Dive Brief:
- CA Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed increasing financial support to keep organic waste out of landfills, to build better soils, and to encourage more product manufacturing with recycled content. Brown called for the spending in part to lower greenhouse gas emissions.
- The governor recently proposed boosting funding from $25 million to $60 million for the state’s Cap and Trade Expenditure Plan. The boost would provide incentives for investments in manufacturing with recycled content, composting, and anaerobic digestion.
- The proposed increases also would provide $20 million for the Healthy Soils Initiative, a new effort to support projects that improve the ability of soil to retain water, increase crop yields, lower sediment erosion, and also increase the ability of soil to sequester carbon.
Dive Insight:
California set a goal of 75% recycling of its waste by 2020. To reach that goal, the state has recently passed bills that mandate for commercial organics recycling; begun to eliminate recycling credit for yard and other plant waste used for cover at landfills; and narrowed the definition of biomass conversion; as well as a ban on plastic bags, which opponents still hope to overturn.