Newsletter – Page 15 – Northern California Recycling Association

NCRA July Legislative Update

By Doug Brooms, ZWAC Co-Chair, 7/15/2022

Please visit the NCRA 2022 Legislative Advocacy page for additional information. Comments, recommendations and questions are welcome and appreciated.

Clean Seas Lobby Coalition Priority Bills
NCRA has been included, among many other organizations, as a signatory to support letters for the following 7 Bills that are still active. Most of these Bills reside in the Appropriations Committee in the alternate House.

AB 1817 Product safety: textile articles: perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)
AB 1857 Solid waste. (Incinerators Diversion Credit Removal)
AB 2026 Recycling: plastic packaging and carryout bags
AB 2247 PFAS Disclosures in Cosmetics
AB 2638 School facilities: drinking water: water bottle filling stations. SB 1013 Atkins D Beverage container recycling: reports: electronic submittal: wine and distilled spirits. (Revised) CAW letter sign-on
SB 1255 Single-use products waste reduction: Dishwasher Grant Program for Waste Reduction in K–12 Schools and Community Colleges.

CalRecycle Priority Bills
The following are 12 Bills, selected from CalRecycle’s list of Priority Bills, for which NCRA has submitted letters of support to designated legislative committees. Most of these Bills reside in the Appropriations Committee in the alternate House.

Note: Bills currently also supported by Californians Against Waste (CAW) are designated with (*)
AB 649 Bennett D Calrecycle: Office of Environmental Justice and Tribal Relations.
AB 661 Bennett D Recycling: materials. Minimum recycled content.
AB 1001 Garcia, Cristina D Environment: Mitigation measures for air and water quality impacts: Environmental justice.
AB 1067 Ting D Beverage containers. In-lieu Study. *
AB 1985 Rivas, Robert D Organic waste: list: available products.
AB 2048 Santiago D Franchise agreements: Database.
AB 2208 Kalra D Fluorescent lamps: sale and distribution: prohibition * (new)
AB 2419 Bryan D Environmental justice: Federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act: Justice 40 Oversight Committee.
AB 2440 Irwin D Battery and Battery-Embedded Product Recycling and Fire Risk Reduction Act of 2022.
AB 2779 Irwin D Beverage containers: Wine and distilled spirits. *
SB 1046 Eggman D Solid waste: Pre-checkout bags. *
SB 1215 (Newman) E-Waste Recycling Program Expansion (Group support letter)

The following 8 additional CalRecycle Priority Bills, previously proposed as viable candidates for NCRA support, are in need of further assessments:
AB 923 Ramos D Government-to-Government Consultation Act: state-tribal consultation.
AB 1740 Muratsuchi D Catalytic converters.
AB 2374 Bauer-Kahan D Crimes against public health and safety: Illegal dumping. (Recent)
AB 2784 Ting D Thermoform plastic containers: Postconsumer recycled plastic. *
SB 1075 Skinner D Green hydrogen: Emissions of greenhouse gases.
SB 1136 Portantino D California Environmental Quality Act: Expedited environmental review: Climate change regulations (Recent)
SB 1187 Kamlager D Fabric recycling: Pilot project.
SB 1206 Skinner D Hydrofluorocarbon gases: Sale or distribution. (Recent) *

Again, comments, recommendations and questions are welcome and appreciated.

Thanks for considering.

NCRA DEI Training Summary – Session 1, 4/22

Holistic Underground, the NCRA DEI consultants and the DEI Committee, recently hosted two well received leadership trainings. More than 20 NCRA members took part in session 1 and about 14 in Session 2. (The YouTube links are available from the office. )

By Portia Sinnott, NCRA Executive Director, 4/15/2022

These 2.5 hour engaging and interactive sessions were designed to assist NCRA in:

- Hosting an inclusive and welcoming Recycling Update that demonstrates our commitment to equity
- Developing better JEDI skills and cultural competency
- Building a more diverse membership by fostering an inclusive environment

The first session was focused on tools including a framework for navigating change, an introduction to the principles and terminology of JEDI – justice, equity, diversity and inclusion, a methodology for becoming more inclusive communicators, a framework for moving beyond unconscious bias and tools and best practices for creating inclusive spaces.

Courageous Conversations
I particularly liked the Red Lens/Green Lens breakout exercise that utilized the affirmation above.

But first, I would like take a moment to introduce a simple yet effective approach designed to make sure everyone has a voice – introverts as well as extroverts. Before each exercise we spent 2 minutes journaling focused on questions related to the exercise. For example:

1) How can the Green Lens help you navigate your Unconscious Bias?
2) How can this support you to foster more equity and inclusion in this field?

Then when we went into discussion and breakouts we all were better prepared to share in a more succinct matter.

Green Lens
The Green Lens is a way of seeing and communicating by Dr. Maria Nemeth. Basically it can help you take a pause and listen more respectfully when someone is irritating or disagreeable. Conversely, the Red Lens is the opposite – how to listen disrespectfully. Please check them out above.

For Next Time: Moving Beyond Unconscious Bias
We would like everyone to review the 4-page Three Steps To Moving Beyond Unconscious Bias, with idea of getting a dialog going about the article. Please download and then let us know what you thought of it. Please do not share without with Holistic Undergrounds’ permission.

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