Existing law, the California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989, establishes a compost market program to increase the use of compost products, including requiring the Department of General Services and the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery to maintain specifications for the purchase of compost by the state and requiring the Department of Transportation to use compost in place of, or to supplement, petroleum-based commercial fertilizers in the state’s highway landscape maintenance program.
This bill would require the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, on or before December 31, 2019, to develop and implement a plan to maximize the use of compost for slope stabilization and for establishing vegetation in the course of providing debris removal services following a wildfire. The bill would also
require the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, in coordination with the Department of Transportation, to identify best practices for each of the Department of Transportation’s 12 districts regarding the cost-effective use of compost along roadways and to develop a plan to implement the identified best practices in each of the districts. The bill would additionally require the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery to review the best practices at least once every 5 years and update the best practices as necessary. The bill would also make nonsubstantive changes to the compost market program provisions.