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We’re two years into California’s food waste law, called SB 1383, which requires everyone, including residents and businesses, to keep their food waste out of the landfill, where it decomposes and releases the powerful planet-heating greenhouse gas methane. We put together a guide answering your questions about it.
A survey: To direct Erin's ongoing reporting on this topic, she wanted to hear from you! That’s why we distributed a survey last month asking you to tell us how California’s “compost” law is going. We heard back from nearly 500 people across the Southland, and your responses helped us figure out what to address in this guide.
About the guide: Our guide provides best practices on how to separate your food waste, such as how to avoid bugs and smells. It also delves into where that food waste actually ends up (short answer, it depends on where you live). We also point to other ways of dealing with your food scraps, such as joining a local compost hub or composting in your own backyard.
One thing I learned in the course of my reporting is that many people find this policy confusing or may be unaware of it. Two years in, it seemed like the right time to put together the mother of all guides about it — guided by your questions.
That’s why we distributed a survey last month asking you to tell us how California’s “compost” law is going. We heard back from nearly 500 people across the Southland, and your responses helped us figure out what to address.
LAIST READERS REACT
You can read more about how Southern Californians are experiencing California's "compost" law in our story about the survey.
If we didn’t cover your question, you can let us know in the box at the bottom of this story.
A huge pile of finished compost at Recology's composting facility near Bakersfield. The company sells about 300,000 pounds of compost, much of it made from food and yard waste from L.A., to nearby farms every year.
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Alborz Kamalizad
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The background
What is California’s “compost” law?
Officially called SB 1383, the law requires all cities, counties, institutions, residents and businesses to divert food and other organic waste from landfills. Instead, that waste will be composted, donated, or turned into fuel. California is the second state in the U.S. after Vermont to pass such a law.
Why was this law passed?
Most of our food waste — the food we let go bad and toss in the trash, as well as orange and banana peels, fruit and vegetable choppings, chicken bones, and other leftovers — winds up in landfills, where it decomposes and produces methane, a planet-heating greenhouse gas that’s dozens of times more powerful than carbon dioxide. Food waste in landfills is why landfills are California’s third largest source of methane emissions. Food waste makes up nearly 20% of the garbage in state landfills and food waste in landfills across the U.S. has tripled since the 1960s.
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The “compost” law was passed back in 2016, but didn’t go into effect until 2022 and enforcement began this year, in 2024. The delay was intended to give cities time to make contracts with waste haulers and develop the necessary infrastructure, such as composting facilities and anaerobic digesters, which turn food waste into fuel. However, the rollout has been slow.
How does keeping food out of landfills prevent methane emissions?
The piles of garbage at landfills have almost no oxygen. Methane, or CH4, is made out of one carbon and four hydrogen atoms, so when microbes break down the food waste methane is produced without oxygen present. When you compost correctly, mostly by letting oxygen in with the food waste, methane isn’t produced.
How is food waste turned into fuel?
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Anaerobic digesters, a type of machine, capture the methane released from decomposing food before it escapes into the atmosphere, then turn it into fuel in the form of natural gas, which is primarily made of methane. Capturing that methane before it escapes into the atmosphere helps with methane emissions, but when that fuel is burned to make electricity or power trucks, it releases the other main greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide (though less of it than burning coal, diesel or gasoline).
Carbon dioxide doesn’t heat the planet as quickly as methane, but stays in the atmosphere longer and is the bulk of the greenhouse gases released by human society that’s contributing to the climate crisis.
In some cities, most of the food waste you toss into the green bin will be used to make fuel, while in others most of it will be composted. You can find out where yours goes by calling your waste hauler and your local government.
How to separate your food scraps
Separating food waste from the trash is a learning curve! Remember, you don’t have to be perfect, reducing your amount of food waste in general is a positive thing.
Many of the people we heard from in our survey felt that there hadn’t been enough education to get started. Below we answer some key questions, including many from our survey respondents.
Agustin Ortiz, organics manager at Recology's compost facility in Lamont, which receives green waste from cities including L.A., holds finished compost.
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How do I know what to separate?
You should have received information from your local waste hauler and government about what to separate and how to separate it, but if you didn’t, there should also be information on your local government’s website about the details.
FINDING THE "COMPOST" LAW GUIDELINES FOR YOUR AREA
If you live in a city not included on this list, try searching “organics recycling” or “SB 1383” and the name of your city, county or waste hauler.
There are some differences between cities and counties — for example, some cities, such as L.A., allow you to put all food and organic waste directly in the green bin, while other cities, such as Pasadena, require you to place your food waste in a clear plastic bag before placing it in the green bin or communal dumpster. You need to check with your local waste hauler or government to know exactly what to do in your area.
The type of food waste that should be separated is generally the same everywhere. That organic waste includes:
fruit and vegetables (fresh scraps and rotting)
egg shells
coffee and tea grounds, as well as coffee filters and tea bags in paper fiber bags
fish, meat (including bones), and dairy products
Bread, pasta, rice and other grains
cooked leftovers
food-soiled paper products such as the greasy part of cardboard pizza boxes (the clean half can be placed in the blue recycling bin!), food-soiled paper towels, paper napkins and paper plates (just make sure they don’t have that plastic coating on them)
How do I separate my food scraps?
Before separating food waste, be sure to take stickers and rubber bands off all produce.
A small kitchen pail for your counter is a great place to store your food waste before you put it in the green bin or dumpster. Some cities, such as L.A., offer these kitchen pails for free to residents, so check to see if your city or county does the same.
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You can also get one that fits in your freezer — that’s what I do! This eliminates smells and bugs.
Place this kitchen pail next to you when you’re chopping vegetables or otherwise preparing meals. Then just toss all those food scraps in the pail instead of the trash!
To help with mess and smells, you can line the kitchen pail with paper towels (compostable, fine for green bin), a paper bag (compostable, fine for green bin), or plastic or compostable bag (not compostable, but may be required by your city to keep waste streams properly separated) to help with mess and smells. Be sure to check if your city allows such bags in the green bin or not.
If your waste hauler doesn’t require you to bag your food waste in the green bin, you can still use paper, plastic, or compostable bags to line your kitchen pail, then just toss the content out directly in the green bin and reuse the bag for your pail.
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What’s compostable and what’s not?
All organic matter is compostable. That means:
fruit and vegetables (fresh scraps and rotting)
egg shells
coffee and tea grounds, as well as coffee filters and tea bags in paper fiber bags
fish, meat, and dairy products, including bones
Bread, pasta, rice and other grains
cooked leftovers
food-soiled paper products such as the greasy part of cardboard pizza boxes (the clean half can be placed in the blue recycling bin!), food-soiled paper towels, paper napkins and paper plates (just make sure they don’t have that plastic coating on them)
Yard waste (i.e. plants, soil, etc.) is compostable as well, except for thorny cactuses, succulents, yucca and palm fronds in many cases.
WHAT GOES IN YOUR GREEN BIN – AND WHAT DOESN'T
Your waste hauler should provide a list of what can or can’t go in the green bin or your building’s shared receptacle.
Athens Services, for example, has a “What Goes Where Guide” that you can search by city and building type. Check it out here.
Plain paper products can be composted, such brown paper bags, wood chopsticks or pure bamboo utensils. Those utensils that feel like plastic but are labeled “compostable” or “biodegradable” cannot be composted, and if there’s any kind of coating on a wood or bamboo utensil, that can’t be composted either. At this time, large-scale composting facilities are unable to break these products down.
Animal or human feces cannot be composted and should never go in the green bin. Grease and oil should go in the trash and never down the drain.
If you’re unsure, call your waste hauler for more details, or toss it in the trash. You may not reduce the food waste that goes to the landfill to zero, but reducing as much as you can really does add up.
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How do I keep things from getting smelly and buggy?
We heard from a lot of survey respondents about smells and bugs! Separating your food waste can be a stinky business, but it doesn’t have to be.
Place a paper towel on the bottom of your kitchen pail and sprinkle some baking soda in to help prevent smells. Another option is to keep your food waste in your freezer until trash day (that’s what I do). There are little containers that fit in freezers that you can purchase for the food waste, or you can simply put it in a bag.
Placing yard waste or old newspaper at the bottom of the green bin also helps prevent smells. Rinsing your green bin out regularly and placing it for collection every week regardless of whether or not it's full can also help. If possible, keep the bin out of direct sunlight.
How do I know if I need to bag my food scraps?
The requirement by some cities and county governments to put food waste into plastic bags is confusing to say the least, and we heard from a lot of people about this. First, check to see if your city requires this.
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Putting the food waste in plastic bags makes it easier for the waste hauler to separate the food waste from other garbage so it goes into the proper waste stream. The bags themselves — even compostable ones — will be cut open then sent to the landfill.
For example, in Pasadena, bagging the food waste allows the city to keep food waste separate from the yard waste (here’s a link to the city’s commonly asked questions). In Pasadena, food waste will mostly be turned into fuel, while yard waste will be composted. The city recommends reusing plastic bags in the home, such as bread bags, cereal bags, and produce bags. In other cities, the food waste will be composted along with yard waste.
Non-clear bags are acceptable in some cities, including Pasadena, but not everywhere so check with your local government and waste hauler. And you can ask them exactly what will happen with that food waste.
You can use clear plastic bags, translucent green compostable bags (though some waste haulers reject these because they rip too easily), or other somewhat clear bags for the food waste. Ziploc bags are a no-no because they’re difficult to rip open.
How do renters get started?
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We heard from many renters who had yet to see clear direction or participation at their apartment complex. Your landlord is required to comply with the law, so if you’re not seeing an option to put your food scraps in a green bin where you live yet, start a conversation with your landlord, and if needed, report your building through your local city government or CalRecycle. You can do this anonymously.
In the meantime, you can consider taking your food waste to a compost hub. Look up community gardens near you to see if they compost, or check out an LA Compost dropoff here.
If we already compost, do we have to now put the food waste in the green bin instead?
No! You can absolutely keep dropping your food waste off at your local compost hub, or keep composting at home in your backyard. That’s actually the best way to ensure your food waste gets composted and is used locally.
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I personally will continue dropping off most of my food waste at my local compost hub, then I’ll put stuff that can’t go in the pile there — bread, meat, dairy, etc. — in a separate bag for the green bin.
What happens when someone mixes non-compostable items with compostable items?
The waste will be sorted by humans and machinery before being composted or turned to fuel. But if the waste is too contaminated, it will end up at the landfill, so doing it right from the start helps ensure that less waste is deemed too contaminated to be kept out of the landfill.
A Recology worker takes large pieces of non-compostable garbage from piles of "green waste," mostly yard trimmings from Los Angeles and Kern Counties.
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What if I live in an area with a lot of wildlife?
I live in a foothill community with bear activity, so I hear you on this! If your community doesn’t have wildlife-resistant trash cans and green bins, this is certainly a challenge. Advocating for such containers at your local city council can help move the needle. You may also be able to request one directly from your waste hauler.
In the meantime, consider where most of your food waste is currently going. Is it down the garbage disposal or in your trash bin? If in your trash bin, then putting it in your green bin is about the same thing. Otherwise, keep putting most of it down your disposal or drop it off at a local compost hub near you. That’s best for the wildlife and the local compost economy!
What’s the difference between small- and large-scale composting?
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Local community compost hubs, often at community gardens or other urban green spaces, would be considered small-scale (check out our guide on that sort of composting). Whereas industrial-scale composting takes place most often on large pieces of land with huge, long piles of decomposing food waste (learn more here). There are also technologies now that allow this type of composting without needing so much space. The Rose Bowl has used such technology to compost food waste at major events, for example.
Many small-scale composting hubs don’t accept food waste such as bread, meat and dairy. If you compost in your backyard you also don’t put those sorts of leftovers in.
That’s because smaller piles don’t generate enough heat to break down those materials. When composting at a large scale, with massive piles of food waste, the heat generated inside those piles can break down meat, dairy and bones. That’s why pretty much everything can be composted at a large-scale.
A "windrow turner" rotates the windrow, or the pile of food and yard waste, at Recology's compost facility near Bakersfield. Rotating the row allows oxygen into the decomposing waste, which helps lower methane emissions.
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Getting to know the law
Why are the food waste rules different for different areas?
The law puts the responsibility on each city and county to figure out how to comply, so rules can differ based on different agreements with waste haulers. There’s also still a lack of large-scale composting facilities and anaerobic digesters to support the growing need to do something with food waste other than toss it in a landfill.
Some cities have infrastructure that makes it easier to lean into composting over biogas productions, while for others it’s the opposite. Costs are also factored in by each jurisdiction since diverting food waste is more expensive than tossing it in a landfill.
"Green waste" before it's been sorted (left) and finished compost (right)
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How will the law be enforced?
Starting this year, cities, waste haulers, businesses and residents can be issued warnings or fined for not complying with the law. There won’t be some sort of patrol out there to arrest you for not separating your food waste and the enforcement primarily applies to waste haulers, businesses and city governments. But more and more cities now have a way to file a complaint for not following the law. For example, here is where you can file a complaint in Pasadena.
Each local government also must develop an inspection and record-keeping program for businesses and food generators to ensure they’re complying.
The state agency CalRecycle is tasked with ensuring each city is doing this and will collect reports from the cities, which will also receive information from the waste haulers. They will review each jurisdictions compliance at least once every four years. You can also file a complaint for noncompliance with CalRecycle here. Read more on the enforcement process here.
Where does my food waste go?
Where your food waste goes depends on where you live. In L.A., 100% of the food waste collected at single-family homes will be composted, much of it at this large-scale facility near Bakersfield, where the compost will then be sold to farms in the area.
Food Cycle Collective in Pomona composts an average of 1,300 pounds of food waste each week. Californians throw out nearly 6 million tons of food waste each year.
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Jessica Langlois for LAist
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For apartments and businesses in L.A., approximately 60% of the food waste will be composted, while 40% will be sent to an anaerobic digester, where the food waste will be turned into “biogas,” or methane gas that can be used to fuel trucks or generate electricity.
In Pasadena, on the other hand, much of the food waste will be turned into fuel, while yard waste will be composted.
If you want to find out exactly where your food waste is going, you’ll need to call your waste hauler and provide your address. You can also contact your city to understand whether food waste will be mostly composted or turned into fuel. In many cases, you can actually visit the facilities where your food waste ends up, which could be a great learning activity for the whole family — after all, seeing is believing, right?
A conveyor drops finished compost in a mound after the final screen for contaminants at Recology's compost facility in Lamont. In the foreground is a windrow of green waste during the second stage of the large-scale composting process.
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Does trucking food waste to faraway facilities cancel out the benefits of composting?
Most experts I’ve spoken with — from community composters to city waste leaders to consultants to researchers — agree that the overall benefit of avoiding methane emissions by keeping food waste out of landfills outweighs the emissions cost of trucking. A 2020 UC Merced study, for example, looked into this and found that one metric ton of compost could be transported more than 5,000 miles without becoming a net source of greenhouse gas emissions. And in the future, these trucks will be electric or otherwise use lower-emission fuels.
However, keeping your food waste local by dropping it off at a local compost hub or farmers market likely has the lowest carbon footprint. It’s also the best way to know exactly what will happen with your food waste and avoid these emissions (especially if you bike or take public transit to get to your nearby dropoff). Just keep in mind that smaller scale composting doesn’t allow food waste such as bread, dairy, meat, and fish. You can dump the rest of the stuff that a local compost hub doesn’t take in your green bin.
Drew Felix (left) tosses a handful of microgreen roots mixed with ground coconut shells into a compost pile at Buena Vista Community Garden in Pomona, while Daniel Hernandez and Craig Sheldon haul mulch to cover the pile.
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Jessica Langlois for LAist
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Is “biogas” really “green”?
It’s complicated. Biogas helps reduce the amount of methane that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere, and methane heats up the planet faster than carbon dioxide. But once you burn biogas for fuel or electricity, it releases carbon dioxide, which we need to cut in half by the end of this decade to avoid some of the most catastrophic impacts of the climate crisis.
A diagram of how anaerobic digestion works.
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There are far fewer emissions associated with turning food waste into natural gas (which is primarily composed of methane) as opposed to the traditional method of extracting oil and gas to be refined for fuel. And burning biogas releases less carbon than burning coal, diesel or gasoline.
There are also certain industrial and transportation processes that still require natural gas — think jet planes, heavy-duty machinery and long-haul trucks — so biogas can be a more environmentally friendly alternative. However, for communities and farms near existing biogas facilities, primarily at dairies, the investment in the fuel has led to a heightened concern about air and water pollution. And ultimately, biogas still leads to carbon emissions.
Learn more about biogas
For background on the ongoing decision making process around biofuels primarily in the dairy industry read this and this and this.
I’m into composting! How do I get other people on board?
If you’ve made it this far, you’re probably all about that compost life. For starters, you can share this guide with friends, neighbors, and small businesses in your neighborhood. Maybe you can ask your local coffee shop what they do with all their coffee grounds!
Maybe someone you know is skeptical their food waste will actually be separated, or they just didn’t know about the law, or it’s too gross and they don’t want to do it. Meeting people where they’re at, without judgment, is the best way to get a conversation going — and even make a new friend!
If you don’t want to be the food waste warrior on the block, maybe you’re wondering …
Does it make a difference if I’m the only one I know who is composting?
Here’s how I like to think about it — when I started dropping my food scraps at my local compost hub, I immediately realized how much food I was actually tossing in the trash. Now I know that my food isn’t adding to the methane emissions in landfills and dropping off my compost on my bike is now an activity I actually enjoy.
I’ve also become more conscious about properly storing food so it stays fresh longer, and I only buy what I realistically will eat in a week (but let’s be real, prices are the biggest reason for that). My action as one small person may not save the world, but I’m satisfied knowing that at least I’m not contributing as much as I used to to the exponential amount of food waste in landfills.
You might not know them, but there are other people out there composting, too.
And these actions, across millions of people and businesses, do add up. San Francisco, for example, has been requiring residents to separate food waste from the trash since the 1990s, and they’ve been diverting the majority of their food waste from landfills since 2008.
So where I’ve landed is: We may not see the impact as soon as we need or want to, but now is the second-best time (the first being decades ago) to start making the change.
I’ve got the basics of composting down. What else can I do?
Reduce your food waste. The best way to avoid the problems created by food waste is to not waste that food in the first place. Not only is it a waste of food, but also water, labor and time, since so much goes into growing that food. It’s estimated that 30% to 40% of food grown in the U.S. is wasted. Only buy what you really need and will eat. Research the best way to store different types of produce to maximize its shelf life. You can also save meat and veggie scraps for broth.
Drop more of your food scraps at your local compost hub. Local compost hubs should be considered an essential part of food waste infrastructure in every community (something local groups and experts have advocated for for a long time). Keeping your food waste local ensures it will be composted and used in local food gardens and public parks. Griffith Park, for example, uses its own compost throughout the park.
Find an LA Compost hub near you here and participating farmers markets here.
Your local city or community gardens may also run compost hubs. For example, Pasadena has its own list, as does Santa Ana.
LA Compost also offers volunteer and compost training opportunities, including how to start a compost site in your community. Learn more here.
And if you know of some places in your community that may make for a good compost hub, perhaps a school or community garden, start a conversation with the folks in charge and see if it may be possible!
Learn to compost in your own backyard! There are different types of composting, from using worms (called vermicomposting) to composting in a backyard bin, which is the mini version of large-scale composting. There are also new technologies emerging that allow you to compost directly in your house, so if you want to invest in a home composter, that’s an option too. If you want to try composting at home, many cities offer free classes and free or low-cost compost bins so you can get started, so definitely check with your local government or nearby community gardens about what they may offer. Meanwhile, here’s a list of some programs in the region:
LA Sanitation, (fun fact: Griffith Park composts on site and uses the compost in the soil around the park. There’s also a compost education center).
