Yorba Linda adopts ordinance to comply with state mandate to separate food waste from regular trash

 A major change in how residents dispose of food scraps and other organic material is on the horizon as the Yorba Linda City Council has adopted a new ordinance regulating solid waste disposal to comply with a state mandate.

Basically, residents will need to dump food waste, including such items as banana peels, melon rinds, potato skins, corn cobs and other organic scraps, with landscape waste. In other words, food scraps will need to be placed in brown containers, not black containers used for regular trash.

The state mandate requires cities and other jurisdictions to implement a mandatory organic recycling ordinance by Jan. 1. Yorba Linda approved a first reading of an ordinance at a Nov. 16 meeting and scheduled a second reading at a Dec. 7 meeting to meet mandate conditions.

Also required under the state mandate is an enforcement mechanism, which is included in the city's ordinance with $100, $200 and $500 fines for first, second and subsequent violations. Administrative fines ($50, $100 and $200) can be imposed after 60 days of non-compliance.

The new city ordinance runs to 13 pages and includes other revisions to comply with current laws and terms of contract provisions with the city's longtime trash hauler, Republic Services.

City Attorney Todd Litfin said at the Nov. 16 session that enforcement would involve spot checks by Republic Services personnel, who would inform the city of potential violations.

The city is conducting negotiations with Republic Services “to align to the requirements of SB 1383 and other related legislation,” according to a report to the council by Jamie Lai, the city's director of public works.

Goal of the state mandate, as outlined in Senate Bill 1383, “is to reduce organic waste disposal by 75% and increase edible food recovery by 20% by 2025,” Lai's report said.

“This legislation requires all businesses, residents and multi-family apartments to have ac-cess to recycling programs that capture food scraps, landscaping waste and other organic waste materials,” Lai stated.

Other mandates of SB 1383 include the establishment of an edible food recovery program and updating the city's procurement policy to purchase recycle content paper and recycled organic waste products, such as compost, mulch and renewable natural gas, at a volume of 0.08 tons per resident.

Other mandates include providing outreach and education for generators, facilities, edible food recovery organizations and municipal departments and securing access for recycling and edible food recovery capacity.

SB1383 dates to 2016, as signed by then-Gov. Jerry Brown, with the bill establishing methane emission reduction targets. Last year, the state's Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, known as CalRecycle, released regulations to achieve the state's organic waste disposal goals by 2025.

The goals attack methane produced by landfills, the state's third-largest producer of methane.