County deals with new waste disposal requirement

Food will have to go into green cans

In an effort to reduce the amount of methane emissions from landfills, a new state standard as required by Senate Bill 1383 will go into effect on January 1 that will effectively no longer allow food to be disposed in regular trash cans.

As a result food will have to be disposed of in the green yard waste cans. And the end result will likely be customers will have to pay more for their waste disposal service.

And there’s also the concern that because people will no longer be able to dispose of their food in trash cans that this will create more trash dumping in the county.

The Tulare County Board of Supervisors dealt with this issue at their meeting on Tuesday and passed an ordinance that the county will comply with the new requirement. The ordinance actually states the county won’t be in compliance with the new law but under Senate Bill 619 the county has until March 1 to submit a plan to do so.

Methane emissions are estimated to contribute to 75 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. Methane emissions from livestock has gained a lot more attention and livestock contributes to 55 to 60 percent of methane emissions.

But landfills also contribute 20 percent to methane emissions. Food waste that decays that ends up damaging the atmosphere is a considerable cause of that, which has led to the state’s new requirement.

Under the law the state has already set a standard organic waste in landfills would be reduced by 50 percent by 2020 and by 75 percent by 2025.

As part of the law, it will also be required that 20 percent of edible food

that’s tossed to be saved to help people in need.

The plan is for the food waste that’s tossed into green bins to be turned into compost that can be used as an energy source or can be used in fields. Supervisor Dennis Townsend raised that issue, asking what’s going to happen to the compost and if the county would be sucked into a competitive market when it comes to the buying and selling of that compost. County solid waste director Bryce Howard said that wasn’t the county’s intention.

But it was also estimated waste disposal fees for customers could increase by anywhere from $5 to $10 a month.

Supervisor Pete Vander Poel lamented the expected increase in customer fees, referring to the requirement as an “unfunded mandate.”

“I think the intentions of this legislation are good,” said Vander Poel, adding the effort “seems noble.” But he added the expected rise in fees is “a significant increase.”

And Supervisor Larry Micari said it’s been his experience as a law enforcement officer whenever there’s been a new waste disposal requirement that leads to more trash dumping in the county. “We really need to come up with a program to help our county stay clean,” he said.

Jurisdictions can eventually be fined for not adhering to the law but there’s a two-year grace period before that happens. The fines could be substantial up to $10,000 a day.

California will become the second state to convert food waste into compost, joining Vermont. “This is the biggest change to trash since recycling started in the 1980s,” Rachel Wagoner, director of the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, told the Associated Press.

Starting in January, all cities and counties are supposed to have food recycling programs in place and grocery stores must donate edible food that otherwise would be thrown away to organizations that help those in need.

“There’s just no reason to stick this material in a landfill, it just happens to be cheap and easy to do so,” Ned Spang, faculty lead for the Food Loss and Waste Collaborative at UC Davis, told the Associated Press.

There are some exceptions to the law such as for areas that have bears.