|
By Sheila Kuehl | SPECIAL TO THE OBSERVER
Although most of us only think about trash when we put it
out at the curb or, perhaps, go to a landfill or recycling
center, the fact is that Californians generate more than 93
million tons of solid waste every year.
The California Integrated Waste Management Board is responsible
for overseeing the recycling and safe disposal of all this
material. We are responsible for all the laws and regulations
that encourage Californians to recycle more and throw away
less and we have helped California to exceed its goal of keeping
more than half of all waste out of landfills: last year California
recycled 50 percent of everything thrown away.
The Board makes grants and loans to new green California
businesses, at last count, more than $100,000,000. And, the
Board does this all without a penny of general fund tax dollars.
The Board, pursuant to the original recycling laws, is funded
by fees on trash haulers, landfills, tires, used oil and electronics
(materials that cannot be put in landfills but must be separately
and safely recycled).
The legislation creating the Board and California’s
forward-thinking recycling laws was created because, in 1993,
only 10 percent of California’s trash was being recycled
or reused.
Since then the Board has overseen all activities at landfills
and disposal sites, funded research, monitored the closing
of landfills, and approved regulations relating to the recycling,
reuse, waste-to-energy and safe disposal of a mountain of
trash, including paper, 20 construction and demolition waste,
tires, used oil, electronics, disaster waste, green waste,
recyclables, organic waste, food waste, metals, plastics,
glass and much more.
The Board’s mission also includes protecting health
and safety by regulating, licensing, monitoring and overseeing
all aspects of solid waste activities, including the operation
of landfills, transfer or processing stations, compost facilities
and waste-to-energy facilities.
Another facet of our responsibility concerns the enormous
problem of illegal dumping, which costs local jurisdictions
millions of dollars a year.
By the end of last year, the Boards’ Solid Waste Cleanup
Program had dealt with cleanups at 720 illegal disposal sites,
256 disaster debris sites, and 59 landfill and burn dump sites,
for a total of 1,017 sites cleaned up at a cost of $84 million.
The Board also oversees and supervises electronic waste
recycling. The tonnage associated with these potentially toxic
discards is staggering.
Since 2005, more than 630 million tons of televisions and
computer monitors have been collected, disassembled, recycled
and made into new products, with every step of these processes
carried out by California companies.
Another part of the Board’s support for a stronger
green economy is its Recycling Market Development Zone (RMDZ)
program, which has created 8,800 jobs in California, and expands
economic development by assisting start-ups and recycling
manufacturers with business assistance and below-market interest
rate loans.
The Board currently has five members. Our Chair and our
members representing the waste industry business, have been
long-serving.
The three newest members are all former legislators with
a long history of authoring and considering the laws we now
enforce, as well as the budget of the Board. And, unlike most
other state agencies, the Board does its work in public.
Sheila Kuehl is a member of the California Integrated
Waste Management Board. |
