A. The purpose of this article is to mandate organic waste collection services and street sweeping services to protect the public safety, health, and welfare; to ensure that the city continues to meet state-mandated diversion requirements; to reduce landfill dependency; to conserve resources; to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; and to advance the city's ongoing efforts to create a more sustainable city.
B. The city council finds and determines as follows:
1. The collection and disposal of organic waste and street sweeping, protect the public health, safety, and welfare, by requiring that the accumulation, collection, removal, and disposal of organic waste and street sweeping, be handled in a manner that provides for the greatest good and the least possible inconvenience and impact to the city and city residents;
2. The California Integrated Waste Management Act, commonly known as AB 939 (California Public Resources Code Section 40000 et seq.), requires local jurisdictions to divert a minimum of 50 percent of discarded materials away from disposal in landfills;
3. Senate Bill 1383, the Short-lived Climate Pollutant Reduction Act of 2016, requires the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) to develop regulations to reduce organic waste in landfills as a source of methane. The regulations place requirements on public agencies to support achievement of statewide organic waste disposal reduction targets;
4. Public agencies are required to adopt enforceable mechanisms to implement relevant provisions of Senate Bill 1383;
5. The collection of organic waste diverts organic waste away from disposal in landfills, and is a critical component of the city's ongoing measures to meet the mandatory diversion requirement imposed by state law, and without an effective organic waste collection and disposal program the city would not be able to comply with this requirement; and
6. In addition, providing for the collection of organic waste protects and promotes the public health, safety, and welfare by reducing the city's dependence on landfills by disposing of organic waste outside of landfills, and thereby reducing costs and environmental effects associated with landfill use. (Ord. 2023-0024 § 22; Ord. 2013-0009 § 3)