It has been almost 20-years since the California Integrated Waste Management Act was signed into law. This act created the California Integrated Waste Management Board and provided it with the authority and responsibilities to reduce the amount of material being thrown away. The act set a goal of increasing diversion (reuse, recycling and composting) from 10% in 1989 to 50% in 2000.

One of the driving elements of the Act was AB 939, which established a new approach to managing California’s waste stream.  AB 939 laid out tiered requirements for cities and counties – 25% diversion by 1995, and 50% diversion by 2000.  If the waste could not be diverted the bill required them to provide an environmentally safe disposal option. When AB 939 became law, California was diverting only about 10% of the more than 45 million tons of waste generated in the state. Per capita waste disposal was more than twice the national rate, and much of this waste was being disposed of in aged, unlined landfills with the potential for leaking into valuable groundwater aquifers.

The mandatory diversion percentage forced cities and counties to track disposal information much more carefully than before.  The municipalities used this information to expand recycling opportunities for their residents, which in turn led to new markets being developed for the recycled materials.  The Waste Management Board played a central role in promoting markets for recycled material. They implemented curbside recycling and then led the shift to single-stream recycling. As of 2006 the CIWMB estimates that California is diverting 54% of its waste. Now the question becomes how do we capture the remaining 46%?