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Home My WebLink AboutItem 8.2 Recycling Phase II Participationor 19 82 /ii � 111 DATE: TO: FROM: STAFF REPORT CITY COUNCIL December 17, 2013 Honorable Mayor and City Councilmembers Joni Pattillo City Manager""' CITY CLERK File #810 -80 SUBJECT: Consideration of Alameda County Waste Management Authority Mandatory Recycling Ordinance Phase II Participation Prepared by Roger Bradley, Assistant to the City Manager EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The City Council will determine whether or not to participate in a Countywide ordinance adopted by the Alameda County Waste Management Authority. The ordinance places a mandate on businesses and multi - family dwellings to recycle all compostable materials generated on site, and also prohibits them from placing such materials in a garbage container. FINANCIAL IMPACT: Staff estimates that the Mandatory Recycling Ordinance could raise the cost of garbage collection for Dublin businesses by as much at 50 %. RECOMMENDATION: Staff recommends that the City Council adopt the resolution opting out of the Alameda County Waste Management Authority Mandatory Recycling Ordinance Phase II and direct Staff to conduct an analysis on Phase I participation. Submitted By Assistant to the City Manager DESCRIPTION: Reviewed By Assistant City Manager On January 25, 2012, the Alameda County Waste Management Authority ( "ACWMA" or "StopWaste.Org ") adopted a Mandatory Recycling Ordinance impacting all jurisdictions within Alameda County. The ordinance has been implemented in two phases. The Mandatory Recycling Ordinance contains an "opt -out" provision enabling a jurisdiction to exclude its service area from the requirements of the Mandatory Recycling Ordinance. On February 21, 2013, the City Council adopted Resolution 21 -12 (Attachment 1) opting out of Phase I of the ordinance. Phase 11 implementation will begin on July 1, 2014. The ACWMA has included within the Page 1 of 3 ITEM NO. 8.2 ordinance a provision that Alameda County jurisdictions must decide whether to opt out of Phase 11 of the ordinance before January 1, 2014. Mandatory Recycling Ordinance The ACWMA Mandatory Recycling Ordinance Phase II requires all Alameda County businesses and multi - family properties to segregate recyclable and organic materials from regular garbage service by July 1, 2014. Phase II of the ordinance includes all the items covered under Phase I but expands the mandate to all businesses instead of a smaller subset. It also mandates that all businesses and multifamily properties must include the aforementioned organics recycling. While organics collection within the City has good participation, there is still a lot of room for improvement, and in general, there are no multifamily properties that participate in the organic collection program both within the City and throughout the County. Thus, Staff has concern with mandating a program without a proven operational infrastructure. In addition, as the City has not yet participated in the less intense Phase I version of the ordinance, Staff would have hesitation in recommending immediately implementing Phase II participation. However, the ordinance has been written such that jurisdictions must opt -out of Phase II of the ordinance regardless of whether or not they opted to participate in Phase I. As was the concern when the City Council considered Phase I implementation, Staff believes that there are risks for the ratepayer in participating in Phase II of the ACWMA ordinance. In particular, the ordinance may have a significantly negative impact on the City's rate structure, necessitating a large rate increase for businesses as well as multi - family property owners. The Mandatory Recycling Ordinance will shift materials and revenue away from garbage collection and would result in revenue shortfalls for the City's franchise hauler, AVI, necessitating steep rate increases to recover the lost revenue. This is due to the fact that the City has a bundled rate for garbage service, where residents and businesses pay for the cost of garbage collection with recycling and organics collection being provided either at no additional charge (recycling) or at a steeply discounted rate (organics). Thus, as revenue is lost by customers shifting to smaller garbage bins sizes, rates must be increased to offset lost revenue. Also, a change in law of this magnitude could trigger a franchise agreement provision requiring the City to renegotiate contractual provisions with the City's waste hauler and landfill disposal contractors to restructure the rates and /or modify other provisions within these agreements. It is Staff's opinion that the ACWMA's Mandatory Recycling Ordinance could have an adverse impact on small businesses within the City of Dublin. In particular, businesses that generate smaller volumes of waste will have to pick up a larger portion of the rate burden as larger businesses have more room to shift to smaller bin sizes than do smaller businesses. In this case, the ordinance mandates that all businesses and multifamily dwellings have less than 10% recyclable and compostable materials within their garbage bins. Forcing a large immediate shift in service level migration can possibly create problems within the City's compensation model. Slower shifts are less impactful to ratepayers, but do have the same impact over time, and can more closely follow inflationary trends, which are not unexpected, easing some of the burden. However, it has been a few years since Phase I has been in place, and Staff believes that it would be appropriate to conduct a detailed review of Phase I participation as part of the rate review process, which occurs in the spring. Should the City Council decide to opt out of Phase II of the ordinance, the City does have the option to opt in at some point in the future. To date, the City of Hayward, the City of Pleasanton, and the Oro Loma and Castro Valley Sanitary Districts have opted out of the mandatory recycling ordinance Phase 11. Additionally, the cities of Fremont, Oakland, Newark, and San Page 2 of 3 Leandro are participating on a limited basis by deferring participation in mandatory organics collection for a period of time. Thus, approximately 53% (9/17) of the County's jurisdictions will opt out of the ordinance in at least one form or another. To opt out of the ACWMA Mandatory Recycling Ordinance, the City Council will need to adopt a Resolution (Attachment 2) excluding the Dublin service area from the ordinance. NOTICING REQUIREMENTS /PUBLIC OUTREACH: None. ATTACHMENTS: 1. Resolution 21 -12 2. Resolution opting out of Phase I of the ACWMA Mandatory Recycling Ordinance #2012 -1 Page 3 of 3 RESOLUTION NO. 21 - 12 A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF DUBLIN OPTING OUT OF PHASE I OF THE ALAMEDA COUNTY WASTE MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY (ACWMA) MANDATORY COMMERCIAL RECYCLING ORDINANCE #2012 -1 WHEREAS, Ordinance #2012 -1 is an Ordinance requiring actions to reduce landfilling of recyclable and organics solid waste from businesses, multi - family residences, and self - haulers; and WHEREAS, the City of Dublin is one of seventeen (17) member agencies composing the ACWMA; and WHEREAS, pursuant to the terms of Ordinance #2012 -1 by the ACWMA, "Any Member Agency by a resolution of its governing body may, prior to March 2, 2012, choose to exclude its service area from Phase I of this Ordinance "; and WHEREAS, the City of Dublin has reviewed Ordinance #2012 -1 and determined that at this time, it would like to be excluded from the agencies and service areas named in Ordinance #2012 -1. -NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the City Council of the City of Dublin is opting -out of Phase I of Ordinance #2012 -1 by the ACWMA, and, therefore, the City of Dublin's service area will be excluded from the service areas described by the Ordinance. vote: PASSED, APPROVED AND ADOPTED this 21 st day of February, 2012, by the following AYES: Councilmembers Biddle, Hart, Hildenbrand, Swalwell, and Mayor Sbranti NOES: None ABSENT: None ABSTAIN: None Mayor ATT ST: City Clerk Reso No. 21 -12, Adopted 2- 17 -12, Item 7.3 Page 1 of 1 RESOLUTION NO. XX - 14 A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF DUBLIN * * * * * * * * * ** OPTING OUT OF PHASE 2 OF THE ALAMEDA COUNTY WASTE MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY (ACWMA) MANDATORY COMMERCIAL RECYCLING ORDINANCE #2012 -1 WHEREAS, ACWMA Ordinance #2012 -1 is an ordinance requiring actions to reduce landfilling of recyclable and organics solid waste from businesses, multi - family residences, and self - haulers; and WHEREAS, the City of Dublin is one of seventeen (17) member agencies comprising the ACWMA; and WHEREAS, pursuant to the terms of Ordinance #2012 -1 by the ACWMA, "Any Member Agency by a resolution of its governing body may, prior to March 2, 2012, choose to exclude its service area from Phase 1 of this Ordinance "; and WHEREAS, the City of Dublin opted -out of Phase 1 of ACWMA Ordinance #2012 -1 on February 21, 2012; and WHEREAS, pursuant to the terms of Ordinance #2012 -1 by the ACWMA, "Any Member Agency by a resolution of its governing body may, prior to January 1, 2014, choose to exclude its service area from Sections 4, 5, and 8, Phase 2 of this Ordinance "; and WHEREAS, the City of Dublin has reviewed Ordinance #2012 -1 and determined that, at this time, it would like to be excluded from the agencies and service areas named in and covered under Ordinance #2012 -1. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the City Council of the City of Dublin is opting -out of Phase 2 of Ordinance #2012 -1 by the ACWMA, and, therefore, the City of Dublin's service area will be excluded from the service areas described by the Ordinance. PASSED, APPROVED AND ADOPTED this 17th day of December, 2013, by the following vote: AYES: NOES: ABSENT: ABSTAIN: ATTEST: Mayor ATTACHMENT 2 City Clerk ATTACHMENT 2