Californians will ring in the new year with the unfurling of a groundbreaking law that will change how they dispose of their organic waste, particularly leftover food and kitchen scraps.
Senate Bill 1383 requires all residents and businesses to separate such “green” waste from other trash, but the program will be rolled out gradually for homes and businesses in the coming months, with the actual startup date varying, depending on the location of your home or business.
Fines can be levied for failing to separate organic refuse from other trash. But those charges aren’t scheduled to begin until 2024. CalRecycle, the state agency overseeing the change, has lots of information about the new requirements on its website.
Others offering composting solutions include LA Compost — which gives instructions on home composting and also offers community hubs where organic material can be dropped — and CompostableLA, which provides a home pickup service in some neighborhoods, for a fee.
Residents and businesspeople should check with their local governments, and with waste haulers, to find out the specific rules for their communities. Here are some frequently asked questions about the new requirements, with answers from Los Angeles County Public Works and the Los Angeles City Bureau of Sanitation.
Isn’t garbage just garbage? Why are California lawmakers requiring us to separate organic waste from the rest of our trash?
Scientists have found that organic waste dumped into traditional landfills decomposes and creates methane, a super-pollutant with as much as 80 times the Earth-warming potency of carbon dioxide.
To slow the advance of global warming, the state wants to redirect the material to composting centers or anaerobic digestion facilities, where it can help sink carbon back into the Earth or capture natural gas to — for instance — power trash trucks.
When do I need to begin separating my kitchen waste from other trash?
The opening date for organics diversion varies, depending on where you live. San Francisco, Berkeley, Costa Mesa and other communities have been recycling kitchen waste via curbside green bins for years. Those bins also accommodate yard trimmings.
Los Angeles County Public Works officials say homes in unincorporated communities will get notices over the first half of 2022 telling them when, and how, to segregate their food waste. Some businesses in L.A. County already have voluntary recycling of food waste, a program that will become mandatory over the course of the new year.
Hold it!! Co2 has exactly ZERO to do with GloBull WTH. So for the math impaired 80timees more than ZERO is ZERO. Don’t believe me put a thermometer inside of a large jar fill it full of CO2 and try to heat it. Zero retention of heat, cold. It is called science.
As with all of California government. This is another feel good pos. This will do nothing more then make the cost of living in California way more expensive. And set up another layer of bureaucrats, taking more tax money. We really need to thin out the herd in government.
Just a bunch of greenie environmentalist bull$hi+.
As long as the sheeple keep pulling the “D” lever, we will continue to get this kind of $hit!!
No wonder we have the highest “flee” rate of any other State!
Good thing we don’t have Christian autocratic zealots micro-managing our lives!
Oh. Wait.
This is the sledge hammer approach to an issue where the answer was available (and is) 25 years ago.
A friend and one of the top bio-mass conversion Ph.D’s in the world offered the answer to the County of Santa Barbara and REJECTED BY EVERY DEMOCRAT ON THE BOS.
There is no need for this heavy handed and un-needed. When combined with all organics as separated with then current and now upgraded equipment enzymes and bacteria attack it all. The gravity separation will occure regardless. It is time the Radical Democrat Party be told ENOUGH. This is simply another action to force people to not buy or use certain foods and products. They cannot stand none vegans.
Oh, my friend? A Democrat.
This is not new for SF, which has mandated all compost be separated and discarded in green garbage cans for several years. Recology has separate trucks to pick up the compost. Didn’t seem like a very big deal because we’re used to it.
Next : requiring us to separate our animal and human feces and put into the compost bucket. (eeyuck)
Animal poop doesn’t belong in the sewer, just a note. That said, decades ago I got sludge mixed with rice hulls for my lawn, it never looked better, and no it didn’t smell.
The Chinese Corona virus vaccines are dumbing down the masses. As intended! Adios!
First “they” have us separating aluminum, glass and plastics, now they are adding food waste. What next, tax the 4% of CO2 we exhale with each breath? Or tubes up everybody’s butt to prevent flatulent from escaping into the atmosphere? Of course instead of raising waste collection rates they could also slap on a new Food Compost Tax on food similar to the CRV tax on bottles and cans.
When did methane become 80 times the potency of CO2? The last I heard it was only 27 times as potent. It must be due to bureaucratic inflation to justify the law. Then there’s the proposed use of the methane captured to help drive CO2 capture back into the earth or using “natural gas” to power trash trucks. The “natural gas” of course is methane. If they would just compost all the $hit that our CA legislators are full of, they could reduce Komifornia contribution to global warming for a year.
Hold on kids…, Next they will be fining compost garden usage, due to all that bad “Methane!”
You really can’t make this “shit” up!
I did backyard composting for nearly 30 yrs. I would dump lawn, garden clippings, plants etc into a pile then turn it every so often then dump back into the veggie garden area when needed. If you add red worms left over from a fishing trip it makes the best compost available.
I do know one reason for this mandatory is that at the end of the day many people will buy this compost back in the form of top soil for new lawns or potting soil from a local garden store.