In Yolo County I have the pleasure of losing on 4-1 votes on a regular basis. Today in our meeting I had the pleasure of losing again.
Here is the agenda for today. The item we were discussing is 3.01.
We had a presentation from the California Product Stewardship Council regarding Extended Producer Responsibility. At the end of the presentation Supervisor Mariko Yamada said out loud "What is not to like?". I got to be the skunk at the party and spell out exactly why I was not going to vote for the resolution and felt that it sent the wrong message.
The argument here is that the burden for the cost of disposal of medical and universal waste should fall on the manufacturer. The disposal of these products is viewed as a cost to local government. Nonsense. Yolo County government has decided to enter into the landfill business and is not mandated. The way we handle out garbage is. We could choose to get out of the landfill business and then we would not have to deal with this mandate.
The whole justification for this program is spelled out in that we "seek an understanding from the producers that they bear some responsibility for the proper disposal and recycling of the products from which they produce and profit." Nonsense.
The companies that produce these goods (medical waste and universal waste) owe no greater responsibility to society than the people that make and deliver pizzas, make swimming pools, or print books. This same rationale would apply to nearly every product sold in this country.
The final reason that I opposed this today, and I have many reasons, was that the only way to encourage people to but easily recycled products is to let consumers demand those products. Amazing how the market works. If people really want to shape the waste stream with efforts like this then people need to stop buying products that are so easily disposable.
Government is always trying to capture the externalities of the production or consumption of a product. We try to put a price on air pollution, water use, road use, and all kinds of things. I actually want to see people pay for the disposal of the trash they produce based on their use. I want people to pay for water based on use.
They need to pay this fee when it is directly linked to the action — disposal or water use or air pollution.
Here is the thing that blew me away. San Bernardino, Solano County, and Fresno have all joined this effort. Good for them I guess. Maybe Supervisor Mitzelfelt sees something in this that I do not. This Supervisor does not feel this burden belongs on the people manufacturing the good. The burden for disposal belongs on the consumer — right where it is now.