The purpose of AB 939 was to conserve resources and extend landfill capacity, not to penalize jurisdictions for increases in population or economic growth. Thus, having more residents or more businesses will not automatically cause jurisdictions to fail to meet the diversion goals. The impacts of demographic changes on the waste stream must be considered when calculating diversion rates. By incorporating these demographic factors, the Board-approved Adjustment Method allows valid comparisons between years regardless of the changes in population and economics. The first step in performing the calculation was to determine the 1999 statewide waste generation tonnage.
Generation is the total amount of waste disposed and diverted.
We applied the Board Approved Adjustment Method, which uses changes in population and economics, to adjust 1990 generation forward to 1999. The next step was to determine statewide disposal. Disposal is the total amount of waste that is landfilled, exported out of the state, and transformed. In 1999 total disposal was 37.5 million tons. By dividing this number by statewide generation, we arrived at a disposal rate of 63 percent.