Composting is required in California?
"Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure".... Confucius
In September 2016, California passed a law designed to reduce the emissions from shorter-lived greenhouse gasses called SB-1383. This law set goals to reduce the amount of organic waste by 75%, by 2025 and starting January 1, 2022, that law requires all businesses and residents to separate the “green” (organic) waste from other waste streams. Essentially, this law requires composting for every home and business in the state.
Isn’t trash just trash - why do I need to separate organic waste from landfill waste?
There are a few reasons for this; for starters - this law is targeted at shorter-lived greenhouse gasses, of which methane is one. Methane can have 25 times more earth-warming potency than Carbon Dioxide, and by some calculations, as much as 80 times. Fortunately, it is shorter-lived in the atmosphere, remaining for roughly eight years before it is removed by oxidization, where it is converted into Cabon Dioxide and Water. However, keep in mind that the portion converted to CO2 remains a Greenhouse gas, which is where the range beyond 25 times comes in.
Secondly, a large percentage of the weight attributed to organic waste is actually water, as much as 96% of the weight. That compactor that you are paying by the pound to empty - a substantial percentage is actually water that you are paying to have sent to a landfill.
While it may not be the reason why the law was passed, from a property management standpoint, organic waste is also a root cause of pest issues, which can also lead to health issues and odor issues. The smell, those flies, and the other critters attracted to your trash collection container are primarily there due to the organic matter or food that it contains. Remove the food, remove the pest, remove the smell.
So how will this impact you?
Starting in the first half of 2022, communities and businesses will start getting notices telling them when and how to segregate their food waste. Over the course of the year, this program will become mandatory. In the City of Los Angeles, multifamily units under the recycLA program are already encouraged to recycle food scraps.
Per CalRecylce, the initial enforcement that started January 1, 2022, will focus on compliance assistance, and they will initially only pursue egregious offenders. The law is rolled out to local jurisdictions to comply with the SB-1383 provisions; it will be up to these local jurisdictions to design their own program and incentives/penalties to ensure their jurisdiction complies.
As the programs begin to roll out across the state this year, communities will be required to determine how they can participate. Fines will be introduced after the programs are established to penalize those properties that fail to enroll in a composting program.
Is there another way to comply?
There is, if an individual, community, or business elects to compost their food scraps on their own site, they are free to do so. The requirement is that the organic material is not allowed in the landfill waste container, so long as it is not contaminating the trash or recycling streams, you can elect to divert it yourself for your own use of the material.
What are the guidelines for businesses and multifamily properties?
There are two important laws that impact businesses and multifamily dwellings in California; both are intended to meet the goals of SB-1383:
AB1826 establishes that any businesses that generates two (2) cubic yards or more of trash and recycling combined per week must have organic waste composting services. Organics include food, yard trimmings, nonhazardous wood, and food-soiled paper.
AB 341 establishes that any business that generates four (4) cubic yards of solid waste must arrange to provide recycling services.
OK, so apparently, the Compost Law in California (SB-1381) applies to my business or multifamily property - now what?
All properties in California will be required to have compost and recycling services. If you do not, contact Conservice’s WasteX team, we can help.
Where you have trash bins, you need to have compost and recycling bins - including indoors with the exception of restrooms - items must be properly sorted into the appropriate bin.
This law impacts large businesses that generate surplus edible food differently. According to the California Association of Food Banks, 1 in 8, or 4.6 million, Californians are food insecure, including 1 in 5 children. At the same time, more than 5.5 million tons of food waste are disposed of in California landfills each year, according to CalRecycle’s 2014 waste characterization study. Sb 1383 is the first law of its kind to try to impact food insecurity by including provisions for edible food recovery. To do this, the law focuses on food generators with additional requirements to recover and send edible food to people in need under the following tiers:
“Tier One” food generators — supermarkets and large grocery stores, food services providers, food distributors, and wholesale food vendors — must comply beginning January 1, 2022.
“Tier Two” food generators — large restaurants, hotels with an on-site food facility and 200 or more rooms, health facilities with an on-site food facility and 100 or more beds, large venues and large events, state agencies with large cafeterias and local educations agencies with on-site food facilities — have until January 1, 2024, to comply.
The keys to successfully addressing SB-1383 begins with planning:
Where will you locate the recycling, organics, and garbage containers?
How many containers of each will you need?
What size should the containers be?
How frequently will you have each collected by the hauler?
Finding the right capacity is key; working with WasteX, we can evaluate your current waste strategy and help optimize it to meet your actual needs. Containers that are too large take up space and may cost more to have collected, while containers that are too small may overfill and could result in fines or complaints. Balance is key, and that begins with understanding your volume.
The best way to estimate how much volume you need is to observe how full your bins and carts are before pick-up and the percentage of the volume represented by garbage, recyclables, or organics (food scraps and compostable paper). If this is not possible, consult with your hauler and/or use the following rules of thumb to estimate weekly capacity based on the number of units or residents:
Tip: There are 202 gallons in a cubic yard, so to convert gallons (used to measure the size of rolling carts) into cubic yards (the measurement used for larger bins), divide the total gallons by 202.
If your property has multiple garbage areas, place recycling and organics containers in each of the garbage areas. This may mean that garbage containers need to be downsized to make room for the other containers. Smaller garbage containers may mean a need to change the frequency that garbage from the multiple locations is consolidated to a central location or the frequency that the hauler collects the garbage. Monitor the level of waste throughout the week to gauge the needed frequency.
If your property has garbage chutes, Garbage chutes provide easy access for residents to dispose of garbage. A successful recycling system makes it easy to properly deposit recyclables and organics. There are several ways this can be accomplished, and each requires investment or extra effort on the part of maintenance staff or the residents. The best option will vary by building:
Close the trash chute and locate all receptacles in a common area on the ground level (least maintenance effort and most resident effort).
Add recycling and organics carts to the chute rooms or areas if there is space, and have maintenance staff bring down the contents to the main hauler-serviced bins regularly (most maintenance effort).
Retrofit the chute system to accommodate multiple streams (requires investment, sufficient space to install the infrastructure, and educating residents how to use the new chute system).
Success also means engagement of both your staff and residents or tenants. Buy-in from the on-site management and maintenance team is critical, as is effective communication and education of the residents or tenants.
It is not unusual for city or trash district laws to require information concerning the waste program at least annually to employees, tenants, residents, and contractors. This information should always include a description of how to properly use the recycling, garbage, and organics containers. These should also be provided to new tenants and as a reminder to tenants planning on moving out, preferably within 14 days of either event.
Signage can also play a role in this, as can the use of color to help identify the purpose of each container. Consistency is vital - if green is organics, it should be extended to everywhere on-site where organics containers are located. Recycling and landfill garbage containers should not be the same color. If you cannot control color, then leverage signage that is color-coordinated.
In closing, keep in mind the four C’s for every waste stream container; this action alone will make a difference in the success of your program. Remember, the key to success is planning ahead and balancing the right capacity with the right level of service.
You can help reduce the impact of the built environment by sharing this blog with your peers. Together we can impact the 39% of greenhouse gasses attributed to the built environment. It starts with awareness, and we succeed with teamwork.
Stay well!
Chris Laughman is the ThirtyNine Blog author, a blog dedicated to reducing the impact of the built environment. When not blogging, Chris is helping the real estate industry reduce energy and water impact as the Vice President of Sustainability for Conservice, the Utility Experts. Whether Multifamily, Single Family, Student Housing, Commercial, or Military, we simplify utility billing and expense management by doing it for you. Our insight into your utility consumption provides an opportunity to identify risks. Leveraging innovation and experience, we ignite solutions with real impacts and track performance to ensure the trendline stays laser-focused on the goal. At Conservice, we have developed a true bill-to-boardroom solution to help truly make a difference. We have before us a tremendous opportunity. Standing shoulder to shoulder, we will get this done. Contact me at claughman@conservice.com for more information.
Follow us at:
Twitter: @BlogThirtynine
Instagram: ThirtyNine_Blog