Legislation that would make recycling available to millions of Californians living in apartment buildings cleared the state Senate last week.
Authored by Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield (D-San Fernando Valley) it requires owners of multi-family dwellings to provide recycling services to tenants starting July 1, 2010.
“People who live in apartments are just as green as people who own their own homes,” the freshman legislator said. “This bill will give them a chance to show it.”
After garnering a 23-11 vote in the state Senate, AB 473 will have to secure a concurrence vote in the state Assembly before being sent to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has until Oct. 11 to act on it.
Schwarzenegger has vetoed three identical bills before, claiming they were “overly prescriptive and create significant state, local and private compliance costs.”
But a press statement from Blumenfield’s office stated he is optimistic AB 473 will survive because it supposedly “succeeded in neutralizing the opposition” of the California Apartment Association.
Fewer than 40 percent of residents in multi-family dwellings have access to residential recycling. In contrast, 70 percent of Californians in single-family homes are able to recycle their waste.
The California Integrated Waste Management Board says more than 60 percent of the garbage in California landfills can be composted or recycled.
That’s equivalent to eliminating the greenhouse gas emissions from five million passenger vehicles a year.
FAIR USE NOTICE. This document may contain copyrighted material the use of which may not have been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Tenants Together is making this article available on our website in an effort to advance the understanding of tenant rights issues in California. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.