The Board of Supervisors finds and declares the following:
A. People who live in, work in or visit San Francisco generate 1.8 million tons of solid waste annually with more than half of these materials recovered through waste prevention, recycling and composting.
B. The State of California through its California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989, Assembly Bill 939 (AB 939), requires that each local jurisdiction in the state divert 50% of discarded materials (base year 1990) from landfill. Every city and county in California, including the City, could face fines up to $10,000 a day for not meeting the above mandated goal.
C. The Source Reduction and Recycling Element (SRRE) for San Francisco adopted by the Board of Supervisors in 1992, recognized the importance of recovering wood, metals, and inerts from construction and demolition activities in order to meet the state mandated waste reduction goal.
D. The Board of Supervisors adopted Resolution No. 679-02 setting a goal of 75% diversion from landfill by 2010 and promoting the highest and best use of recovered materials and authorizing the Commission on the Environment to adopt a zero waste goal, which it set as 2020.
E. The Green Building Ordinance, Chapter 7 of the Environment Code, establishes LEEDTM Silver level as the standard for all City building projects, which can include the goal of diverting 75% of construction and demolition debris from landfill for each project.
F. There are facilities both within the City and in nearby surrounding areas that can effectively reuse, recycle or otherwise recover the constituent elements of the materials generated by construction and demolition activity and thereby divert such materials from landfill.
G. Construction and demolition waste recovery programs reduce the amount of materials generated and hauled to landfill, decrease worker exposure to hazards, improve worker safety, reduce truck trips and traffic and improve air quality, thereby enhancing the health, safety and welfare of San Franciscans.
H. This Chapter requires construction and demolition debris to be transported by a registered vehicle and processed by a registered facility in order to ensure proper handling and to recover an additional estimated 100,000 tons from landfill disposal annually.
I. State law requires the California Integrated Waste Management Board to adopt a model construction and demolition debris ordinance and requires that Board to take into account a city's efforts to encourage or require recovery of construction and demolition debris in determining whether a city has met the mandated 50% recovery rate and other solid waste reduction and recycling requirements. This Chapter would help the City maintain the levels required by the state mandate and achieve the City's goals of 75% landfill diversion by 2010 and zero waste by 2020.
J. In keeping with the Precautionary Principle, codified in Chapter 1 of the Environment Code, this Chapter requires proper handling of construction debris as a deterrent to unsafe and wasteful practices. In this way, the City will create and maintain a healthy, viable environment for current and future generations, and will become a model of sustainability.
(Added by Ord. 27-06, File No. 051142, App. 2/16/2006)