Rolling Hills Estates hears Republic Services request to amend recycling requirement after Anaheim facility fire

Rolling Hills Estates city leaders spent their meeting on a detailed discussion with Republic Services about proposed changes to the city's solid-waste franchise agreement after a fire damaged a mixed-waste processing facility in Anaheim in February 2022.

Republic Services told council members it has declared a force majeure under section 27.1 of the franchise agreement and said there is no definite timeline to rebuild the Anaheim consolidated volume transfer (CVT) processing facility that handled mixed-waste processing for the city. Dawn, a Republic Services representative, said the company was offering two interim options: add a once-weekly recycling pickup on Wednesdays or amend the contract to reduce the required diversion rate tied to mixed-waste processing from 30% to 10%.

The issue matters because the cityagreement specifically requires mixed-waste processing for achieving the contract's diversion target (section 5.8), even though Republic said the city is already meeting or exceeding applicable state recycling targets without mixed-waste processing. Council members and staff pressed Republic on operational details, timelines and legal…