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Davis solid-waste update: state rule change will add thousands of tons and lower reported diversion
Summary
City conservation coordinator Jennifer Gilbert told the Climate & Environmental Justice Commission that a CalRecycle definitional change will add more than 3,000 tons of biosolids to Davis’s landfill totals and likely reduce the city’s reported diversion rate by 5–10 percentage points. Staff outlined procurement challenges and local program successes, including low contamination rates and a decade-old organics program.
Jennifer Gilbert, the City of Davis conservation coordinator, told the Climate & Environmental Justice Commission that a change in state reporting will materially affect the city’s recycling metrics and require new procurement and program responses.
"Nothing has changed, just the definition," Gilbert said, describing how material from the wastewater treatment plant that had been counted as reuse will be classified as landfilled waste in 2025 data. She said that change will add "more than 3,000 tons" to Davis’s calculations and is likely to reduce the city’s reported diversion rate from about 62 percent toward the mid-50s — a drop of roughly 5–10 percentage points that could approach the state’s 50 percent threshold.
The shift stems from recent CalRecycle rules and the implementation of the Short-Lived Climate Pollutants law (SB 1383), which also prescribes uniform container colors, contamination…
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