Local Government Recycling Program and Infrastructure Funding and Financing Mechanisms

Local Sources of Funding and Financing

Local disposal tipping fees provide funding for diversion programs administered by CalRecycle and local jurisdictions. Tipping fees are generally used to fund daily operational and closure costs of a landfill but may also be used to fund recycling programs, litter abatement, public education efforts, and other programs.
- A local tipping fee can encourage certain practices or discourage others.
  - For example: The disposal tipping fee for compostable organic materials can be set at a much higher rate than that set by the composting facility. This would act as an incentive for haulers to bring these materials to a compost facility rather than a landfill.
Landfill Tipping Fees in California, a 60-page CalRecycle report, discusses complexity and variation in local, regional, and statewide landfill tipping fees based on posted self-haul rates and compares California to other states and the European Union.

The Institute for Local Government, CalRecycle, and advisory committee members from throughout the solid waste industry published:
- Financing Recycling Programs and Facilities: Understanding Options and Resources: An overview of the current methods that local agencies use to fund their recycling programs and how the public and private sectors are financing recycling facilities.
As part of the informal rulemaking process for SB 1383 (Lara, Chapter 395, Statutes of 2016) Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (SLCP), the October 30, 2017 workshop included a panel of speakers addressing funding programs and rate increases.
- Watch a YouTube video of the recorded webcast (the discussion on this topic begins at 1:50:00)
  - Review a PDF of the slides in the first presentation given by Rob Hilton of HF&H Consultants.
Differential fee structures can be used to incentivize products and manufacturing processes.

Integrated Waste Management Account Disposal Tipping Fee. CalRecycle’s current maximum tipping fee of $1.40 per ton took effect on July 1, 2001. State law (AB 1220, Eastin, 1993) caps the tipping fee at this level. The current fee of $1.40 per ton is so low as to offer little disincentive to landfilling. In the past, attempts to raise the tipping fee have been defeated (e.g., AB 1610, Nunez). In the event the tipping fee is increased, one option for these funds is developing a grant program that would provide new incentives for diversion activities.
CalRecycle cosponsored facility-financing seminars with the California Resource Recovery Association (CRRA) on January 29, 2015, and February 25, 2015. Financing for recycling facilities were discussed, including tax-exempt bonds, grants, or loans from California Pollution Control Financing Authority (CPCFA), California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank (IBank), and CalRecycle.
Low Carbon Transportation Investments and Air Quality Improvement Program
California Statewide Communities Development Authority
California Department of Housing and Community Development Block Grant Program

CalRecycle Loan Programs
- Recycling Market Development Zone (RMDZ) Loans Provides direct loans to businesses that use postconsumer or secondary waste materials to manufacture new products, or that undertake projects to reduce the waste resulting from the manufacture of a product.
- Greenhouse Gas Reduction Loans Provides loans to promote in-state development of infrastructure to process California-generated organics and other recyclable materials into new value-added products.
- CalRecycle has published two documents focusing on its Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) financing programs. Cap-and-Invest Funding for Recycling Infrastructure and Putting Cap-and-Invest Dollars to Work for California.
CalRecycle Grant Programs

If you have additional questions about these topics, please contact local assistance staff.