Newport Beach expands residential recycling program in compliance with state law
At the start of this month, some Newport Beach residents may have noticed the arrival to their properties of new receptacles with green lids. They are part of an expansion of the city’s recycling collection program, which requires all homes to recycle “organics” in compliance with a new environmental state law that went into effect Jan. 1.
Senate Bill 1383 requires all Californian residents to separate “green” waste — such as unused food, coffee grounds, eggshells, lawn trimmings — from other trash. The law was passed by the state Legislature in 2016, under then-Gov. Jerry Brown.
The law aims to reprocess 75% of green waste by 2025 in an effort to address the ongoing climate crisis.
CalRecycle, the state agency spearheading the transition, said landfills are the third largest source of methane in California. They produce 20% of the state’s methane, a super-pollutant that is at least 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
“Green” waste, in addition to paper and cardboard, make up for at least half of what Californians dump in landfills.
Fines can be levied for noncompliance, but those are not expected to be implemented until 2024. Cities could be forced to pay as much as $10,000 a day per violation if they don’t comply.
The Newport Beach City Council unanimously approved a new contract that would allow for this expansion and manage and minimize costs and resident impacts with the city’s waste contractor, CR&R Environmental Services, at their meeting on Jan. 11. The move replaces two previous contracts it held for the city of Newport Beach and for Newport Coast.
The new system involves three carts: black-top for trash, blue-top for recyclables and a green-top for organic waste. Residents can also request a 2-gallon pail for organic materials in the kitchen.
Rollout of the new green carts began this month and will continue through the end of March. Residents can learn when carts will be delivered through newportbeachca.gov/recycle. Some collection days and street sweeping days were also changed to accommodate the expanded program. About 14,000 residences will see that change as CR&R updates its collection routes for efficiency.
Collection of the organics bins will begin a week after residences initially receive them and will coincide with trash collection days, not at the start of March, according to city spokesman John Pope.
The new contract, which is set to expire in December 2031, will cost about $7.8 million annually. But by the 10th year, it is estimated it will cost a total of about $9.3 million. The previous contracts cost about $4.9 million annually. According to the deputy director of public works, Micah Martin, the money will come from the city’s general fund.
Residents are charged a monthly household fee of up to $6.28 to partially cover costs incurred in the city to satisfy state recycling requirements. The fee is included in municipal bills.
“This is driven in large part by state mandates as we’ve been seeing. It’s going to end up costing the city a significant amount of money into the general fund that we’ll be budgeting obviously and had budgeted into this current budget, but it will be an ongoing expense that will be fairly significant,” said Councilman Will O’Neill.
Extra service charges — such as for cart rollout, excepting those who are disabled — will become effective in April. Workers will no longer pick up items left outside of the carts and people who want large, bulky items picked up must arrange for that service ahead of time.
“There’s a lot of work to be done going forward, but getting here has been particularly challenging with the law and — I think it’s like 127 pages of regulations — to try and figure out how to apply this into a city as diverse as Newport Beach is where you have fairly large areas and very site-constrained areas,” O’Neill said.
More information about the program and its changes can be found at newportbeachca.gov/government/departments/public-works/municipal-operations/trash-recycling.
All the latest on Orange County from Orange County.
Get our free TimesOC newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Daily Pilot.
