Comment Log Display

First of all, I would like to thank the Air Resources Board for
putting together the Draft Scoping Plan and for being a leading
force in global warming emission reductions.

After reading through the scoping plan, I was impressed with its
thoroughness.  However, the plan only barely touches on Zero Waste
and recycling.  Instead, the plan should reflect more accurately
the powerful carbon reduction potential of zero waste.  Materials
consumption contributes indirectly to climate change because it
requires energy to mine, extract, harvest, process, and transport
raw materials, and more energy to manufacture, transport and,
after use, dispose of products.  

Waste reduction is a powerful tool in lowering greenhouse gas
emissions and waste prevention and recycling are critical to
stopping climate change.  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
estimates that by cutting the amount of waste we generate back to
1990 levels, we could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 11.6
million metric tons of carbon equivalent.  Increasing our national
recycling rate from its current level of 28 percent to 35 percent
would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 9.8 million Metric Tons
Carbon Equivalent, compared to landfilling the same material. 
Together, these levels of waste prevention and recycling would
slash emissions by more than 21.4 million MTCE – an amount equal
to the average annual emissions from the electricity consumption
of roughly 11 million households.  Doing something similar in
California would have comparable results.

The plan should address how manufactures should work to reduce
waste in product design, in the manufacturing process and
ultimately encourage them to reuse, recycle or compost their
products.  

CARB should implement “lifecycle tracking” of manufactured
products, giving priority to reusables and locally manufactured
items.

Furthermore, CARB should outline how we can encourage recycling in
residential and business communities.

Landfills and incinerators also contribute to global climate
change by burying resources, and resulting in even more virgin
resource extraction.  Furthermore, Methane gas is a potent
greenhouse gas, 21 times more effective at trapping heat in the
atmosphere than carbon dioxide.  Landfills are the top
human-caused source of methane: 36 percent of human caused methane
releases come from our municipal solid waste landfills, A ton of
municipal solid waste landfilled produces 123 pounds of methane. 

CARB should specify that landfill waste disposal should be phased
out by requiring recycling and making manufacturers responsible
for the lifecycle of their products and CARB should explicitly ban
carbon credits for landfill carbon sequestration. 
 Over 62 percent of what gets buried in municipal landfills is
readily recyclable or compostable organics, including paper, wood,
yard trimmings and food scraps.  Organic material is needed to
replenish our depleted, eroding and artificially-fertilized
soils.

Yet when paper, wood, yard trimmings and food scraps are mixed
with the myriad toxic products in household and industrial waste,
they become too contaminated to apply to soils.  Instead, we
should separate clean organics at the source and compost them into
soil amendments. 

When done properly, composting generally results in no net
greenhouse emissions.  The CARB plan should specify that wastes be
separated particularly for organic wastes, for effective
composting.  CARB should work with the California Integrated Waste
Management Board to end the practice of dumping green waste into
landfills.

Finally, CARB should promote the installation of “Resource
Recovery Parks” Statewide, that will include facilities for
reusing, recycling, composting, and discarding materials.  These
parks can also incorporate facilities for repair services, retail
sales of reclaimed products and landscaping supplies, organically
composted gardens, educational tours, and public amenities.  Such
a model park currently operates in the city of Marina in Monterey
County.

There are many more tons of reductions possible from aggressive
zero-waste and recycling programs.  The CARB plan should include
specific measures to increase recycling of organics and other
materials, and those measures should have emission reduction
numbers and deadlines attached to them.

I would like to see the CARB plan: (a) encourage producer
responsibility for waste; (b) create incentives for reducing
trash; (c) encourage full-cost accounting and life-cycle analysis;
(d) encourage maximum recycled content; (e) embrace ending
subsidies for extracting virgin resources; and (f) encourage
shifting taxes from those activities that have a positive effect
on the environment to those activities that have a negative
effect.

Finally, successful Zero Waste initiatives require effective
outreach and educational programs so that others are advised of
and can come to appreciate the benefits.  CARB should utilize the
legions of young people who are not only enthusiastic and care
about waste reduction, recycling and global warming but are also
willing to go out and do something about it.  CARB should have
these individuals help us educate our communities about the issue.
 Recycling ambassador programs throughout state and local
government agencies should be instituted so that students and
other volunteers can go door to door educating residents about the
need for and the benefits of recycling.  In addition, new home
owners, apartment dwellers and other residents should receive
information after moving to a new residence that explains to them
the recycling policies in their neighborhood and encourages them
to do so.  People are willing to do what it takes to pitch in but
if they have no idea how to do it, they won’t even begin.  This
type of outreach should be a critical aspect of the CARB plan.

Thank you very much for your time and consideration to these
matters.