Clean and Green Commission - Regular Meeting

I have heard the magic words. That means that the meeting can now start. This is May 2025, and this is our, hybrid conference meeting of council sustainability committee. First order of business is roll call, please.

Oh, I'm sorry. I I could barely hear you. Yes. I can hear you.

Here. Here's your main.

Becky. And with the roll call, we're gonna go around the around the floor and have you introduce yourself. Tell us what you like, what you sell, and

what you dislike. Alex M. A, public board staff.

Eric Pearson, environmental services manager.

Stephanie Juwarns, sustainability specialist.

I'm Timmy Deburrows. I'm executive director of Stop Waste, which is the Allegheny County Waste Management Authority.

And you started VIP today.

Hey. What about me?

Oh, you just said goodbye.

Everyone. I'm Michelle Bay. I'm the program manager at Stop Waste alongside the VIP.

I'm Jeff Crump. I'm Hayward's salt waste program manager.

Oh, hi. My name is Matt Critcher, vice president of student services at Chabot College, about seventeen years in service, and I'm working on sustainability projects for the district this semester before I retire June 3.

I'm. Jason Toro, CEO of TriSet.

Ethan Romero, recycling education representative, waste management.

And a familiar face coming back.

Lisa Pierce, recycling education representative, waste management.

Very good, Andy. Thank you all for being here. Next item is public comments, and I have one call from Matt. Matt, you have three minutes. Three minutes. Okay.

So good afternoon, council members and public. I just wanted to give a brief update about some of the state of the league project we're working on in the Los Pecos Community College District. So one exciting one is that we applied for and are conditionally approved to have three climate action fellows out of the California Climate Action Corps. The governor has done his best to pledge to backfill the 25% paid for by AmeriCorps because that was recently devastated. So we're excited about those three climate action fellows, hopefully, with approval of the budget coming through.

Joining our district to focus on our zero wicked, zero waste initiative in urban green. Also, just wanted to share that we were finally successful in a battery energy storage system design approved by the division of the state architect about two weeks ago. Took us four years to get this design approval through. We started off probably in the wrong way with a prepackaged container system that didn't allow the appropriate inspections along the way. And so working with Gridscape that was referred to me by the city of Hayward, well, probably some five years ago, We finally got that approved.

And within ninety days, now that we have the approval, we will be able to install 2.3 megawatts of battery storage to leverage the solar panels off the JLOC Excellent. Carport system, which will save about $200,000 of our direct charge or demand charge, I guess, is the appropriate word. PG and E bill, which went from 950,000 in 2018, Francisco's a manual professor, to $2,300,000 last year. So you can see it's a it's an economic imperative as well as an environmental and social imperative. And then also, we're fortunate to get a $40,000 grant that we applied for through the Altuan Education Advisory Board to for our zero waste initiative, which will basically pay for student assistance, faculty mentoring, some custodial overtime, and a little bit of marketing.

And what I'm really excited about too is thank you to the city of Hayward and sustainability office with Alex and Eric and and Jeff. We're gonna be receiving at least five, maybe 15 eco recycling stations. That was not part of our grant because we really needed it for the people and the training. So student assistance there to help students sort when they come back in the fall, all the signage and the marketing and the outreach to help our campus really go from being, not well rated by the post post landfill action network campus in terms of our zero waste to hopefully really improving on our organics collection recyclables. I am asking publicly, for the support of waste management to please, I'm really asking, pick up the 20 or so old 20 year old gray carts, two wheeled carts that we no longer have use for, in fact, are hurting our recycling program at Chabot.

Because they're gray carts that they say mixed recycling, they belong to waste management. It's been three months of my trying to ask waste management to please pick them up because it causes confusion and confusion and inconsistency for our color coded recycling program and causes a lot of contamination, and we paid about a thousand dollars in contamination bills to waste management. So I hope that's not that a profit incentive is to keep having us pay contamination card for for bins that we no longer want. We're hoping they will pick them up. I've made several requests to Matt Bishop, who's an account executive, and thank you for the visit to our campus.

But, unfortunately, we haven't had to have those been able to get those picked up. But we are moving forward with our zero waste initiative regardless, and the city has been an instrumental part of that from the beginning along with some energy savings and storage. And by the way, one last thing, if I have one more minute just to share. Know, we have about a total of about 4.3 megawatts of solar between the two campuses, but we had been doing a very good job of maintaining them. So we connect with an organization called Transform Energy who help us with an optimization and maintenance contract.

We'll get a quote and enable us to finally sell the renewable energy credits, which we had not identified a market for, which could be 50 to 70,000 of unrestricted cash dollars that comes in for basically free. They take a commission off the top, so there's no outward expense. So between the opt optimization and maintenance contracts, we hope to save several $100,000 a year by simply cleaning and maintaining our panels, which we haven't done a very good job of, and then selling the RACs that will give us a little bit more back pocket money to hopefully hire someone to replace me and continue this work as a stand alone director, especially with the aid of our climate fellows and the grants and the city support. So, anyway, thank you Stock Waste as well. They've been a fantastic partner with us.

And and, you know, stickers, consultation services. Jesse Tiger's done a great job working with Dublin, Amador Industries, and also Livermore Sanitation for the that jurisdiction. But it's been a great experience for me, and I do hope to continue this work through some of the folks that I've been training along the way.

So Just two comments. Just put a new sticker at stop waste, BYOB, train your own bag. Oh. And and then we also I spent a year pushing for electrical I mean, for sun tablets on the parking lots. Finally, they were done.

And we need to put another megawatt over the pea pod That's right. Parking lot badly.

Right.

Because we're building buildings, and if we don't build this energy and the storage along with it, then we're just gonna raise our carbon footprint and create big things. BYOB. Thank you. Great. Alright. Questions.

Thank you, everyone. Anyone else? No? Alright. So that takes us to approval of the minutes from our meeting on March 2020 Any comments on those? Any questions? Any public comments on our minutes? None? They were memorized totally. Okay. Are you gonna move? Oh, I moved.

Okay. Second.

Alright. Alright. Alright. Thank you. Alright. So we now go to action items, and item number two is ACT 25 dash zero three three s b 54 overview, the plastic pollution prevention and producer responsibility act. I believe Eric and then Tim and then Michelle Or Eric, Stephanie, Tim, and Michelle. And that

Well, yeah, you, councilmember's. So Stephanie Dumont is our sustainability specialist. She's gonna start off with the first part of the presentation. And I think Timothy and Michelle have already introduced themselves, but I just wanna thank them again for being here to help with the presentation and help answer questions. So, Stephanie, please go ahead.

Thank you, Eric. Good evening, council members. I will be providing an overview of SB 54, the plastic pollution prevention and producer responsibility act. On a local and state level, there has been several ordinances and laws to reduce plastic pollution, especially plastic bags. In 2013, stop waste banned single use plastic carry out bags for grocery stores, convenience, and drug stores.

And in 2016, stop waste added retail stores and restaurants to the back ban. In 2024, governor Newsom signed s b ten fifty three, which revises s b two seventy to ban all single use plastic bags and only allow grocery stores, convenience and liquor stores, and pharmacies to offer recycled paper bags with a minimum charge of 10¢. StopWaste is currently amending its ordinance to align with s b ten fifty three. To further move the needle, in 2022, governor Newsom signed s b 54, which aims to decrease plastic packaging and requires extended producer respondents' ability on single use disposable packaging of foodware in California. This means that producers will not be allowed to sell, distribute, or import single use disposable packaging of foodware on or after January 2032 unless it is recyclable or compostable.

Since 2022, CalRecycle has been developing the regulations for SB 54. On March 7, governor rejected the draft regulations and directed CalRecycle to restart the formal rulemaking process. CalRecycle is scheduled to publish the latest draft regulations on May 23 and will host an informal rulemaking workshop on May 27. Our recycle hopes to have the final regulations in place by the end of the year. SB 54 has three main objectives.

By 2032, the producer responsibility organization, also known as the PRO, must, Number one, ensure a 100% of the covered materials be recycled or compostable. Number two, ensure 65% of all plastic covered materials are recycled are responsible in markets with the interim targets for 2028 and 2030. Our signal currently estimates that there's actually less than 10% of plastic packaging that is going into our recycling. And so that we still have a long ways to go to achieve this goal. Number three, the third objective is to reduce 25% of the plastic covered materials by weight and unit with an interim target for 2027 and 2030.

This objective also has specific targets for reuse and refill programs. Although SB 54 requires a certain percentage of plastic rejection and packaging and establishing a reuse and refill program, but as a society, we still need to find more ways to reduce waste consumption and encourage reuse. Another requirement under SB 54 was to have the users demonstrate that expanded polystyrene aka Styrofoam has a minimum recycling rate of 25 by January. As we know, very little expanded polystyrene is recycled. So as a result, Cat Recycle has now officially banned the distribution and sale of polystyrene foodware in California.

Since 2011, Hayward has led and ordinance banning the use of polystyrene foodware from restaurants and food vendors. However, enforcement, it has been difficult because food vendors could still purchase expanded polystyrene foodware from local retail stores. So this new ban on distribution and sale will help support the city's ordinance. SB 54 also requires that starting in 2027, the PRO is also required to provide the California Plastic Pollution Mitigation Fund with $500,000,000 per year annually over the ten year period, which totals $5,000,000,000. The fund will be used to remediate disadvantaged communities that are most affected by single use plastic and to address the environmental impacts caused by pollution.

Today, we have invited Timothy from StopWaste and Michelle to provide us with their insight on SB 54. Please take it away.

Okay. Thanks very much, Stephanie, and thanks for the invitation to co present with you today. I wanna acknowledge council member Sertveno. He serves on our board representing Hayward as the president of our board. Thank you for the invitation today. And customer Goldstein also contributes a lot to our board as the alternate, and we really value all of your input and your questions along the way on

our board. So thank you

very much, and it's really nice to connect with you again and to meet you. Hayward, so stop waste serves 17 jurisdictions in in Alameda County, and our goal is to help the jurisdictions in Alameda County advance that broader sustainability and waste prevention and recycling rules. And before I talk a little bit about SB 54 and then turn it over to Michelle to talk about the details of the law, I just wanted to just acknowledge the Hayward's leadership because within the jurisdictions, within the county, and within and beyond, Hayward has a reputation as a city that leads on sustainability policy and programs and doing work that's good for people and good for the planet and good for the community. And I know a lot of the jurisdictions that we serve look to Hayward for examples of how to do things right and how to do things well. So much appreciation to the staff again for inviting us and having us here today.

Michelle and I and Stock Waste as an agency are prioritizing work on s p 54 in large part because we think it

is

incredibly relevant to the work that we do as an agency, and it's also quite relevant to, a lot of the challenges and concerns and questions that come up in communities, about, about recycling. If implemented effectively, s p 54 has the potential to really advance significant progress on many of the challenges that we talk about a lot. So I'll give you a few examples. Raise your hand if you've ever been concerned or you've ever

been

confused about where to put a given material, whether it's recyclable or whether it should go in the landfill bin or maybe the organics bin. Have you ever had that challenge? Pretty common challenge. And and perhaps you've heard some of that confusion from your sometimes as well, concerns about what goes in the recycling bin or maybe even beyond what goes in it. If I put something in the recycling bin, what happens to it then? Is it actually getting recycled? Is it being shipped off to somewhere else in the world and not being recycled? So that confusion and that challenge has persisted for for many, many decades. And I think consumers, community members wanna do the right thing. Right?

We wanna be able to recycle effectively. We wanna know what to do with the packaging and the materials that we consume, and we wanna kind of take make the responsible choice at the end of those materials life. And at the root of that challenge or that confusion that many people experience is that the volume and the complexity of the packaging that we deal with, that we get at the store, it's really increased over time. Like, the volume of plastic. You've all seen it with your own eyes.

How much more plastic there is now even from five or ten or fifteen or twenty or twenty years ago. And the recycling system that we have is straining to keep up with that increasing volume and increased complexity of all of this packaging and the foodware that we that we consume. The system is strained. It's imperfect, and it's trying to get better. And I feel like that's kinda like me.

I'm strained, and I'm imperfect, and I'm trying to get better. Right? So we as jurisdiction and we as communities, we've continuously invested in a system to collect those materials and sort them at the material recovery facility and get them recycled, but it's hard to keep up. And we make those investments as jurisdictions using ratepayer funds. The ratepayers that have the bins that you were just talking about, the ratepayers pay for the increases in in in cost to that system as that system has to expand and can and consistently try and keep up with this complexity and volume of materials.

And beyond that, the recyclable the materials that we put into the recycling bin really, the way to think about a recyclable, it's just feedstock for another material. Right? So if there's not demand for those materials that you put in the recycling bin, then they won't be used to produce other materials. There won't be a market for those materials. Right?

Especially when virgin plastic is oftentimes cheaper than recycled con recycled con. So there's a lot of challenges with the recycling system. And now comes s b 54. And the reason I spent some time talking about those challenges because s b 54 is designed, if implemented effectively, to address some of those challenges that you all experience personally and that many of our community members, our neighbors, and the businesses in our communities experience every as well. So the law is designed to, as you said, to reduce the volume of plastic packaging and foodware that's entering our communities And also to ensure that that packaging and foodware is recyclable and that much of it actually gets recycled, that there are actually markets to purchase those materials and then recycle them recycle them and turn them into new materials.

And the kicker about this law is that it's not rate payers. It's not us as consumers that have to pay for the implementation of the law. It's the producers of the packaging that have to pay for the requirements to be implemented in this law. And like Stephanie said, not only pay to implement the law, but also pay some additional funds to create a mitigation fund to clean up a lot of the plastic pollution that already exists, especially in disadvantaged in disadvantaged communities. So that's why it's called an extended producer responsibility law because it's the producers that have to pay for its implementation.

So Michelle, on on my team, my colleague Michelle, has a lot of expertise in the ins and outs of the law and how it's gonna work. So I'm gonna turn it over to Michelle to to go over the details, and then collectively, we can help answer answer questions. Over to you.

Okay. Thank you, Timothy, and thank you, Stephanie, for kicking us off. I'm sold. You do really good job selling. So it's great to be here tonight.

And what my goal is is to provide more detail for you all so you have a better understanding of the mechanics of how this is all going to happen. So so far, you've heard some of the exciting things that s p 54 sets out to do. One more of those things to add to the list is the law establishes criteria for what they call responsible end markets. So in order for a material to be considered recycled, the end the responsible end market is defined as markets where recycling is done in a way that benefits the environment and minimizes risks to public health and worker health and safety. These end market entities also have to be compliant with all permits, licenses, regulations, and they also have to be transparent.

So that means that there will be a chain of custody that is established for all the materials that get put into our recycling bins that track where they go. And that at each step along the way, these intermediate supply chain entities, as the law calls them, will have to be willing to be inspected. So as you know, working for the city, how this is a really big gap in our understanding about where materials are going. So responsible end markets will help to fill that gap in our understanding. So I'm gonna actually take one step back a little bit just to make sure we're clear on what materials are covered by SB 54.

So the law is broadly focused on two categories of materials. Next slide, please. The on the left side of the screen, you see packaging. So that's one category covered by the law, single use packaging. And then on the right side of the screen, you see single use foodware.

So taking a moment just to look at the left side, the law covers all forms of packaging. That includes primary packaging, secondary packaging, as well as tertiary or transport packaging. So in the example you see on the screen, the Cheerios. That plastic bag that's inside the cardboard box, that's considered primary packaging. That's the first piece or the first layer that touches a product or food.

And the second layer is called secondary packaging. That's the cardboard box, which in the case of General Mills, they've decided they needed that extra layer of protection to prevent Cheerios from crushing. So not all packaging has secondary or not all products have secondary packaging. The law also covers tertiary packaging. So that would be the cardboard box that all that is a case of Cheerios.

It includes the palette that those cases sit on, and it also includes that flexible plastic wrap that holds all of that together. So that's the single use packaging side of the law. The right side of the screen explains that it also covers foodware. So any utensils or paper plates or Starbucks cups, anything that's used to serve or consume food, that's also covered by SB 54. Next slide.

So you might be wondering, how much is that? So we recently or how much, you know, waste does that add up to be? So we recently conducted a waste characterization study in Alameda County, and we did our best to go through the categories to assign what categories match up with s b 54, foodware, and packaging. And our rough estimate is that 20% of our entire waste stream is comprised of materials that are covered by s b fifty four. To give a sense of scale and perspective, there's really only two other larger groups of materials in our waste stream in Alameda County.

The first is compostable organics, like food scraps, plant debris. That makes up about half of what we send to landfills. And the second largest component of our waste stream is what we categorize as other, which really just means it's trash or there's no other place to put that material now. So point is that SB 54 really does capture a very large portion of our waste stream. Again, a reason why we're excited about what this law has the potential to do.

Next slide. Okay. So we're gonna be on this slide for a minute, so I hope you're settled questions that come in are related to. What is recyclable? What is compostable?

So as we mentioned earlier, the law requires that all packaging and foodware must be recyclable or it has to be compostable. And the law establishes that CalRecycle must publish a statewide list of materials that meet certain criteria, and that list will be updated annually. So this slide, what you see here now, represents the list that was just published January 1. A little bit of background. For a material to be considered recyclable, at least 60% of the state's population must have access to recycling that material, and 60% of MRFs that sort that material must do or must sort that material into designated bales for recycling.

So those are the two criteria. It's actually another law that sets that criteria, SB three forty three. That's what played into what materials you see here on the left side of the screen as to what's recyclable. There are 94 covered material categories under s b 54. 45 meet their criteria to be considered recyclable, And that's what you see.

It's essentially rigid plastics, one, two, and five, as well as glass jars, aluminum foil, steel, and tin cans, paper, and cardboard. Just for a little background too, number one, plastics are usually, you know, water bottles, soda bottles. Number two is things like milk jugs, detergent containers. Vibes are usually what we call tubs, like a cottage cheese container. Even if a one, two, or five is a thermoform, so think of, like, a big lettuce box or a berry clamshell, Those did make this initial list, made the cut as being considered recyclable.

For materials to qualify as compostable, so looking now at the right side of the screen, it must meet ASTM standard specifications that determine or that specify what meets the criteria, which essentially is cannot contain PFAS, the harmful forever chemicals that I'm sure you've all heard of. And it also has to be accepted in feedstocks that are used to produce compost for organic agriculture. So using those filters, what you see on the right side are the materials for the packaging and foodware items that are currently considered compostable. So it's wax cardboard, wood utensils, paper, and fiber as long as it's not coated with plastic and it doesn't contain PFAS. Now looking at the bottom of the screen, you can see what did not make the list.

Plastic utensils, straws, flexible film plastics are not recyclable. What we call poly coated paper, so foodware like paper cups or paper plates with that thin layer of plastic, those did not make the list. They're not recyclable, and they're not compostable. Aseptic cartons, like shelf stable milk or soup, as well as gable top milk cartons or ice cream cartons did not make the list appear. Last but not least, compostable plastics. Not compostable. Important to say. That was a lot to take in. Yeah. We good?

Okay. So the law places one very specific requirement on local jurisdictions, and that's what's on this slide. We must collect all covered materials that are deemed to be recyclable or compostable, what was on that last slide. And that requirement goes into effect when CalRecycle approves the producer responsibility organization or PRO plan and budget, and CalRecycle has to approve that plan by January 2027. It'd be a lot easier if there was just a deadline for when we had to accept the material, but instead, it's tied to when the PRO plan gets approved.

We'll talk more in a minute about what the PRO is. So I'll just maybe pause right there. Oh, well, I will tell you one one thing. So the PRO for California as well as Colorado, Oregon, Maine, Minnesota, Maryland, I think that's all of them, has been selected as a nonprofit called Circular Action Alliance. And, essentially, it's their job to ensure that all the producers that have to meet all the goals of the law do so.

They essentially act on all the producers' behalf. And that's the part I'll tell you a little bit more about in just a moment. Next slide. So I wanted to just pause and take a moment to make sure a few things about the list are super clear because I know sometimes the implications can be confusing. So the first thing to be clear on is that even let's see.

Even if a material can't be or isn't considered recyclable, that means that it actually can't be labeled as recyclable either, and it can't be labeled compostable either. And those rules go into effect next year. So January 1, compostable materials can't be called compostable unless they're on that right side of the screen on the other slide. And then October of next year, materials cannot be labeled with that chasing arrow symbol or called recyclable if they're not on the left side of that prior screen. But this is a part where it gets a little tricky.

They can still exist. So just because they can't be labeled doesn't mean we won't still see them in our carts or see them in our shelves. It's just that the producers of those materials will need to stop selling them or stop using them by 2032. So there's gonna be this kind of in between time where we still see some of these things, but they're not labeled as such, and it might still be a little confusing along the way. And that leads me to the next bullet here.

The list is going to be changing over time. The idea is that innovative new materials are going to on ramp. They're gonna want we're gonna wanna see new things added to what's recyclable or added to what's compostable. One example we recently learned about from one of Timothy's board members who's a packaging manufacturer is they have packaging they're making out of shrimp shells, and they have packaging they're making out of algae. And so the law sets a pathway for these materials to comply with certain criteria to see if they truly are compostable.

So we might see some new innovative things get added to the list over time. On the flip side, though, we might see that some materials get removed from the list. We talked in the beginning about responsible end markets. So once producers start reporting on where their materials are going, it might be that those materials are not going to responsible end market. So some things might fall off the list.

Or we mentioned kind of some rates and dates they have to meet at 30% recycling rate by 2028. If they don't meet that goal for certain materials, those fall off the list. So this is a changing dynamic iterative list, and that leads me to the last point here, which is I don't know. Don't quote me on this. Although, I guess it's a public this is public record now.

But okay.

Quote me on it. I think that public messaging is likely going to be focused more on look at the label because what gets the label is going to change from time to time. The label is what we should be able to start to trust again. So that's, I think, one of the big takeaways and what this is going to mean for our work.

Alright. Next slide, please. Can we see if we have any questions?

Oh, yeah. Totally. We

have questions at the moment. Any questions?

Yeah. Can we go back to the slide with the all of the products that are Yeah. In and out? So I guess it's two. Right? At what point? Yeah. Yeah. So it's interesting on the coffee cup because I always thought the lid could be recycled because it has the recycle symbol on it, and then you throw away the cup that's potentially plastic lined. Right? So now they're just saying, no more coffee cups because even the lid is not recyclable.

That's actually a really good point. So that lid, you can't tell, but that's a number six. Okay. So That lid that lid's on the no side. Right? But if the lid was a one Oh, okay. Or five Okay. Then the lid could be recyclable. That's a good example of a thermoformed plastic that did make the cut as being recyclable. Okay. And then, you know, like,

things like a single use salad. Right? You have the clam or the bowl that's essentially recycled with the film. Right? It's not. And so you're so worried about, like, the confusion or, a pizza box. I remember my parents would rip the lid off, put that in recycling, and then put the pizza part in the composting. Right? So I think you're right. Kids like this sort of confusion. But on the compostable stuff, so, like so the compostable plastic that's supposed to be combustible, that falls off list. But it's not it's not that the manufacturers are banned from producing this anymore. Right? It's just trash now instead of recycling. Right? Okay. Because I I, like, I love s v, you know, if it's four zero four, it's going after the producers. I think that's the only way to do it. Because if I go get my coffee, I will take my coffee whenever you wanna start being with that coffee. Right?

So, like and then I'll try to recycle it. But if you start being a compostable cut, right, I'll take a compostable cut. So, like, with with some of this stuff, until it's banned, right, like, it's just gonna keep you in the landfill. I guess it's I'm wondering about the sort of

headway there. Yeah. No. That's a really great point. So you're absolutely correct in that they can continue to produce those materials and use those materials up until 2032. Okay. And they're incentivized through something called eco modulated feeds through the law to not produce materials that are in the no side of the

So it's making it out of everybody.

It's making it more expensive for them to use materials that aren't on the yes side of the slide. Does that make sense?

Yeah. And I guess it's hard because if you're a, like, a, you know, styrofoam producer and you're in Texas, right, and that's not banned or wherever it isn't banned, then I can see why it's you know, you can't ban it there. Right? Other people are gonna use it. But if they ship into California, that's what we're gonna try to ding up. Is that right?

Yeah. And, actually, we've talked to many packaging producers and people that represent the, you know, various industries. And because of the scale of the market in California, it's actually affecting packaging throughout the entire country and even beyond. So any industry that wants to shift into California, Amazon, and all of its companies that associates And packaging producers are already even before the regulations are done, we're hearing that packaging producers are are already innovating and finding new ways of creating packaging that will ultimately could be considered recyclable or compostable. Packaging producers want their material on

that list. Okay. Okay.

So materials on that list. So they're starting there's a big lead time to change packaging. I've learned a lot about how difficult it is to reengineer packaging over over time. There's a big lead time. And even when Chesapeake fifty four was, you know, just when it became law, you are just started to see a lot of conversations around innovative packaging so that they could continue to distribute within California. So it has a nationwide impact.

Yeah. Heard much someone said mushrooms to these mushrooms to the packaging. Yeah. That that's great to hear. And I noticed Starbucks is already going they're now moving to these compostable cups. But interesting that here we get they're in Castro Valley and in Union City, and they were stores are still selling Interesting. Plastic as far as at least as of a few days ago. Thank you. That's interesting.

Good questions. I have two. The plastic wrapper that goes around the pallets, them recyclable, compostable, no? That's garbage.

It's garbage as of now. So

Hopefully, we can get rid of it. And

Exactly. Well, the producers will have to get rid of it by twenty thirty two K. Or find a way to get it recycled.

And they also use it at airports.

Yeah.

Backluggage and things. Yeah. So there's

a reusable alternatives to that packaging value. They're trying to make a pitch for one of the programs that Michelle leads, which is a a small grant program to Uh-huh. Producers to use reusable pallet wrap and reusable pallets instead of the single use.

And I see the symbol for recycling and the at are the circular arrows. What is the symbol universal symbol for a compostable product?

There is not a label yet.

Oh, there's not? No.

Okay. So this cup is supposed to be compostable, and there's this kinda like a crooked pine tree. Alright. So I wonder if that's something. Yeah.

It has potential.

Yeah.

But that's a good example. I don't know what that comp is lined with, but very likely starting January, that comp manufacturer can't put that pine tree and call it compostable.

They can still produce it, but they can't label it as compostable any better. And then as Tony told you too, they can't even produce it in history. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, it's just coffee talk now, compost a bottle later. Okay. You can do

a question. I'll I'll ask a couple of questions. So still get confused about this compostable forks and spoons and things. So I see some that look like they're actually made out of bamboo, and I'm assuming that those are compostable as well as chopsticks that are made and that sort of thing. But then there's these others. I'm not really sure what they're made out of. They look like they're manufacturers intending to make them look like they're compostable, and they're marked compostable. I don't think they are. Can you tell me a little bit about that? Dan,

so those materials are are what's called compostable plastic, and they're it's a it's it's legal for them to be labeled compostable as of right now. But what happens in reality, even right now, is that those materials either don't break down in a compost facility, a commercial compost facility, or they don't break down at a rate that's fast enough so that they don't compost at the same rate as, like, food scraps or yard waste. So what compost facilities are doing right now is they're pulling all of that compostable plastic out, whether it's compostable plastic forks or knives or cups or bags. They're pulling them out and and essentially pulling them out and sending them to the land to to the landfill instead. So compost facilities, even now, are not actually accepting those those materials.

And so over time, state law has evolved, and there's a law called AB 12 o one that requires that as of next year, unless certain criteria met, those materials are no longer even to be able to be labeled as compostable. So the same compostable fork that kinda looks like plastic, but it's also said it's compostable, That won't be able to be sent labeled compostable anymore as of next as of next year. And then by 2032, it can't even be distributed in California. So unless there's some

way to actually You know, make make them compostable. Unless it gets on

the list of what of what the state deems as as as compostable in the state of California.

That would be determined by the MRFs being able to do something with it that actually makes it compostable. Right?

More or less, yes. The the criteria in the law are the main criteria that is stopping these materials from being labeled compostable is that, any material to be deemed compostable has to be able to be used for the creation of organic compost. And as of right now, whether a material can be used in that way is determined actually by the USDA, the federal USDA. And the USDA has strict limitations on what inputs can be used to create organic compost, and compostable plastics are not on that on that list. So if the USDA says, actually, you can accept those materials, that will be a significant win for compostable plastic manufacturers.

Right. Yeah. There's there's something inherent about the words plastic and compostable and

Right.

Food scrap that seems incompatible for me. So I'm glad to hear that the rules and regulations around that. Thank you. Good. And you had

the one

Just one quick one about, you know, you know, we banned single use plastic bags, but, know, like, Target has made them thicker. Right? So we're all using the same plastic bags the same way. So where are we on those? So yeah.

Yeah. Yes. So really good question and actually a really timely question because there and you mentioned this in your in your intro, but there's a state a state law that was passed last cycle that addresses what kind of many people refer to as a loophole, which you just mentioned. So we we banned first in Alameda County and then at the state level, those sort of thin flimsy plastic checkout bags at at basically any grocery store, market, Target, any place like that that sells food and pharmacies. Over time, what those restaurants shifted to was those thicker plastic bags, which are defined within the law as reusable.

So that was allowed under state law and local ordinance. But what happened was it just means that even more plastic was being produced and used. So now a recent state law changed to eliminate the distribution of those thicker plastic values. Good. At grocery stores, at places like Target. And so we're amending our local ordinance so that we can help implement that requirement in Alameda County. So you'll start to see those you'll start to see a lot fewer of those in the coming

Okay. Coming. Yeah.

Yeah. It's a. And then the last one is the compostable produce bags in the grocery stores. I said those are not actually who both is that? Those

are not currently accepted at Okay. The vast majority of compost facilities in the state of Okay. California. Yeah. There's a separate law that addresses those produce those produce bags. It's not addressed in s p 54.

We have

a simple law that addresses those bags. But as of right now, those can still be distributed. Okay. Yeah.

But that's a good example of a material that, again, starting next January, won't be able to be called compostable.

Okay. Right. Michelle, we have a youth commission that will meet here at 06:30, so we need to be out of here at 06:15. Okay. So go ahead. Talk a mile or a mile or anything.

Okay. Alright. Cool.

Good to have a deadline.

Yes. Exactly. So I'm sure you're all wondering who's considered a producer. Let's see. Maybe back one slide.

There we go. The law defines an obligated producer as the brand owner, the licensee, or a first importer of covered material into the state. It also exempts small producers, those that have less than $1,000,000 in annual sales in the state. And for practicality reasons, by design, the definition of producer is a little bit loose. So, essentially, it's the first person in the state that CalRecycle can regulate is often what it comes down to.

But in general, the law does attempt to apply responsibility to the entity that has decision making capability. So those that are deciding what packaging to use. For example, General Mills chooses what material to put their cereal in. So they're the obligated producer, not the manufacturer of the box or the maker of that plastic lining as we might traditionally think of a packaging producer to be. It's who's making the decision.

Okay. Next slide. I'll just quickly mention because we touched on this earlier. Circular Action Alliance is the selected producer responsibility organization that will be implementing this on behalf of producers. And for any regulated producer, the first step for them is they have to register with CAA online, and this is a screenshot of what their registration page looks like.

Once the producer registers, the PRO will then do things like help inform them about what they need to do to comply. They will collect and report their producer data, and then CAA will collect the fees from every producer to fund the law's implementation. The good news is we're not the first ones to be going on this. Colorado and Oregon are ahead of our schedule right now. And in fact, there was a really important deadline, March 31, so just a month and a half ago.

All producers in the state of Oregon had to report their data on how many pieces of packaging they sold in the state of Oregon. And really quickly, CAA is gonna turn around and tell them what their obligated fees are for the first implementation year. So by the time SB 54 implementation rolls around to that level, many most producers will have already been used to reporting under CAA's system. Let's see. Next slide.

And oh, good. This is where we get to our show and tell portion of this evening. Jeff, would you mind passing these around? So you have on the screen a few items, but you'll also get to feel them in real life right now. And so I'll just kinda walk through what you're seeing. So we have three examples of where producers, like Timothy was mentioning, we're seeing they're already making changes to the way they package their products. So in the first photo or in your samples there, you can see a shipment that I received. This is the far left left photo. This was a shipment. I was doing some Christmas shopping, so this is from December.

And in one box from J. Crew, I could see the evolution of packaging. I could see the socks that were still coming in a film plastic bag, and then I got a headband and necklace for my daughters. And those were in a piece of paper or a little paper package. And, Lindsay, it says here and you have it in front of me, but it says buy single use plastic.

We choose paper. This bag is made of sustainably sourced materials, and it's recyclable. So my guess is that they are in the process of transitioning their whole product line to be the recyclable paper. And I was actually at a conference a week or so ago with packaging producers, and they confirmed that actually the maker of that paper was there. And he said, yeah. We're working with entire brand owners like J. Grew to get rid of all plastic packaging.

And so it's too like you can do there. Excellent.

The photo in the center is a pair of shoe insoles that came on a cardboard sleeve. That one says, we believe in reducing our environmental footprint wherever possible, no matter how small, which is why we've replaced our footprint plastic bags with a 100% recyclable cardboard. They might be claiming it's for environmental reasons. I would venture to guess that's something to do with new EPR laws. The image on the far right is a package from a recessed ceiling light that we recently replaced with an LED light.

In that box, there was not a single piece of plastic. So the the hole was cradled in a in a cardboard cradle,

and

then all the screws and hardware pieces came in these paper sachets. All of that would have been probably would have been in, like, a clamshell plastic clamshell or Styrofoam, and those sachets would have been film plastic as well. So to Timothy's point earlier, we really are already starting to see shifts in the way things are packaged. And then let's see. Next slide here.

Also, as Timothy mentioned, producers are gonna have to re invest in reuse and refill options. It's been a little while, but one of the early slides talked about source reduction of plastic. It's not enough to just use recyclable plastic and make or recycle materials and make sure it gets recycled. They also have to source for these by 25%. And so they're gonna do that by investing in things like what you see on the left of the screen, which is a reusable pallet wrap instead of the disposable film plastic pallet wraps. And we also are hopeful they will be investing in things like customer facing reusable cups or takeout containers or trays like we see at many of our schools.

We we were given the clear plastic doggy bags yes yesterday at the the restaurant to Mexico.

Oh, no.

So I've seen those.

Oh, like a

The clear plastic? Container. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. I was impressed.

Great. Alright. So my last slide, and before I turn it to Stephanie, there's a lot information on this slide, but there this is essentially the timeline of when this is all going to be happening. And I'll just point out a view of the key takeaways. As we mentioned, the rule making has been delayed, we'll so likely see adoption of the regulations later this year or early twenty twenty six.

And, really, things just start to ramp up in 2026. That's when the PRO will have to submit their plan and budget to the advisory board, which Timothy sits on. And that's also when producers will start to pay fees into the system. And in 2027 is when we'll start to see money flow from producers for the first time to local jurisdictions, service providers, and to fund that $5,000,000,000 mitigation fund Sure. And all the implementation that needs to happen for this law to be successful. Excellent. So I know that was a lot of information. I know, Stephanie, you have just a couple more things to wrap us up. Thank you.

Well, first off, thank you, Michelle. Thank you, Timothy. As Michelle has mentioned, the only requirement SB 54 has for jurisdiction is to accept all materials listed in the covered materials category list. However, there are still some concerns and unknowns to the bill. Since the covered materials category is updated annually, we are still not sure what the extent of compliance looks like for a local jurisdiction.

For example, aside from accepting the covered materials, we don't know whether local jurisdiction needs to update all average materials, including the signage of the waste containers or would an email notification to all customers be sufficient. There are also concerns regarding the potential fines of up to $50,000 per day for a violation for noncompliance. This is concerning for local jurisdiction that may not have the immediate technology to accept all materials on the annually on the annually updated covered materials category list. Currently, the city of Keywords franchise agreement with waste management requires waste management to accept all listed items listed on the covered materials category list. Unless significant changes are required, city staff does not expect updates to be needed for the average materials and signage.

One final concern is the prior draft of the regulations were unclear on how the PRO will reimburse local jurisdiction. And ways hauling companies for the outreach, education, collection, and innovations required to support producers as they meet their performance of s v 54. We will be looking at the next version of the draft regulations to provide additional clarity on what costs are to be covered by the PRO, as well as how and when those payments will be made. For our next steps, we will continue to work with stopways to stay informed and support stopways and their participation in the rulemaking process. Once the regulations are adopted, staff will staff will collaborate with and waste management to ensure compliance with SB 54.

Staff recommends that the committee exiles public comments and reviews and comments on this report. Thank you.

It's not an action item, so we don't need any don't need any motions, but public comments?

You make a

Remain a gentleman. Yes, sir. Thank

you for that. Very informative. I think the only the only thing, you know, I I think from the MRF perspective is, you know, with with items that are, you know, gonna be accepted is our ability to to store them, you know, because some items we get in lesser amounts and we have a very small MRF. So it it it takes a lot of time to to gather up enough material to actually make a truckload and and and things like that. So those are the, you know, the the those are not insurmountable problems, but they're definitely things that we're gonna look at. You know? But we're absolutely excited about s v 54. I think it's gonna make our lives so much easier as we move forward, and we'll we're, you know, ready to accept any challenges that do come up with the process.

Excellent. Thank you very much.

Jason, what's a MRF?

I I need to say

recovery facility.

Okay. Thank

you. So everything that's collected here in Hayward and the recycling trucks comes over to our facility. Okay. And one thing that I do wanna say if I can let

her know who you are too, by the way.

Jason I'm with TriSed, CEO of TriSed. And I I think another really exciting thing that the city of Hayward should know about is that we're we're putting a $6,000,000 investment into our MRF where we'll be able to capture, hopefully, like like, 95% of the recyclable material, you know, and and we'll truly be a a good partner, and we'll we'll be meeting all of our our our goals as listed in the franchise agreement. So I I we're starting July 7. That's when we're starting that. It's gonna take about six weeks to do the entire facility, and I would invite everybody to come take a look when we're done.

I appreciate everybody to visit this plant. Very, very do a very good job.

No.

No. No. No.

Okay. Alright. Matt?

You know, the state in terms of

Yeah.

The organics reduction and recycling ordinance, for example, from 2012, and then, you know, the state ten years later, passing the s b thirteen eighty three, and then to see that tradition continue. And then Hayward being such an instrumental part of the leadership in Alameda County. It's really, inspiring to see. One thing I just wanted to comment on as well is that, I think it's this conversation. Every time I talk about recycling and waste with our different constituents and so forth, it always goes back to what are you purchasing.

Right? And especially with the complexity of all the different package materials, you know, that have come along. And so one of the things we're doing in terms of procurement and and purchasing and so forth is to try to establish and this we're supposed to be doing for all of California community colleges, establish our bench line this year. And some organizations like Office Depot, who we have contracts with for our office supplies, our purchasing manager actually asked for a custom report for Chabot College, Las Positas College, our district office. And according to their various they have, like, 30 different sustainability kind of rating categories, each with their own symbol, but some of them are ones that are familiar to, all of us.

You can actually get a report of, like, light green, mid green, and dark green in terms of your purchasing and which department and which person, you know, purchased these and which season and all these different metrics. And I'm gonna ask for that from Amazon as well. And the more we start looking and what we're trying to do is, okay. See, Le Chabot College was, like, 39% green purchasing. It was, like, 41%. It allows us to set those benchmarks and then to set goals. Maybe next year, we shoot for 50% or more. And I would just maybe perhaps think

about

it as as something that we could also be implementing in our analysis in our presentations is about encouraging folks to benchmark their procurement and then to set goals. And then the other thing biggest thing to me too about the s p 54 was the accountability through reporting and tracking and and and because I've learned that if you're not tracking and reporting on your waste, you have absolutely no idea what's really happening because, unfortunately, there's so much dishonesty in the waste management field that it it's been our biggest challenge is what's been going on. And so thank you very much for

your presentation already. If if you have any questions, they need to be fast and short.

Oh, can I go?

Go ahead.

I guess I wanted to ask, you know, about so the producers are gonna pay fees, right, if they wanna be labeled, you know, recycled. But, like, where how are are they going to accommodate for, like, bad actors that are like, ask. Good. That's too expensive and too difficult. I'm just gonna be producing Sorry if I'm hoping I don't get caught because that fee or that, you know, might be easier to, you know, deal with than right. It's gonna rely on some sort of enforcement, and that's gonna be difficult.

Right. There's two two things, and then Michelle may may add may add on to this as well. One is that producers as a community have an interest in all of the producers participating in this Yeah. In this program for there to be a level playing field. So the requirement is clear what, you know, what rates have to be achieved in terms of reducing the amount of plastics and achieving recyclability and compostability.

And this organization, Circular Action Alliance, is established, and their whole role is to sort of herd all of those cats, those producers of packaging and ensure that they're paying fees. And if all the producers aren't participating, it's gonna be more difficult for the producer population to achieve the goals in the state law. So there is an incentive baked into the law for the producers to sort of police themselves. So that's one thing that could help with the concern that you're raising. It's still gonna be difficult, though.

The other is that Cavey Cycle does have enforcement authority and can issue fines, significant fines and citations on any producers that are complying with their law. I think it's that same fine amount, that $50,000 per violation per day for any producer that's in violation. So there's an enforcement element, and there's sort of a self enforcement incentive that's embedded in the in the law.

Great. And then and then to Stephanie's point, Stephanie, you know, so there's nothing we need to do locally right now to sort of help with this enforcement or get ready to get, you know, local businesses ready. Like, you're not recommending any changes to our local ordinances in order to help us comply with this.

Correct. Right now, waste management is supposed to accept all the materials in the, covered materials memorialist. It's actually in the contract, and maybe Jeff could talk a little bit more about it as well. So right now, we don't foresee any issues accepting all of the materials as required by SB 54. Okay.

Thank you, and thank you all for the presentation. This was really informative and detailed, and I appreciate it. Thank you.

Questions? Oh, nope. Just wanted to say very good staff report. Really appreciate it. These conversations are always a light thing, and I appreciate it.

Just one comment, or a request. Tim, can you let us know a little bit about your advisory role at the state or s p 54? Yes. Thank you

for asking. So, the state law s p 54 established a an advisory board at the state level that represents a range of entities that are involved in implementing the law. So I I represent local local governments. I was appointed by a power cycle to represent local government, and I chair the advisory board. There are producer packaging producers on the on the board.

There's representatives from environmental justice and and disadvantaged communities. Compost composters, recyclers are there's about 16 there are 16 advisory board members. And our job is to provide input on the regulatory process, to review the plan that Michelle mentioned that the producer responsibility organization has to submit for how the law is gonna be implemented in their in their budget, and also to provide input on what's called a needs assessment, which is the study that CalRecycle is doing that is gonna provide a road map for how the recycling system and the composting system can be updated to achieve the goals of the law. So I help I sit on the advisory board, and I oversee oversee the board in coordination with colleagues from across the state. And my main purpose of doing that is to represent local government interests like the city of like the city of Hayward.

Thank you. Yeah. And Eric, Stephanie, Tim, and Michelle, thank you very much for the presentation. Very thorough. Very, very good. Okay. Look at the innovation. We we all learned a lot. Alright. Well, it's good. I've I and I'd like to ask if we have it online. No. Nothing? Okay. No chance. No. Yes. We're going to now propose agenda planning on ACT twenty five zero three one. This is the proposed 2025 agenda planning calendar review and comment.

Okay. Looking at the. Oh, yeah.

So so, yeah, the the report includes some suggested agenda items for upcoming meetings, but we've also included a proposed change to the committee's meeting schedule. Okay. So this is partially due to some of the recess conflicting with our normal July meeting. So, we're recommending that we, transition to a quarterly schedule. So what it would mean that our next meetings would be, September and November for this year and then March, June, September, for

2026. Okay. Four meetings per year. That's fine. Is there

a reason why you picked December? It's kind of a tough month for adding meetings. September?

I think he's right. He's not gonna do it. There's just gonna be a September, November one. Is that right, Eric?

Well, for this year. But, yeah, for 2026, yes, we proposed I guess the thing is that if we did Oh, you're ready. So Yeah. So if we did if we started it the cycle in in February, say, instead of

March,

then we would be including August, which is,

you know,

can be part of the summer recess sometimes. So and if we started in January, it would include July. Yeah. So Oh. And so if we can we know at least we are we are normally on the, the earlier side of the month, so it won't be it won't be late December. Okay.

Alright. I think we should I think we should be good. We'll we'll make it work.

We're not The day before my birthday.

Yeah. Day before my birthday.

We're not going to worry about the the, judicial commissioner's, meeting or meeting this room at 06:30?

No. You know, I think we're we're making it work now. So Okay. We'll we'll continue to coordinate with

them. Okay. Alright.

Alright. Because they'll presumably be longer meetings.

So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Probably not. Okay. Is that it? Okay. Alec, you're do anything today?

No? I was just gonna tell you that, you know, we talk about a lot of, solar implementation by companies, by entities, by Shingwauk College, the city. There's a lot of activities going on by private property owners, targeted homeowners in the city. I checked on a regular basis. Last April, for instance, we had 468 kilowatt of solar installation by private entities that come to the city and get a permit and do their installation.

So

that's equivalent to a cloud and 100 single family home. Excellent. Over the course of the year, that that would be, like, 1,200 single family homes that do this. They are not all single family, but the equivalent is that. So I just wanted you to know.

That's excellent. Thank you. And let's work on South Plant Mall. Yes. Yes. They need they need the True.

Don't have any solar.

Yeah. So surprising. Okay. We're now over committee members, staff announcements, and referrals. Nothing for me. Nothing for me. Staff announcements, referrals? Nothing? Next week is bike to wherever day. Mhmm.

Bike to Bike to wherever. Oh, yeah.

The whole week,

or is there a day?

It's Thursday, the

Okay. That was really great. Thank you for everyone who participated in health on that one. That was a really cool day. Got to go out and pick up some trash. I had a really nice lunch, and there was some great booths there with lots of information. So I think you guys were there. We spent interest there. Yeah. So thank you. I

I did get I did get Barry the announcements of the street parties, and I'm hoping that the the green team is there representing and and getting more folks out there. So very, very good. Okay. So Tim and Michelle are not eligible for this, but wife and I went over to Oaxaca. And being green, this is the one of the gods of the cactus, and we are the sons of the cactus. It's a bookmarker. Very nice. Special one of a kind. It's gonna go to the person who can tell us in what year stop waste banned single use plastic bags.

I have no idea.

Was his 2013. 2013.

Thank

you. And we'll read books. Absolutely. Oaxaca, the state of Oaxaca in Mexico is very, very green. Besides producing mezcal, they do a lot of coffee. So that's a good place for Mhmm. Wanting to be green and to be green. And with that, the Armenian sitting at 06:08 Monday Monday afternoon. Time for the time for the check. Drive carefully, please.