City of Laguna Niguel*

The majority of Orange County jurisdictions have not yet required their haulers to distribute residential containers that meet the CalRecycle standardized colors, leaving legacy and often incorrect or illegible labeling and embossing in place. Response: Disagree partially with the finding. The City of Laguna Niguel, in collaboration with the City's franchise waste hauler, has exchanged all residential containers to meet CalRecycle's standardized color requirements established by SB 1383. While many cities may still need to distribute residential containers that meet CalRecycle's standardized color requirements, cities have until January 1, 2036, to fulfill that requirement and are having to prioritize the multiple requirements of implementing organic waste recycling.

While a jurisdiction may not delegate its overall responsibility for compliance with State requirements to a hauler, some jurisdictions have designated the task of imposing and collecting fines from residents to the hauler in accordance with State law. However, not all jurisdictions are clear on who ultimately receives and retains the collected fines. Response: Disagree wholly with this finding. The City of Laguna Niguel has not delegated the responsibility of imposing and collecting fines from residents to a hauler, nor is the City aware of any Orange County jurisdiction delegating enforcement responsibilities. The City's franchise waste hauler performs contamination monitoring and verifies program compliance. When enforcement is necessary, including imposing and collecting fines, the franchise waste hauler refers those cases to the City for enforcement. The City's Code Compliance personnel would then investigate the matter and issue a Notice of Violation to correct the compliance issue before any citation is issued by the City.

All jurisdictions will eventually start collecting fines from residents for noncompliance, but some have not yet determined whether the revenues will go into a waste and recycling enterprise fund or into the jurisdiction's general fund. Response: Disagree partially with the finding. The City of Laguna Niguel is unaware of other cities' non-compliance procedures, or if their fine revenue will be allocated to a recycling enterprise fund or the general fund. The City of Laguna Niguel is committed to implementing all SB 1383 requirements through outreach and education and utilizes enforcement actions only when necessary. The City utilizes a specified general fund account for recycling program revenues to track any fines collected for non-compliance with SB 1383.

In most jurisdictions, education and outreach is a joint effort between jurisdiction, hauler, and sometimes consultants, with the jurisdiction reviewing the materials before publication. The methods of dissemination vary by jurisdiction and hauler but frequently rely on a resident actively seeking the information, which requires the resident to have some awareness of the new mandates in the first place. Most efforts primarily revolve around intermittent hard-copy paper mailings. Response: Disagree partially with the finding. The City of Laguna Niguel utilizes a variety of approaches, including social media, direct print mailers, community booths, e- newsletters, and the City website to conduct education and outreach. The City actively communicates to its residents the new state requirements set forth by SB 1383 in partnership with the City's franchise waste hauler. The City has also conducted education and outreach activities in partnership with the City's waste hauler at Homeowners Association and Chamber of Commerce events. The City of Laguna Niguel is unaware of the education and outreach efforts of other Orange County Cities.

Most jurisdictions currently have no way to accurately determine the effectiveness of their respective education and outreach efforts other than the eventual inspections or audits that will take place. Response: Disagree partially with the finding. The City of Laguna Niguel's franchise agreement with its franchise waste hauler requires the performance of both in-field contamination audits and twice-yearly waste characterizations of all streams of service. The data gathered by performing in-field contamination audits and waste characterizations allows the City to determine areas where additional education and outreach efforts are needed. The City of Laguna Niguel is unaware of the effectiveness of other Orange County Cities concerning their education and outreach efforts.

There is some concern that there are not enough composting facilities in Orange County to process all organic waste, forcing some jurisdictions/haulers to transport it long distances for processing. Response: Agrees with the finding. The City of Laguna Niguel agrees with this finding. The City's franchise waste hauler transports all of the City's organic waste to Perris, California, for processing into Renewable Natural Gas (Gas).

There is currently no infrastructure in the county that is a State-approved source of Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) and energy from organic waste. Jurisdictions that use vehicles running on RNG procured from non-approved sources cannot count that RNG towards fulfillment of their procurement requirement. Response: Agrees with the finding. The City of Laguna Niguel agrees with this finding. The City obtains its State-approved RNG from its franchise waste hauler's anaerobic digestion facility in Perris, California. The City agrees that jurisdictions that use vehicles running on RNG procured from non-approved sources cannot count that RNG towards fulfillment of their procurement credit.

The formula used by the State to calculate a jurisdiction's procurement target does not account for a jurisdiction's population density or geographic size (square miles). As such, meeting the annual procurement target presents a significant challenge for most jurisdictions. Response: Agrees with the finding. The City of Laguna Niguel agrees with this finding. The current approach creates significant challenges for jurisdictions.

Many Orange County jurisdictions were unable to meet the requirement in SB 1383 to reduce organic waste sent to landfills by the 2020 deadline. It is unlikely the required seventy-five percent reduction will be achieved by the 2025 deadline. Response: Agree with the finding. The City of Laguna Niguel agrees with this finding. The State failed to meet its 2020 deadline of decreasing organic waste in landfills and is on pace to fail to achieve its seventy-five percent reduction by 2025.

The current procurement requirements mandated by SB 1383 are unrealistic and likely unachievable by most jurisdictions. Response: Agrees with the finding. The City of Laguna Niguel agrees with this finding. The City of Laguna Niguel considers its procurement target unrealistic and may require additional assistance from the County/State to meet these needs should the current procurement target methodology remain unchanged.