On last week’s Up-Close Show, host Gary Daigneault spoke with District 47 Assemblyman Greg Wallis about the confusion surrounding the new green waste recycling law, requiring every California jurisdiction to provide compostable carts and associated waste collection services to every resident and business. If you’re a resident who wasn’t anticipating the green bin you found on your curb this week, you’re not alone—Wallis affirms that for a bill passed all the way back in 2018, it was a “shoddy” rollout despite its great intentions.
“It’s something that was passed in the statute, and it’s been a slow roll out. I think there’s a lot of confusion around it. Obviously, we want to do our part to keep things out of the landfill as best as possible and recycle properly— that’s something I think all Californians can get behind. We were talking about the diversity of my district and the state, and I think it’s one of those things that’s best determined. On a local level it’s not something the state legislator should have weighed in on and I think we’re seeing that in the shoddy rollout of the program so far.”
Mentioning how it should have been decided by the county and not the state, Wallis highlighted how unique the Morongo Basin is with its high-tourism and vacation rentals, making it difficult to enforce this new law:
“We’ve got a community out here that has a lot of tourism, a large percentage of vacation rentals… So when you have folks coming in from other states or outside of the country who aren’t aware of this program, that’s another piece of the puzzle on the enforcement side. Who are you going after? Are you going after the landlord? Are you going after the tenants? Are you going after the city? It is something that needs to continue to be worked on and I’d personally like to see it removed completely. But at the very least we need to make sure it’s clear and needs to be rolled out a little better.”
Daigneault referred to the law as an “unfunded state mandate,” citing frustration among residents in Yucca Valley and 29 Palms, prompting Wallis to comment:
“Every council member in my district talks about the unfunded mandates coming from the state and it’s a fair concern. You don’t have the ability to raise revenue locally here, there’s no ability for local determination and the state continues to say do more, do more, do more, and do it with less and it’s just not a fair way to govern. I think that’s one of those things that the legislator needs to be aware of and I’m hopeful that we will in the future. We do have a lot of turnover and a lot of members coming from local government backgrounds so hopefully they’ll carry that perspective.”
Wallis said that while the law is firmly in place and “must be obeyed,” residents can expect legislative clean-ups as the trial and error of the bill unfolds.
