California Air Resources Board

Background

Senate Bill 1383 (Lara, Chapter 395, Statutes of 2016) requires the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle), in consultation with CARB, to adopt the Short-lived Climate Pollutants (SLCP): Organic Waste Reductions regulations to achieve organic waste reduction goals. Starting in 2022, CalRecycle will require jurisdictions to provide organic waste collection services to all residents and businesses to divert these materials away from landfills and into recycling and recovery activities. 

This page provides CARB guidance on how to determine the lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction for a proposed recovery activity for entities that wish to apply to CalRecycle for an Article 2 determination (see Article 2: 14 CCR Section 18983.2).

For a technology or process to constitute a reduction in landfill disposal, it must both: 

1. reduce the physical presence of organic waste in landfills, and
2. reduce GHG emissions.

Article 2 provides a procedure under which applicants may demonstrate that the proposed recovery activity results in a permanent reduction in lifecycle GHG emissions equal to or greater than the Benchmark: 0.30 MTCO2e/short ton of organic waste.  

For more information about the Organic Waste Reductions regulations or the Article 2 application and review process, please visit:

CalRecycle’s SLCP Regulations Homepage

CalRecycle’s Article 2 Page

Technical Resources

Calculation of the Lifecycle Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Benchmark for the Organic Waste Reductions Regulation (Staff Guidance Memo Prepared for CalRecycle) (Revised 01/07/2022) 

This document provides the methodology and calculations used to determine the regulation’s Benchmark emission reduction factor.

Landfill Emission Reduction Factor Tool for Section 18983.2 

CARB staff has adapted a version of the 2006 IPCC Guidelines mathematically exact First Order Decay model to quantify the methane emissions that would occur from the landfill disposal of one short ton of organic waste over a one-hundred-year timeframe. The organic material types in the tool are limited to the eleven material types listed in the Organic Waste Regulation (section 18983.2(a)(1)(C)). The Excel-based tool is designed to quantify the avoided landfill emissions of diverting a specified organic material from a typical California landfill that employs a landfill cover and landfill gas collection and control system (GCCS). The workbook includes a summary of default input parameter and emission factor results for specified material types and documentation of the parameters and calculations used to determine the avoided landfill emissions portion of the regulation’s Benchmark emission reduction factor.

References

• Composting Emission Reduction Factor (CERF)

For questions about Article 2 requirements or the application process, contact CalRecycle at slcp.organics@calrecycle.ca.gov. For information on the technical resources provided on this page, contact slcp@arb.ca.gov.