Title
Body
MEMORANDUM
TO: Board of Supervisors
FROM: Lars Ewing, Public Services Director
DATE: March 26, 2019
SUBJECT: Consideration of (a) Amendment Two to Agreement between the County of Lake and Lake County Waste Solutions, Inc. for Solid Waste Handling and Recycling Services; and (b) Amendment Two 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 and Recycling (SLRR), the County's two franchise solid waste haulers, are key partners in meeting the overall goal of reducing the amount of recyclable material disposed at landfills. Included in each of the hauler agreements is the requirement to provide a 96-gallon container for the collection of recyclable material to all subscribed customers receiving regular solid waste collection services. Each hauler then transports the collected recyclables to an out-of-county material recovery facility (MRF) for processing - LCWS hauls to the Pacific Recycling Services MRF in Ukiah, while SLRR hauls to the Upper Valley Disposal MRF in St Helena. For decades the sorted recyclables were then exported to overseas markets, primarily China, a practice that was standard for nearly every other local jurisdiction in California and served as the backbone of California's successful recycling efforts.
However, recent changes in China's trade import policies have significantly disrupted California's recycling industry by restricting foreign imports of recyclable materials and requiring drastically reduced contamination levels in recyclable material. These changes, collectively referred to as "National Sword", have for all intents and purposes choked off Chinese markets to scrap imports from California. Furthermore, long-term dependence on the Chinese market led to the shrinking of domestic and other overseas markets, leaving fewer buyers to be found for our recyclables. Now, materi...
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