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Home My WebLink AboutMINUTES - 08141990 - 1.71 1. 71 TO: BOARD OF SUPERVISORSS ' - ��`" Costa Contra FROM: Plastics Recycling Task Force ;s- E . County UVB. DATE: August 91 1990 SUBJECT: Status of Waste Plastic Recycling Program. SPECIFIC REQUEST(S)OR RECOMMENDATION(S) &BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION RECOMMENDATION Accept the report of the Plastics Recycling Task Force on the current status of the Waste Plastic Recycling Program. . FISCAL IMPACT None. BACKGROUND This item has been placed on the agenda by the Co-Chair of the Plastics Recycling Task Force, Supervisor Sunne McPeak. Plastics represent approximately 144 million pounds of Contra Costa County's wastestream. Since September 1989 the Plastics Recycling- Task Force has initiated programs and activities to reduce this waste as included in the attached report. CAL, s �.� � F:- CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT: -YES SIGNATURE: Harvey E. Bragdon Director of Community Development _RECOMMENDATION OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR _RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE _APPROVE _OTHER ., SIGNATURE(S): ACTION OF BOARD ON AUG 14 1990 APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED OTHER F VOTE OF SUPERVISORS I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A TRUE X UNANIMOUS )ABSENT I AND CORRECT COPY OF AN ACTION TAKEN AYES: NOES: AND ENTERED ON THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD ABSENT: ABSTAIN: OF SUPERVISORS ON THE DATE SHOWN. via Community Development ATTESTED AUG 14 1990 CC: PHIL BATCHELOR, CLERK OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS AND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR BY� �LS�f/ DEPUTY j155:p1a1.brd acrnRAL OOSnk COCHIN as MON1W DEVEILEPOW nEPAIMEW TO: Board of Supervisors DATE: August 9, 1990 FMM: Sheila Cogan Staff, Plastics Recycling Task Force SOBJBCT: Status of Waste Plastic Recycling Plan BID This report is prepared at the request of the Plastics Recycling Task Force in order to provide the members of the Board with an update on the progress toward meeting the goals of plastic waste reduction in Contra Costa County. At the request of the Board of Supervisors, the Solid Waste Commission studied issues about waste plastic in Contra Costa County and prepared a report entitled "Reducing Plastics in the Wastestream", that included a series of recommendations on plastics reduction and recycling, on waste reduction and excessive packaging, on plastics market development and attendant support activities. The report and reconmiendations were presented to the Internal Operations Committee in late spring. It is a major study of the various kinds of plastics that are prevalent in our environment and describes what they are used for, what specific problems there were in re-using each, with recycling each, and describes research efforts which are underway to improve the ability of industry to re-use or recycle each type of plastic. The report also addressed specific plastic products including disposable diapers and polystyrene containers. It addressed concerns about chloroflourocarbons (CFCs) resulting from polystyrene manufacturing. The study acknowledged that although plastics waste represented 8% by weight of the total municipal solid waste stream and up to 30% by volume, that there were no collection, sorting and processing facilities and no markets in place in Contra Costa County to receive the materials (with the exception of PEP soda bottles which are included in the California Container Redemption Act) . At the current disposal level of 900,000 TPY, a total of 44,000,000 pounds per year of waste plastics are being landfilled by the County. In July, the Board of Supervisors established a Plastics Recycling Task Force consisting of members of the Solid Waste Commission, a representative of the Board of Supervisors, industry producers, haulers, recyclers and environmentalists. The Task Force is co-chaired by Supervisors Sunne McPeak and Tom Powers. The organization met for the first time one year ago - September 1989. Board Orders dated July 18, 1989 directed the Ccumnunity Development Director to establish, in cooperation with the Task Force, a Waste Plastics Recycling Program for the entire County, canposed of the following elements: 1 'i j. collected by some businesses within the County. Polystyrene drop off sites have been established at several recycling centers. A polystyrene processing facility was opened at Bay Polymer Company in Fremont in March 1990. It is a cooperative effort between James River Corporation, located in Marin, and Bay Polymer. This plant is capable of processing 3 million pounds of polystyrene foam annually and an additional 9 million pounds of other resins, primarily post-industrial scrap. In addition, the National Polystyrene Recycling Council (NPRC) has announced that another facility capable of washing and processing post-consumer polystyrene products will be sited in Northern California. The exact location of the plant is yet to be determined. It must be noted that McDonald's Restaurants franchisees are paying to haul material to the plant in Fremont. A missing component of the post consumer separation program is transportation. Although the Fremont facility currently pays 4 cents a pound for the collected material, the price does not appear sufficiently high enough to offset the cost of handling and hauling. Although the deadline of October 1, 1989 for the establishment of the polystyrene collection program was not met, it appears that efforts to collect, transport and process this resin are underway. C. Full Scale Waste Plastic Recovery and Recycling Program Board Orders state that waste plastic recycling activities shall include at a minimum all containers and packaging products made from PEr, HDPE, LDPE, PS, PVC and PP, as they were described in the Solid Waste Commission's report. Preliminary data from the Walnut Creek pilot program indicate that up to 12%, (by weight) , of PEI'; 34%, HDPE; 33%, LDPE; 8%, PS; 3%, PVC, PP remains to be collected as part of full scale countywide program. Pleasant Hill/Bayshore Disposal has also included HDPE and PET in their curbside collection service. The company has also established a drop off collection site for polystyrene foam. Contra Costa Waste Services, Inc. (Garaventa) includes only PET containers in their curbside collection. They too have established a polystyrene drop off site at Mt. Diablo Paper Stock in Concord. Valley Waste Management, Orinda/Moraga Disposal and Pleasant Hill/Bayshore collect only PET California Redemption containers in their respective service areas. Richmond Sanitary Service does plan to include both PEr and HDPE at the start of their curbside collection in West County cities in October. Grocery chains including Lucky, Raleys, Safeway and Nob Hill have begun IDPE (grocery bag) collection programs at stores in the County as well. Market development is the key component to any recycling program. Currently, there is no processing plant located in California capable of receiving mixed plastics. According to industry sources, the optimal volume of plastics for the lowest processing cost is about 40 million pounds per year. This is equivalent to a 2 process line plant operating 3 shifts per day. Minimal volume for a one 3 .r' approached to select five or six school sites for multi-material collection program. CSC L=CNS Plastics represent 8% by weight and up to 20% by volume of waste found in MSW landfills. Based on available data, this represents 144 million pounds of Contra Costa County's wastestream. Until this year, there were no systems in place to collect, transport and process most of these materials. Contra Costa County has served as a leader in the region and the nation in developing new plastics collection programs. Progress has been made. However, there is still a distance to go in order to meet program goals. The Task Force is reviewing issues relating to difficult-to-recycle plastics, and recommendations about products which may be phased out for sale in Contra Costa County are under consideration. One system under review is to require the operators of all refuse transfer stations in the County to extract waste plastic materials from all solid wastes processed in their facilities. This method will reduce plastics from landfills and provide a continuing wastestream for plastics processors. In the last year, it has been shown that public/private interests can impact waste reduction, but that investment in plastics market development is a key factor. efforts to pursue secure markets must be continued. csc2/bos.mem 5