A year after California’s composting mandate, local officials still focusing on education over enforcement

It takes about 90 days for organic waste to become compost at the Yolo County Central Landfill. By the end of the process, large piles of yard trimmings and food scraps are reduced to a fine, dark brown heap of compost. 

But before that, organic waste is manually filtered by employees at the plant. This ensures that items that can’t be composted don’t slip by. And often, employees find all kinds of things that don't belong. 

“Shoes and Barbie doll heads, just random things,” said Marissa Juhler, the director of the Integrated Waste Management Division at the landfill. “It’s probably a resident that did not take the time to read the educational material and just thinks this is another trash bin for them to use.” 

Even though bits of plastic and other non-organic materials come through the plant, she said the bigger problem is actually participation. She said many residents she's spoken too aren’t recycling their organics at all. 

Composting starts soon in Sacramento County. Here’s what you need to know.

“They're still throwing it all in the trash,” she said. “I could be wrong for other counties, but I would say that we're just kind of in this infancy stage where folks are still just not on board.” 

Last year, California’s mandate requiring residents to recycle their organic waste — so it can be turned into compost — went into effect. In 2024, California municipalities will have the option to fine residents who aren’t complying with the mandate. But for local officials, the priority has been educating residents. 

Carrot over stick 

State officials say the mandate aims to curb emissions and reduce food waste in state landfills by 75% within two years. This helps California reach its goals to reduce emissions as rotting food waste in landfills creates methane, a greenhouse gas. 

For residents, that means recycling organic materials that go beyond yard waste, like food scraps and food-soiled paper. 

Matt Robinson, a spokesperson for Sacramento County, said the county doesn’t have plans to fine residents who aren’t complying with the mandate just yet. The county serves residents living in unincorporated areas. 

“We're really just focusing on the educational process of this because we feel that the carrot versus the stick approach is the best thing for our customers,” he said. 

Jesa David, a spokesperson for the city of Sacramento’s Recycling and Solid Waste Division, said city officials are similarly more interested in education. She said the city has no plans to employ fees just yet and would take other steps — like reaching out to residents who aren’t participating directly and offering help — before taking that step.

David said right now, it’s difficult to measure exactly how much more organic waste residents are putting in their bins. Other factors unrelated to the composting mandate like precipitation, which can add water weight to collected waste, and autumn’s “leaf season”, where more yard waste than usual is added to the green bins, can make the numbers jump. 

However, David said the city made some early assessments after launching their organics program in July 2022. When comparing June, July, August and September in 2022 with the same time period in 2021, she said they found a 14% increase in organics tonnage collected and a 10% decrease in garbage collected. 

“For us, anecdotally, we can say that those trucks got heavier, the trucks carrying yard waste, once we added food scraps as well,” she said. “But we can’t parse out what specifically was food scraps in there.” 

At the Yolo County Central Landfill facility, employees filter out bits of plastic and other materials from residents’ organic waste before it can be turned into compost.Manola Secaira/CapRadio

Juhler said she’s also more interested in educating residents rather than employing fines. She remembered one particularly memorable conversation where a resident approached her with frustration and complaints that composting had attracted more gnats and flies to her home during the summer. 

“She just made up her mind that she would never put any organics in her organics bin,” Juhler said. 

So, Juhler offered another option for the resident. What if you recycle organic waste seven or eight months of the year, and avoid it during the hottest parts of the summer? That way, the resident could avoid collecting organic waste when it’s most likely to smell and attract bugs while still participating in the mandatory program for the majority of the year. 

“And she's like, ‘I can do that?’ And I said, ‘Absolutely.’ If you're composting seven or eight months out of the year, and not the others, that is better than what you're doing right now, which is nothing,” Juhler said. “Sometimes it’s just changing their mindset — that’s something.” 

Although the program is mandatory, Juhler said she’s found it useful to meet residents where they’re at and work up from there. 

More compost, more questions

As more residents participate in the composting program, Juhler said new issues have popped up. She says one issue comes from biodegradable items used in restaurants, like “compostable” utensils. 

These items are indeed biodegradable, but she said they often take years to compost — a timeline outside of what the Yolo facility, and others like it, allow. Juhler said these items are often screened out and end up in a landfill. 

“If you're a restaurant or a fast food chain … you need to start buying the paperboard and paper-based products, not the ones that look and act like plastic and say ‘compostable,’” she said. “Because it will look and act like plastic through our process.” 

Then Juhler said there’s the issue of scaling up. Even without full participation from residents, the Yolo County Central Landfill’s composting facility — which can handle about 182,000 tons of organic waste a year — reaches its limits for capacity almost every day.  

“When we reach our permitted daily capacity, we can't go beyond that,” Juhler said. “And so then we would have to turn people away from coming to our facility.”

If those trucks have nowhere to drop off their waste, she said they may end up dumping it in a landfill with regular garbage.  

“It puts them in a really bad position,” she said. “But at some point, we have to say we're really sorry, we know you're in a bind, but we can't risk our permit because we are supporting so many jurisdictions already.” 

Juhler added that the plant already has plans to expand their capacity. 

David with the City of Sacramento said compost created by residents’ organic waste is frequently sold for agricultural purposes. The profits made from the compost are then used to cover part of the costs of creating the compost. 

David said the mandate also requires localities to either use some of the compost locally or give it back to residents. She said the city has already given free compost to inquiring residents when they’ve had some available but they also plan to set up a place for compost pickup sometime next year. 

Robinson said that Sacramento County has already begun offering free compost for residents to pick up and residents should keep an eye out for announcements in spring of next year.

The city of Sacramento and the county both have resources aimed at helping residents understand how to participate in the mandatory program online.

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified when counties will have the option to fine residents who aren’t complying with the mandate. It will be 2024.