A RESOLUTION establishing new recycling goals for the City of Seattle and providing direction on waste-reduction programs and solid waste facilities.

WHEREAS, Resolution 27871 adopted the City of Seattle's ("City's") 1988 Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan which established a goal of recycling 60% of the waste produced within the city; and

WHEREAS, the City's 1998 and 2004 Solid Waste Plans, adopted by Resolution 29805 and 30750, respectively, reaffirmed the 60% recycling goal; and

WHEREAS, the substantial recycling progress to date has been slower than expected causing the timeframe for reaching the 60% recycling goal to be incrementally lengthened from 1998 to 2010; and

WHEREAS, the City Council and Mayor seek to further reduce disposed waste so that the City can more quickly meet and exceed its 60% recycling goal and build more efficient waste facilities; and

WHEREAS, to address future recycling and waste disposal needs, the City Council and Mayor adopted Resolution 30431 directing Seattle Public Utilities ("SPU") to prepare a Solid Waste Facilities Master Plan ("Master Plan"); and

WHEREAS, the Master Plan, completed in 2004, recommended rebuilding the City's two transfer stations and constructing a new intermodal facility in south Seattle; and

WHEREAS, to further validate the City's waste-reduction and facility approaches, the City Council and Mayor requested that an independent consultant conduct a review of SPU's recycling efforts and facilities proposals. That review resulted in the April 2007 Seattle Solid Waste Recycling, Waste Reduction, and Facilities Opportunities report ("Zero-Waste Report"), which identified new recycling actions and facility efficiencies through which the City might reach 72% recycling by 2025; and

WHEREAS, the City Council and Mayor seek to expand recycling and move forward with facility upgrades by applying zero-waste principles to the City's management of solid waste; NOW, THEREFORE,

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SEATTLE, THE MAYOR CONCURRING, THAT:

Section 1. Goals. The City establishes the following goals for recycling and waste reduction.

A. The City will recycle 60% of the waste produced within the city by 2012, and 70% of the waste produced within the city by 2025.

B. The City will not dispose of any more total solid waste in future years than went to the landfill in 2006 (438,000 tons of municipal solid waste ("MSW".

C. For the next five years, the City will reduce the amount of solid waste disposed by at least 1% per year (2008-2012).

D. Future waste-reduction goals for the period 2013-2028 (the term of the long-haul disposal contract) will be set based on the experience of the first five years, with the aspiration of achieving a steady reduction in the amount of waste disposed each year.

Section 2. Waste-Reduction Strategies. The action strategies adopted to achieve City goals shall apply zero-waste principles. Zero-waste principles entail managing resources instead of waste; conserving natural resources through waste prevention and recycling; turning discarded resources into jobs and new products instead of trash; promoting products and materials that are durable and recyclable; and discouraging products and materials that can only become trash after their use. Action strategies should include elements that:

A. Actively encourage and support a system where producers minimize waste during product design and take responsibility for the reuse or recycling of used products;

B. Promote the highest and best use of recycled materials;

C. Minimize the environmental impacts of disposed waste; and

D. Implement actions in a sequence that: 1) starts by simultaneously offering any new recycling service for customers to use on a voluntary basis, implementing incentives to encourage participation, and pursuing product stewardship approaches to avoid waste or remove waste from the City waste stream and 2) as a second step consider prohibiting disposal of the targeted materials as garbage in order to ensure full participation of all customers.

Section 3. Waste-Reduction Actions. SPU shall propose specific waste-reduction actions, consistent with the strategies described above, to achieve City recycling goals as part of future rate proposals, budgets, and solid waste plan updates. The proposed rates and budgets for 2008, 2009, and 2010 shall include, at minimum, the actions in Attachment A. Additional actions (similar to those in the Zero-Waste Report) shall be proposed as part of future rates, budgets, and solid waste plans as needed to meet City goals.

Section 4. Facility Actions. To help reach City waste-reduction goals and efficiently manage current and future solid waste, the following actions shall be taken to upgrade City facilities.

A. The South and North Recycling and Disposal Stations ("SRDS" and "NRDS") will be designed to accommodate expanded recycling, a retail re-use facility, and self-haul waste and collection trucks in roughly the same proportions that they now experience, but with design elements for self-haul tonnages to be below current levels. While there may continue to be, on an operational basis, some use of private transfer stations, NRDS and SRDS will be designed to handle the City's MSW.

B. To the extent that the recycling and disposal stations experience decreases in total tonnages of waste disposed, the City will explore the possibility of adding additional waste-reduction and recycling programs, and the stations will be designed to facilitate conversion of space dedicated to disposal to waste reduction and recycling.

C. The City will purchase additional properties for the development of the new SRDS.

Section 5. Reporting. SPU will report to Council by July 1 of each year on the previous year's progress toward recycling goals, as well as further steps to be taken to meet goals in the current and upcoming years. Each annual report shall contain the comments of the Solid Waste Advisory Committee.

Adopted by the City Council the ____ day of _________, 2007, and signed by me in open session in authentication of its adoption this _____ day of __________, 2007.

_________________________________

President __________of the City Council

THE MAYOR CONCURRING:

___________________________________

Gregory J. Nickels, Mayor

Filed by me this ____ day of _________, 2007.

____________________________________

City Clerk

(Seal)

Attachment A: Waste-Reduction Actions

Meg Moorehead/mm

LEG Zero_resoV4a.doc

July 3, 2007

Version #4a

ATTACHMENT A: WASTE-REDUCTION ACTIONS

TO RESOLUTION 30990 ESTABLISHING NEW RECYCLING GOALS FOR THE CITY OF SEATTLE AND PROVIDING DIRECTION ON

WASTE-REDUCTION PROGRAMS AND SOLID WASTE FACILITIES

The following actions shall be implemented to achieve waste-reduction goals. The first years of implementation are shown in parentheses.

ALL WASTE

A. All City agencies will meet or exceed all requirements for waste reduction and recycling placed on commercial and residential customers (2007).

B. The City will institute a $100,000 annual Waste Reduction/Recycling Matching Fund for community recycling/waste reduction initiatives (2008).

C. SPU will initiate a market development effort for difficult to recycle materials such as asphalt roofing, drywall, and tires (2008).

D. The City's Solid Waste Advisory Committee (SWAC) will be consulted on design and implementation strategies for new programs, and the City shall consult with other appropriate stakeholders as needed to provide input into the analysis of actions for implementation in 2008 or beyond. Additional members may be added to the SWAC or ad hoc advisory groups may be formed to perform more detailed work on specific action strategies if this would be helpful in meeting the increased work load for the SWAC (2008 and beyond).

E. Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) will expand inspection and enforcement actions for the present ban on disposal of recyclables (2009-2011).

F. SPU will mandate that all collection trucks use a ultra-low sulfur diesel/biodiesel mixture or compressed natural gas to reduce both airborne particulates and green house gas emissions (2009).

G. SPU will institute performance-based contracting for collection/disposal companies through 2009 collection contracts based on achieving waste-reduction goals (instead of amount of waste disposed) (2009).

H. SPU will increase opportunities for waste reduction audits and waste reduction/recycling education to commercial customers (2009).

I. SPU will increase opportunities for waste reduction audits and waste reduction/recycling education to residential and multi-family customers. (2009).

J. The City will expand recycling services available at large events and parks (2010).

K. The City will explore ways to cooperate with other governments in Central Puget Sound to coordinate waste reduction, product stewardship, and other efforts across jurisdictions (2008).

ORGANICS

A. The City will continue to build a commercial organics program through 2007 and beyond by working with customers and collection companies to provide incentives and design programs to facilitate, promote, and increase the cost-effectiveness of commercial organics collections. Among the incentives to be evaluated will be designing rates to encourage organics recycling, including decreasing the perunit organics charge as quantities of organics increase (2007).

B. The City will further develop its residential organics program in negotiations and contract discussions in fall 2007 (2007).

C. The City will implement a new organics program on April 1, 2009, including:

* All single-family customers will have organics collection unless the customer is actively composting food in the yard (an exemption process will be developed).

* A tiered can rate will be established for organics.

* All food waste will be included in organics collections.

* A future ban of all organics from single family garbage will be considered once the collection system has been fully established (2009).

D. Multi-family organics collection will be expanded to be a voluntary service available to all customers no later than April, 2009. SPU will review and propose incentives and education programs that will encourage participation by property owners and residents (2009).

E. Collection frequencies for garbage, recycling and organics will be determined in fall 2007 as part of negotiations with service providers. The evaluation criteria for different collection alternatives (and costs, benefits and operational impacts associated with collection frequencies) will be determined in time for implementation in the 2009 collection contract. If weekly organics and every other week garbage are not part of the baseline 2009 collection contract, then pilots on these frequencies will be performed in 2010-2011 (2009-2011).

F. SPU will conduct a study by the end of 2010, to be done with an advisory group, to determine the costs, benefits, operational impacts and effectiveness of a potential mandatory multi-family organics collection program which could be implemented by the end of 2011. The scope of work for the study will include a requirement to develop evaluation criteria (2010-2011).

SELF HAUL

A. Both North and South Recycling and Disposal Stations will continue to be available for self-haul customers (2007 and beyond).

B. Newly constructed facilities will be designed to address present overcrowding. However, facility designs will assume a total self-haul disposal tonnage below current levels, due to anticipated diversion programs (2007 and beyond).

C. To help reduce tonnages, starting in 2008, self haul will be priced at full operating cost. As North and South stations are reconstructed, self-haul charges will ramp up to reflect at least partial capital costs as well (2008).

D. SPU will promote contracted and private sector pickup and diversion services to self-haul customers, to increase station efficiency (2008).

E. In 2008, SPU will conduct a study to evaluate potential wastereduction incentives and disincentives targeted to self-haul customers. This study will include options such as on-demand or periodic curbside pick-up, providing periodic vouchers for private pickup service, and increasing public awareness of private pickup options to minimize self-haul customer traffic at City transfer stations. In 2009, the Executive will work with Council to determine next steps on minimizing self haul including pilot programs where appropriate (2008-2009).

CONSTRUCTION AND DEMOLITION (C&D) WASTE

A. The City will increase reuse/waste reduction/recycling of C&D waste through the modification of the City's current demolition permit by the end of 2008. The permit modifications will emphasize and give priority to steps that would lead to the salvage and reuse of building materials. SPU will work with the Department of Planning and Development (DPD) to develop the permit modifications and to explore incentives and disincentives to developers and contractors to accomplish waste-reduction goals. Permit development will identify the minimum project size (in square feet) for which a demolition permit will be required (2008).

B. By mid-2008, the City will explore incentives such as grants, tax reductions, and development assistance to encourage private companies to develop facilities for sorting and recycling C&D waste (2008).

C. By mid-2008, SPU will analyze potential waste reduction/recycling opportunities available to the City for C&D waste through development of a publicly owned C&D facility and use of the City's flow control authority (2008).

D. The Mayor and Council will make a decision by mid-2008 on whether to issue a potential Request for Proposals (RFP) for either private or public C&D processing plant (s), based on the analyses detailed above (2008).

E. The City will consider providing incentives and requirements for larger development projects to promote recycling of C&D waste and use of recycled materials in construction, and/or adopting a City requirement that a given percent of C&D waste from each construction site be reused or recycled. This could include requiring a recycling plan and fee deposit when issuing building and demolition permits, with a portion of the fee refunded based on the amount of C&D waste recycled (2010).

F. The City will also consider grants, tax reductions, and other incentives to encourage businesses to reuse C&D materials (such as roofing and drywall) or reprocess them into new products (2010).

G. The City will review benefits, costs, operational impacts, and possible implementation time frames in recommending whether to pursue a prohibition on disposal of C&D recyclables as garbage at City stations (2010).

H. The City will review benefits, costs, operational impacts, and possible implementation time frames for increasing tipping fees for disposal of mixed C&D waste while decreasing the fee for transfer station drop-off of source-separated recyclable C&D materials (2010).

PRODUCT STEWARDSHIP

A. SPU will increase support for the Northwest Product Stewardship Council (NPSC) (2008).

B. SPU will contract with the NPSC to conduct a study to determine the most effective strategies for local stewardship activities (2008).

C. The Mayor and Council will identify and consider potential state legislation regarding product stewardship for the 2008 state legislative session (2008).

D. SPU will evaluate the feasibility of implementing producer takeback programs and recommend appropriate action steps for Styrofoam packaging take-back, manufacturer/retailer take-back of used carpet and possible tax incentives or other business development incentives to promote local carpet-recovery markets, producer take-back and reprocessing for paint, and improvements to regional mercurycontaining product recycling/take-back for mercury-containing products such as fluorescent light bulbs and thermometers (2008).

E. SPU will actively participate in implementation planning for ewaste producer-funded take-back programs and endeavor to ensure that implementation in Seattle captures the maximum feasible amount of ewaste (2008).

PRODUCT BANS

By mid-2008 SPU will conduct a comprehensive study of products, packages and ingredients that could be banned or otherwise discouraged through taxes or other means. This study will include:

* Identification of potential products, packages and/or ingredients that could be banned or discouraged in the near future.

* Legal alternatives for banning, restricting, or discouraging the use of products, packages, and/or ingredients.

* Criteria for evaluating such actions, including the actions' costs and benefits, including water quality benefits to the Puget Sound basin.

* An evaluation of available substitutes for anything for which actions are proposed.

* Recommendations for an implementation/action plan based on a prioritized list (2008).

Initial products for review will include non-compostable plastic shopping bags and Styrofoam food containers, for which SPU will complete its study and recommendations by the earlier deadline of December 2007.

ACTIONS TO BE INCLUDED IN THE 2008 RATE.

The following actions will be among those incorporated into the 2008 rate:

* Self-haul study and promotion of private curbside service providers;

* Product stewardship study/services from NPSC;

* Study on potential bans of certain materials;

* Rate study that evaluates rate designs for organics including variable can rates and tiered commercial rates;

* C&D: Develop DPD program, Industrial Revenue bonds for C&D processing feasibility, and draft RFP;

* Community waste-reduction matching grants; and

* Market development for problem materials.

Attachment A v.4b