City of Hayward (CA) Updates its C&D Ordinance and Specifies Third-Party Certification

The City of Hayward is located in the San Francisco Bay Area, a hotbed of C&D programs, ordinances, and recycling operations.  Upping the ante, the City of Hayward recently amended their C&D ordinance to expand the recycling requirement to include more projects and also require increased diversion.  California state law has required cities and counties to divert at least 50% of their waste since 2000, but this past January California Building and Standards Codes (CALGreen) updates went into effect with even more stringent recycling rules for C&D projects.  CALGreen now requires projects recover/recycle 65% or more of the non-hazardous C&D waste and that projects utilize a C&D recycling facility that meets locally approved standards for reporting verification.

In developing the locally approved standards for reporting verification, Hayward’s ordinance establishes the term “Qualified Third Party Organization.”  Accordingly, Qualified Third Party Organization “refers to an organization that certifies the Facility-Average Diversion Rate of Mixed-Recovery Facilities” with the requirements of certification described in more detail in the ordinance.  In a nutshell, the requirements are nearly directly aligned with the USGBC’s LEED Pilot Credit MRpc87.  Why is this important?

The Recycling Certification Institute (RCI) understands the importance of good (read: accurate) data and how necessary that is to effectively measure performance.  The USGBC understands this as well and has approved our CORR Protocol for Third-Party Verification of Construction & Demolition Recycling Rates.  That is one of the reasons why any LEED project that takes its materials to a C&D facility Certified by RCI is eligible to receive the additional MRpc87 Pilot Credit.

Kudos to City of Hayward elected leaders and staff for establishing an exemplary ordinance that supports increased recovery of C&D materials and verified recovery rates at C&D facilities.  RCI has already certified numerous C&D processing lines that handle waste from Hayward and we have been in communication with other interested facilities.  We look forward to working with these companies and StopWaste.Org as we continue and combine our efforts in this region.

More information on the City of Hayward’s C&D program and ordinance can be found here.

Best regards,

Stephen M Bantillo