Orange County Grand Jury
• 2021-2022
• Agency Response
Response to:
City of Rancho Santa Margarita
City of Rancho Santa Margarita*
⚠️ Translation Notice: This content has been automatically translated. The original English text is the official version. Translation may contain errors.
⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
Findings and Recommendations 3 findings
F1
Due to the reduced availability of convenient CRV redemption sites and the lack of accurate online information, it is difficult for resident consumers to redeem CRV fees. Response: Based on the information presented in this report, the City of Rancho Santa Margarita agrees with this finding.
Related Recommendations (1)
R1
By January of 2023, each of the cities in Orange County should research and apply for available grants or pilot programs from CalRecycle for their community that focus on returning more CRV funds to their residents. Response: This recommendation has already been implemented. The City of Rancho Santa Margarita regularly applies for, receives and utilizes CalRecycle's Beverage Container Recycling Grant Program on an annual basis. Additionally, the City regularly reviews and applies for similar grants for which the City is eligible.
F2
Because redemption site locations have diminished in number, waste haulers are the beneficiaries to the CRV fees paid originally by resident consumers. Response: Based on the information presented in this report, the City of Rancho Santa Margarita agrees with this finding.
Related Recommendations (1)
R2
By January of 2023, the Orange County Board of Supervisors should require OC Waste & Recycling to research and apply for available grants or pilot programs from CalRecycle for the unincorporated areas of OC that focus on returning more CRV funds to their residents. Response: The City of Rancho Santa Margarita will not implement this recommendation because both the Agency (OC Waste & Recycling) and the focus areas (unincorporated Orange County) are not within the City's jurisdiction, control or authority.
F3
CalRecycle is attempting to improve CRV redemption and reduce CRV recyclables from landfills and are offering financial incentives to do so. Orange County and its cities are not fully taking advantage of the grant or pilot program opportunities available through CalRecycle. Response: Based on the information presented in this report, the City of Rancho Santa Margarita disagrees partially with this finding. The City of Rancho Santa Margarita regularly seeks out and applies for all CalRecycle programs and grants for which the City is eligible. Council Member City Manager Council Member Council Member Mayor Mayor Pro Tempore Bradley J. McGirr Jennifer M. Cervantez Anne D. Figueroa Jerry Holloway Carol A. Gamble L. Anthony Beall Response to 2021-2022 Orange County Grand Jury Report, "Where Have All the CRVs Gone?" September 15, 2022
Related Recommendations (1)
R3
When renegotiating their current waste hauler contract, all cities and the County of Orange should assess the value of the CRV funds received by the waste hauler in their jurisdiction and creatively leverage this revenue for the benefit of their residents. Response: This recommendation has not yet been implemented, but will be implemented in the future. The City recently entered into a new Franchise Agreement with its waste and recycling hauler for a minimum period of five years; therefore, the soonest that this recommendation can be considered for implementation would be 2027, depending on whether or not the Agreement is extended by operation of its own terms.
* This report's PDF did not contain easily extractable text and required Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for analysis. There may be minor errors in the extracted findings and recommendations due to OCR limitations with scanned documents.