Memorandum
Date: October 28, 2025
To: The Honorable Eddie Crandell, Chair, Lake County Board of Supervisors
From: Lars Ewing, Public Services Director
Subject: A) Consideration of Amendment Three to Agreement between the County of Lake and Lake County Waste Solutions, Inc. for Solid Waste Handling and Recycling Services
B) Consideration of Amendment Three to Agreement between the County of Lake and South Lake Refuse Company, LLC for Solid Waste Handling and Recycling Services
Executive Summary: Lake County Waste Solutions (LCWS) and South Lake Refuse & Recycling (SLRR) are the County’s two franchise solid waste and recycling haulers, and are integral to the County’s effort to overall waste management as well as achieving State-mandated goals of reducing the amount of waste disposed at landfills. Both franchise agreements allow for rate adjustments to account for pass-through costs resulting from new material processing fees, market changes, or state regulations and mandates. For your Board’s consideration are proposed amendments to each agreement to incorporate an organic waste processing pass-through cost.
As your Board is aware, Senate Bill 1383, also known as the Short-Lived Climate Pollutant Reduction Law, is intended to reduce the statewide disposal of organic waste in landfills. The regulations adopted under SB 1383 include, among other requirements, local jurisdiction obligations for organic waste recycling (i.e. mandatory organics recycling). In recognition of the substantial challenges faced by rural jurisdictions in implementing organics collection and expanding or even developing recycling infrastructure, the regulations allow counties with populations less than 70,000 to exempt themselves from certain aspects of the law. The entirety of Lake County - both unincorporated and incorporated areas - operates under this rural exemption for organic waste collection services, capacity planning, and the procurement of recovered organic waste products.
Although organic waste collection services are not mandatory in Lake County due to this exemption, your Solid Waste Task Force supported evaluating a voluntary change to the franchise hauler’s existing green waste programs. The intent was to expand the types of organic material accepted in green waste bins to include food scraps in addition to yard trimmings. This change would help divert organic materials from the Eastlake Landfill, support future compliance should the waiver expire, and promote long-term environmental sustainability. Accordingly, earlier this year both franchise haulers implemented service changes allowing food waste to be placed in the green waste bin along with grass clippings, leaves, and other basic yard debris.
Historically green waste was collected and disposed of at no charge. When green waste volumes were minimal, the material was relatively uniform (i.e. limited to basic yard waste), and tipping fees charged by resource recovery facilities for green waste were either non-existent or very low, this no-fee service resulted in only a minimal operational loss for the haulers. Over time, however, both the volume of green waste and the associated tipping fees at local resource recovery facilities have increased substantially. Additionally, with the green waste stream now transitioned from a source-separated yard waste stream to a mixed organics stream containing both yard debris and food waste, the haulers face challenges in providing financially sustainable collection services without a pass-through fee to offset the higher processing and disposal costs.
The proposed amendments incorporate a one-time organic processing pass-through cost into each hauler’s service rate schedule. It is important to note that this is a one-time rate adjustment of 4.8% to account for the percentage of organics disposal and operations costs, and not a recurring increase. This adjustment will result in an estimated cost increase of approximately $1.40 to $1.78 per month for a 32-gallon residential cart, depending on geographic location.
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☒ Well-being of Residents ☒ Public Safety ☒ Disaster Prevention, Preparedness, Recovery
☒ Economic Development ☒ Infrastructure ☒ County Workforce
☒ Community Collaboration ☒ Business Process Efficiency ☒ Clear Lake
Recommended Action: A) Approve Amendment Three to Agreement between the County of Lake and Lake County Waste Solutions, Inc. for Solid Waste Handling and Recycling Services; and B) Approve Amendment Three to Agreement between the County of Lake and South Lake Refuse Company, LLC for Solid Waste Handling and Recycling Services