Who's affected?

The Regulations become effective on January 1, 2022 and will apply to all persons or entities that generate organic materials, such as yard debris and food scraps.

• Residents including those living in single-family homes or multi-family buildings
• Commercial entities such as for-profit and non-profit organizations, government offices and agencies, private and public schools
• Non-local entities such as special districts, state/federal facilities, prisons, and county fairgrounds

How to get in compliance: Commercial Entities

1. Divert and recover your organics from the landfill.

• Subscribe to regular organics collection service from your franchised solid waste hauler, or
• Self-haul organics to a permitted facility, such as a composting or anaerobic digestion facility. A record must be kept showing the amount of organic material delivered to each facility; this record shall be subject to inspection by your jurisdiction.
  • Records must include delivery receipts and weight tickets that indicate the amount of material in cubic yards or tons.

2. Provide organics and recycling service to employees, contractors, tenants, and customers.

• Collection service must be arranged so that access to an adequate number, size, and location of containers is available.
• Small indoor containers for organics and recycling must be provided in all areas where garbage containers are present, except for restrooms. *
• For all outdoor and indoor containers, the container bodies or lids shall conform to the following color scheme: gray/black for garbage, blue for recycling, and green for organics. In addition, containers shall have labels with graphic images to indicate primary materials accepted and prohibited.
• Annually provide educational information about the legal requirements to compost and recycle. In addition, education must be provided on how to properly sort the three waste streams into correct containers. Please note, for new tenants, this information must be provided before or within 14 days of move-in.
• Periodically inspect recycling and organics containers and inform employees if contamination is found.

3. Tier One or Tier Two commercial entities (defined in section below) are required to donate the maximum amount of excess edible food to feed people.

• A contract or written agreement must be maintained with food recovery service(s) or organization(s) to pick up or receive edible food.
• A record must also be kept indicating all types of food being donated, pounds donated per month, frequency of donations, and the contact information of the contracted food recovery service(s) and/or organization(s).
• Generators shall not intentionally spoil food that can be recovered.
• Large venues or large event operators that do not provide food services, but allow for food to be provided, shall require food facilities operating on site to comply with the above organics diversion and food recovery requirements.

* Denotes requirements from which multifamily residential dwellings are exempted.

Reference: SB 1383 Regulations §§ 18984.7, 18984.8, 18984.9, 18984.10, 18986.1, 18986.2, 18988.3, 18991.3, 18991.4

Available Waivers

Commercial entities may be exempted from some or all of the requirements if they can provide documentation or evidence to support one of the following reasons. Please note that "solid waste" is defined as the entire waste stream, including garbage, recycling, and organics.

• De Minimis: minimal organic material is generated.
  • If an entity produces more than 2 cubic yards of total solid waste per week, minimal organic material means less than 20 gallons.
  • If an entity produces less than 2 cubic yards of total waste per week, minimal organic material means less than 10 gallons.
    
    
• Physical Space: the premises lack adequate space to fit all three containers (garbage, recycling, and organics).
  
  

Reference: SB 1383 Regulations § 18984.11