SB1383 Short-Lived Climate Pollutants: State Organics Law

What's SB1383?

In September 2016, SB 1383 (Lara, Chapter 395, Statutes of 2016) established statewide methane emissions reduction targets in an effort to reduce emissions of short-lived climate pollutants (SLCP) in various sectors of California’s economy. It includes statewide goals to reduce the disposal of organic waste and recover edible food for human consumption. Specifically, the law sets the following targets:

• Reduce statewide disposal of organic waste by 50% by January 1, 2020 and by 75% by January 1, 2025 (based on 2014 levels).
• Rescue at least 20% of currently disposed of edible food for human consumption by 2025.

CalRecycle is the state agency responsible for creating the regulatory standards for SB 1383.

• Effective January 1st, 2022: CalRecycle’s regulations to meet statewide organics reduction and food recovery requirements take effect. Enforcement provisions, including penalties for noncompliance issued by the state, also take effect.
• Effective January 1st, 2024: Regulations may require local jurisdictions to impose penalties for noncompliance on regulated entities subject to their authority.

Why SB1383?

When compostable materials such as food scraps and paper products break down in a landfill, they become powerful contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. Compostable materials such as food waste and paper decompose anaerobically (without oxygen) in a landfill, producing methane (CH4)—one of the most potent greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere.The intent of this organics diversion goal is to reduce these emissions in light of global climate change. 

Who does SB1383 apply to?

SB1383 applies to all residents (single-family homes and apartments/condos) and businesses.

How does it impact residents?

All residents living in single-family homes in the RethinkWaste Service Area are automatically provided curbside organics (compost/green cart) service. If you do not have compost service, please contact Recology San Mateo County to set it up.

How does it impact businesses?

If you own a business or apartment/condo complex (of five units or more), you are required to:*

• Divert organic materials from the landfill by
  • Subscribing to and participating in the organics collection service via Recology San Mateo County, or
  • Self-haul organic waste to a specified composting facility, community composting program, or other collection activity or program.
    • Records must be maintained of this service for amount of materials delivered to each facility.
• Provide collection containers for organic waste and recyclables to employees, contractors, tenants, and customers
  • Collection service must be arranged so that access to an adequate number, size, and location of containers with correct labels is available.
  • Provide indoor containers for organic waste and recyclables in all areas where disposal containers are provided for customers, except in restrooms (multi-family dwellings are exempt).
• 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. Recology San Mateo County may be able to provide these containers and labels at no additional cost.
• Annually provide educational information about the legal requirements to compost and recycle including how to properly sort between the three waste streams. RethinkWaste and Recology San Mateo County can provide educational materials for your employees and apartment/condo residents.

For the recovery of edible food waste, edible food generators are split into two tiers and must arrange to recover the maximum amount of their edible food that would otherwise go to landfills and maintain records.

Tier One must comply with edible food recovery requirements by Jan. 1st, 2022. This includes:

• Supermarkets
• Grocery stores (with a total facility size ≥ 7,500 sq. ft.)
• Food service distributors
• Wholesale food markets

Tier Two must comply with edible food recovery requirements by Jan. 1st, 2024. This includes:

• Restaurants (with ≥ 250 seats, or ≥ 5,000 sq. ft.)
• Hotels (with onsite food facility and ≥200 rooms),
• Health facilities (with onsite food facility and ≥100 beds),
• State agencies (with a cafeteria with ≥ 250 seats, or ≥ 5,000 sq. ft)
• Local education agencies (with an onsite food facility)
• Large venues
• Large events

*Commercial businesses may be granted a waiver by a jurisdiction and thus exempted from some or all requirements if they can provide documentation and evidence to support one of the waiver options. More information about waivers can be found on Rethink Waste's Organics Collection Waiver Application page.https://rethinkwaste.org/businesses/laws-ordinances/sb-1383-state-organics-law/waiver/

What is edible food recovery?

Edible food recovery is the act of diverting surplus edible food from businesses, organizations, or events that otherwise would have been disposed of for consumption by members of our community. If you are a large, food-generating business or organization you have new edible food recovery requirements under SB 1383.

The good news is that the City of East Palo Alto has joined with San Mateo County’s 22 other jurisdictions to create one countywide edible food recovery program to help all affected businesses and organizations meet their new mandatory requirements. This program is managed by the County of San Mateo Office of Sustainability and has recovered millions of pounds of food to date!

Visit https://www.smcsustainability.org/generator-edible-food-recovery-require... to learn if your business has new edible food recovery requirements, the countywide program, and resources available to help you comply.

For a map showing food recovery services/organizations in East Palo Alto, please click here.

East Palo Alto SB1383 ordinance adoption:

Information regarding the SB1383 ordinance that was adopted in East Palo Alto, click here.

Informational Tools:

Informational brochures for businesses can be found in English here and in Spanish here.

Informational brochures for apartments/condos can be found in English here and in Spanish here.

If you have any questions regarding organic waste please email them to sb1383@rethinkwaste.org . Please check out Rethink Waste's event calender here to see if there are any upcoming SB1383 webinars/town halls.