Item 07 - OC Grand Jury’s Investigative Report, Findings and Recommendations Regarding “Where Have All the CRVs Gone”

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Where Have All the CRVs Gone? 2021-2022 Orange County Grand Jury Page 13 The grantee shall monitor the project for the tonnage and revenues collected by material type, if applicable, and will report to the Grant Manager in the progress and final reports. Information for both these programs is available on the CalRecycle web site.24 The OCGJ strongly encourages other cities and the County to research and apply for available grants or pilot programs from CalRecycle for their communities that focus on returning more CRV funds to their residents’ benefit and to reduce recyclables from entering landfills. Current State of Redemption Efforts in Orange County The OCGJ surveyed the thirty-four cities in Orange County. The purpose of the survey was to evaluate the efforts the cities are currently undertaking to help residents obtain their CRV refunds and remove recycling from the waste stream. The City of Irvine is currently participating in the Recycle from Home grant pilot program and requires its solid waste hauler to operate a buy-back center for Irvine residents. Over 40 percent of the 14 cities that responded to the OCGJ survey failed to offer an organized program for public outreach and education regarding CRV redemption and recycling. Many relied on their waste haulers to make recycling available and to educate their community. Brea had applied for CalRecycle Beverage Container Recycling grants for the purchase of designated recycling containers at several city and school locations. Three of the responding cities took into consideration waste hauler revenue from CRV redemption and raw material sales in different ways. Laguna Beach had a windfall recycling payment clause in their waste hauler contract. It stipulated that the contractor agreed to pay Laguna Beach 25 percent of revenue that is attributable to the sale of recyclable material collected in the city that exceeds $135 per ton (net processing costs). Similarly, Fountain Valley had CRV revenue sharing which required the waste hauler share CRV revenue with the city once the contractor’s baseline CRV revenue exceeded $275,000. San Juan Capistrano considered fundraising efforts by requiring the waste hauler to offer free 30-yard roll-off containers to local schools for collecting CRV from students and families. When these containers are filled, the contractor is required to provide the redemption value to the school as a fundraising source. The OCGJ applauds the efforts by these cities to benefit their citizenry and increase material recycling. The OCGJ sees a missed opportunity for the cities that are not leveraging CRV or the raw material revenue when negotiating their waste hauler contracts. Orange County cities should be more proactive in encouraging CRV redemption and recycling by their residents. The OCGJ also encourages each City’s participation and promotion of the grant pilot programs currently offered by CalRecycle. An additional tool for sharing information about each City’s recycling efforts is the City Recycling Coordinators Meeting. This meeting is held quarterly and facilitated by staff of OC Waste & Recycling (OCWR), a department of the County of Orange. A recent meeting included 24 www.calrecycle.ca.gov