At a joint meeting of the Humboldt Waste Management Authority and Humboldt County Solid Waste Local Task Force, waste consultants Edgar & Associates presented a roadmap that offers a path to compliance with the Short-Lived Climate Pollutant Reduction law, or Senate Bill 1383, which Evan Edgar, engineer and president of Edgar & Associates, said it’s more than just a recycling law, “it’s a climate change law.”
“We have to identify who’s going to take the lead, how different stakeholders are going to talk to each other,” said Monica White, sustainability manager with Edgar & Associates. “We certainly would recommend at least beginning the discussions on a regional pathway, setting out a clear goal. So is your goal 1383 compliance or is your goal to create something that’s bigger … This is a moment in time we can change food insecurity.”
The roadmap lays out tasks for the region to accomplish in order to achieve compliance, including developing and implementing a program to collect and process organic waste, developing and implementing an edible food recovery program, and procuring increasing amounts of products derived from recycled organic waste, such as mulch, to ensure a market for those types of products can develop. Some of that is already in the works, such as an edible food recovery program and getting a solid waste processing facility in place.