That the City Council APPROVE THE FIRST READING OF ORDINANCE NO. CC 2025-__ ENTITLED:  AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF LA HABRA, CALIFORNIA, ADDING CHAPTER 8.04.340 (C) “MULCH” RELATING TO PROCUREMENT REQUIREMENTS FOR THE USE OF MULCH PER SENATE BILL 1383, ASSEMBLY BILL 2902, AND ASSEMBLY BILL 2346.

At its Regular Meeting of August 18, 2025, the City Council approved Resolution No. CC 2025-23. This action met the State’s requirements for the City to receive procurement credit for certain mulch purchases. The procurement requirements for the use of mulch per Senate Bill 1383, Assembly Bill 2902, and Assembly Bill 2346 are discussed below. City staff recommends the State’s required language be codified in the City's Municipal Code for future reference. If approved by Council, this ordinance will add a new section (c) titled "Mulch" to Chapter 8.04.340 of the La Habra Municipal Code detailing the requirements to be in compliance with California law.

SB 1383 requirements:

In 2016, the State approved SB 1383, the Short-lived Climate Pollutant Reduction Act, which requires the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) to develop regulations to reduce organics in landfills as a source of methane. As adopted by CalRecycle, a major requirement in SB 1383 is for the procurement of recovered organic waste products. This can include compost, renewable natural gas, electricity from biomass conversion, or mulch. Each jurisdiction receives a procurement target in tons of organic waste. La Habra’s target is 4,896.2 organic waste tons for the 2025 reporting year (61,202 population x 0.08). Credit towards this procurement target can only be used on City purchases. For example, the City's annual compost giveaways to residents or the City applying mulch products in local parks qualify as procurement credits. If residents or businesses apply their own compost or mulch in their own planters on private property, those applications cannot be counted towards the City's procurement goal. If local jurisdictions do not meet their procurement targets, they can be subject to enforcement action from the State of California.

The table below is an example of what La Habra’s procurement totals and costs could potentially be in future years. Some procurement options may be selected over others depending on costs and benefits:

Assembly Bills 2902 and 2346 Requirements for Mulch Procurement Credit:

AB 2902, passed in 2024, added flexibility for adjusting procurement targets for cities. AB 2346, also passed in 2024, authorizes local jurisdictions to count towards their procurement targets compost produced and procured from specified compost operations. Specifically related to mulch, the City of La Habra can now only receive procurement credit for mulch produced by its own contractor if it meets two requirements: 1) the mulch is produced at a permitted facility as defined in the regulations; and 2) In order for mulch to qualify as a Recovered Organic Waste Product toward the Jurisdiction’s Annual Recovered Organic Waste Product Procurement Target, 14 CCR Section 18993.1 requires that jurisdictions adopt an ordinance or similarly enforceable mechanism to require compliance with the land application standards. The State's goal is that procured mulch meets or exceeds the physical contamination, maximum metal concentration, and pathogen density standards for land application specified in 14 CCR Sections 17852(a)(24.5)(A)1 through 3.

As discussed above, Staff recommends the City Council approve the attached ordinance which will add a new section (c) "Mulch" to Chapter 8.04.340 of the La Habra Municipal Code to codify language detailing the State's mulch procurement requirements in the City's code.

Generally, this ordinance will have little to no effect on Refuse Fund expenses. There are no direct costs to the Refuse Fund related to the adoption of the proposed Ordinance. There are some indirect costs relating to procurement that could result in savings or increased costs to the Refuse Fund in the several thousands of dollars range. Determining what these costs or savings may be will depend on what procurement options are available in any given year, the capacity and costs of each option at the time they are procured, and how much mulch the City would typically need and purchase in a given year without the additional procurement mandate.