planning and Conservation League, said the language in the new laws is written so tightly that “we don’t believe any new incinerator projects will be built in California. The language actually improves environmental controls over incineration.”

Environmentalists said success of the program will depend on the appointments Deukmejian makes to a new solid waste management board that will be created to oversee the program.

The new full-time, six-member board will replace the present nine-member, part-time California Waste Management Board. Environmentalists say the current panel is dominated by the waste-hauling industry and has not effectively promoted recycling.

Appointments Divided

Deukmejian, who appointed seven of nine members on the old board, will be able to make four of the six appointments to the new California Integrated Waste Management and Recycling Board.

All except one of the eight bills were drafted by Democrats. The package was widely regarded as one of the key accomplishments growing out of a new spirit of cooperation that materialized this year between Deukmejian and Democratic leaders of the Legislature.

Recycling figures prominently in each of the bills. About 90% of the state’s annual haul of 40 million tons of trash ends up in landfills. Most of the rest is recycled, with less than 1% said to be disposed of by incineration. Only three waste-to-energy incinerators are operating now in California.

The centerpiece of the program is a Sher bill that requires cities and counties to reduce waste going into landfills by at least 25% by 1995 and 50% by 2000. The Sher bill also creates the new board, which will review and approve local government plans to meet the garbage reduction goals.

The bill’s most controversial provision allows local governments that cannot meet the 50% goal to dispose of up to 5% of their garbage by incineration. However, all garbage collection agencies must meet the initial 25% reduction through recycling.

Wide Latitude

The new law allows communities a wide degree of latitude in developing recycling programs. But experts say they expect garbage collection fees to increase, at least initially, as the new programs get under way.

One bill in the package, by Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach), creates the Source Reduction Advisory Agency to promote a reduction in garbage through improved packaging, development of more durable goods, creation of new technology and expanded markets for recycled materials.

Another bill, by Assemblywoman Delaine Eastin (D-Union City), requires state purchasing agents to give preference in placing orders to goods produced from recycled materials.

Three of the bills were drafted by Assemblywoman Lucy Killea (D-San Diego). One requires newspaper publishers and other consumers of newsprint to increase their use of recycled paper.

Another Killea bill requires the California Department of Transportation and its contractors to use recycled materials in road paving when it can be purchased at the right price with good quality.

The third Killea bill allows tax-exempt industrial development bonds to be used for the purchase of recycling equipment--machinery that uses waste material to produce finished products.

A bill by Sen. Alfred E. Alquist (D-San Jose) provides a tax credit of up to 40% for firms that buy equipment used to manufacture new products from waste material. The credit for each purchase is capped at $250,000.

Another bill in the package, by Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco), would assess a 25-cent fee on each used tire sold or exchanged. The money would be distributed as cash grants, subsidies or loans to businesses and public entities who can devise a way to reuse the tires.