Paso Robles City Council wants to keep food scraps out of landfills. Here’s how
The Paso Robles City Council on Tuesday voted to approve a new ordinance aimed at keeping food scraps and yard clippings out of landfills.
And it could mean changes in how local residents sort their trash in the kitchen.
Under the new rule, people living in single-family homes, multi-family residences with five or more units and commercial businesses must sort their waste into three containers, instead of two.
One bin is reserved for solid waste, a second for recycling and a third for organic matter such as food or yard waste, according to the ordinance.
The three-container system will keep organic food waste out of the landfill to reduce the production of methane gas and encourage the production of compost, the city said.
Single-family homes already have green bins, so one main change the ordinance creates is now also distributing those receptacles to multi-family dwellings and commercial businesses, the city said.
The other impact is how residents sort their trash in the kitchen, because the city is asking all residents to dispose of food waste in the green bins or another place that keeps it out of the landfill.
One way to do that is to keep organics in a small container in the kitchen and bring it out to the green bin, but families that prefer to use at-home compost piles, feed food waste to animals, keep food waste in the freezer or put it down the garbage disposal can continue doing what they’re doing, the city said.
“We are trusting each home owner will find the way most appropriate for them,” said Matt Thompson, wastewater resources manager and interim solid waste coordinator with the city of Paso Robles.
A few years ago, the San Luis Obispo County Integrated Waste Management Authority (IWMA) distributed kitchen food waste bins to interested customers. The city has not established funding to give away small organics bins to customers, Thompson said.
The ordinance will likely result in higher solid waste rates in 2023, but the scope of these changes is unknown until the city conducts a rate study, according to the ordinance.
The ordinance was passed 4-1, with Councilman John Hamon casting the dissenting vote.
New Paso Robles ordinance fits into state environmental strategy
The local ordinance for the city of Paso Robles is part of a statewide effort to reduce the amount of organic waste in California landfills to curb the effects of climate change.
In September 2016, former California Gov. Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 1383, which includes a goal of reducing organic food waste in landfills by 75% by 2025, according to a summary of the city ordinance. In November 2020, the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) adopted rules to implement the ordinance.
“Food waste alone accounts for approximately 17% to 18% of total landfill disposal,” according to a summary of the law by CalRecycle. “Increasing food waste prevention, encouraging edible food rescue and expanding the composting and in-vessel digestion of organic waste throughout the state will help reduce methane emissions from organic waste disposed in California’s landfills.”
Hamon said Tuesday that the state law has “good intent but it’s not the right way to go about it.”
To comply with SB 1383, the city of Paso Robles had to implement an ordinance that adopts a three-container system by January 2022.
If the city had failed to adopt the ordinance by Jan. 1, then it would have faced fines of up to $10,000 per day from CalRecycle.
The ordinance was prepared by CalRecycle with help from the San Luis Obispo County Integrated Waste Management Authority (IWMA) and is consistent with the ordinances written by other cities in San Luis Obispo County.
Paso Robles should be able to implement the rules relatively easily, according to an analysis of the ordinance.
Single-family homes in Paso Robles already have a three-bin system, so multi-family residences and commercial businesses that generate food waste, such as restaurants or grocery stores, would be required to get green bins, Thompson said.
Other commercial business that lack space or generate a negligible amount of food waste may be eligible for waivers, Thompson said.
The law also seeks to divert excess edible food items from grocery stores to food pantries to help curb hunger and reduce food waste. This aspect is being handled by San Luis Obispo County and will be managed mostly by IWMA, according to an analysis of the ordinance.
Families that already use at-home compost piles don’t have to stop doing what they’re doing, said Isiah Gomer, recycle coordinator at Paso Robles Waste & Recycle (Paso Waste). Rather, the goal of the city ordinance is keeping organic waste out of the landfills.
Ultimately, SB 1383 envisions a circular economy where cities use organic waste products created from the community to power waste collection trucks.
In the short term, the city of Paso Robles will host compost giveaways and 3,000 tons of compost or mulch will be used by the city annually, according to the city’s fiscal assessment.
In the long term, Paso Waste plans to install anaerobic digesters, which offer an eco-friendly way of creating renewable natural gas from organic waste. The precise cost of anaerobic digesters is still being determined, but the facilities cost millions of dollars, according to the fiscal assessment.
Currently, IWMA has been handling the increased monitoring and compliance requirements of SB 1383 on behalf of the city of Paso Robles. That caused IWMA to increase its fees from 2% to 4.5%, which led to the city paying the agency about $190,000 more per year, Thompson said.
“Of all the SB 1383 implementation activities, the IWMA staff is helping with less than half of the total services,” Thompson said.
Members of the Paso Robles City Council discussed possibly hiring Paso Waste to take on the added compliance and monitoring tasks associated with SB 1383 in the future.
Thompson said the city is looking into applying for a pool of grant funding offered by the state to help implement local ordinances for SB 1383. Available funding is limited to a total of $160 million, he said.
The city may also hire one full-time solid waste coordinator to handle SB 1383-related activities, according to the fiscal assessment of the ordinance.
Paso Robles’ next steps may include an amendment to the city’s agreement with Paso Waste.
This story was originally published November 17, 2021 at 10:59 AM.
