California law now requires organics to be separated from trash and recycling - Napa Valley Register

Napa residents and businesses are now required to separate organic materials, like lumber and food, from recycling and regular trash.

That change, required by state law Senate Bill 1383, officially came into effect on Jan. 1. The Napa City Council voted unanimously on an ordinance enacting the change during a December meeting.

The law seeks to cut down on the amount of methane released into the atmosphere from the breakdown of organic materials like banana peels and leftover food.

Kevin Miller, the city’s recycling manager, told the council SB 1383 is pretty much the most sweeping piece of legislation in the recycling field that he’s seen in 30 years. The most comparable legislation was Assembly Bill 939, he said, which passed in 1989 and made jurisdictions step up on recycling by mandating a reduction in recycled materials that ended up in landfills.

SB 1383, similarly, focuses on diverting organics and seeks to reduce organic waste disposal by 75% from the 2014 level by 2025, and to recover 20% more edible food. Much of the law focuses on separating the three streams of trash — trash, compost and recycling — which Napa’s recycling program has been designed around for about five years, Miller said. The city so far, however, has only recommended the separation.

“SB 1383 is the full spectrum of organics,” Miller said. “So not just the conditional yard trimmings, but food scraps and soiled paper, it’s all supposed to be captured and diverted from landfill.”

State enforcement of the law on local jurisdictions has now begun, and local jurisdictions — including the city of Napa — will be required to enforce the law for residents and businesses starting in 2024.

And there’s a wide range of other requirements the city needs to follow. The city is now required to purchase 6,400 tons of organic waste products — like mulch, compost or renewable gas — each year, to purchase recycled printing, writing and janitorial paper products and to keep extensive records on recycling, among much else, Miller said.

He gave the city three out of five green checkmarks on its current overall compliance with the far-reaching law. But the city will likely have up to two years to come into full compliance by using Senate Bill 619, passed in October 2021, which allows the city to submit a Notice of Intent to Comply with SB 1383 by March 1 and a plan to show how the compliance will happen.

“The challenge of SB 1383 is that everything is magically supposed to be in place by January 2022,” Miller said. “That’s not the reality for 99% of the jurisdictions out there, I think. And if there are a few that are, I would question that, I would really look at them hard.”

One point of improvement for Napa is the major thrust of the law: providing compostable organic waste collection to all residents and businesses, Miller said. While 99% of residential accounts have full composting service, only about a third of schools and businesses have full-spectrum service, and 6% of multi-family accounts are currently compliant.

But, Miller said, Napa already has the programs and facilities in place to carry out the demands of SB 1383, which isn’t the case for many California jurisdictions.

“We’re ahead of the game in some aspects, and a little behind in others,” Miller said. We’ve had full residential and commercial composting programs since April of 2015. That’s six years ahead of the requirements of 1383 and way ahead of most jurisdictions in the North Bay and throughout California.”

Ice skating at the Meritage resort

Ice skating at the Meritage resort, Napa

Ice skaters at the Meritage resort

Santa at the Meritage

Christmas tree at Meritage

Meritage Ice Skaters

Meritage ice skaters with tree and globes

Santa at the Meritage Resort

You can reach Edward Booth at (707) 256-2213.

source: https://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/california-law-now-requires-organics-to-be-separated-from-trash-and-recycling/article_c127f4c8-1fab-55b6-87e4-dd83fb69dd3b.html

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