(CA) Kitchen scraps go in your green bin this year

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Under state law, homes and businesses will start recycling food waste, while grocery stores must donate unused food

Along with cardboard, cans and bottles, San Diegans will be recycling fish bones, vegetable peels and eggshells under a state law taking effect this year.
Large grocery stores and other businesses will begin donating their unused edibles to food banks. And residents will be putting kitchen scraps into recycling bins for delivery to composting sites instead of landfills.

The new protocols are all part of Senate Bill 1383, a state law passed in 2016 to cut down on such short-lived climate pollutants as methane, refrigerant chemicals and soot by reducing California’s organic waste. The law requires cities and counties to cut organic waste by 75 percent by 2025, and it sets a target of recovering 20 percent of edible food that is now discarded by then. CalRecycle, the state’s recycling agency, will begin enforcing the new rules this year.

“It’s the biggest piece of recycling-related legislation in more than 30 years,” said Ken Prue, deputy director of the City of San Diego’s Environmental Services Department. “It’s creating huge changes throughout the state.” The City of San Diego is buying new trucks and equipment and providing information on food recycling to residents and businesses, Prue said.

The city’s 1919 People’s Ordinance guarantees free trash pickup to single family homes in San Diego but not to apartment or condominium buildings, so the city will pay for food waste pickup from individual homes, while people in multifamily complexes will pay for it as part of their waste management rate structure, Prue said.

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/politics/story/2022-01-09/kitchen-scraps-go-in-your-recycling-bin-starting-this-year