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The latest local education
According to the nation’s largest mandatory residential food waste recycling program scheduled to take effect in January, banana peels, chicken bones, and leftover vegetables will not have a place in the California trash can.
This work aims to keep landfills in the most populous states of the United States away from food waste, which destroys the atmosphere when it decays. When food residues and other organic materials decompose, they release methane, a greenhouse gas that is more effective and destructive than the carbon emissions of fossil fuels in the short term.
In order to avoid these emissions, California plans to start converting residents’ food waste into compost or energy, becoming the second state in the United States to do so after Vermont launched a similar program last year.
Most people in California will be required to throw excess food into the green trash can instead of the trash can. The municipality will then convert food waste into compost or use it to make biogas, an energy source similar to natural gas.
"This is the biggest change in waste since recycling began in the 1980s," said Rachel Wagoner, director of the California Department of Recycling and Recycling.
She added that this is "the easiest and fastest thing everyone can do to affect climate change."
According to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, California’s push reflects a growing awareness of the role of food waste in destroying the environment in the United States, where as much as 40% of food is wasted.
A few states and countries, including France, have passed laws requiring grocery stores and other large companies to recycle or donate excess food to charities, but California’s plan targets households and businesses.
The state passed a law in 2016 aimed at reducing methane emissions by drastically reducing waste food. According to CalRecycle, organic materials such as food and yard waste account for half of California's landfills and one-fifth of the state's methane emissions.
Starting in January, all cities and counties that provide garbage services should have food recycling programs. Grocery stores must donate edible food to food banks or similar organizations, otherwise the food will be thrown away.
"There is no reason to stick this material in a landfill, it just happens to be cheap and easy to do," said Ned Spang, head of the faculty at the University of California, Davis, Food Loss and Waste Cooperative Organization.
Vermont has 625,000 people and California has a population of nearly 40 million. It is the only state that prohibits residents from throwing food waste into the trash can. According to a law that came into effect in July 2020, residents can compost garbage in their yard, pick it up on the roadside or discard it at a garbage station. Cities such as Seattle and San Francisco have similar plans.
California’s law states that by 2025, the state must reduce organic waste in landfills by 75% from 2014 levels, from approximately 23 million tons to 5.7 million tons.
Most local governments will allow homeowners and apartment residents to dump excess food into the yard trash cans, and some local governments will provide countertop containers to store the waste for a few days before taking it outside. Certain areas can be exempted from some laws, such as rural areas where bears rummaged in trash cans.
Food waste will enter composting facilities or be converted into energy through anaerobic digestion. The biogas produced in this process can be used for heating and power generation like natural gas.
However, California's composting facilities face strict licensing procedures that process food waste together with traditional green waste such as leaves. Currently, only one-fifth of the state's facilities can accept food waste.
The state also set a goal for 2025 to transfer 20% of food to landfills to feed people in need. Supermarkets must start donating excess food in January, and hotels, restaurants, hospitals, schools and large-scale event venues will start donating in 2024.
The donated portion of the California law will help achieve the federal goal of halving food waste by 2030.
Davis is one of the cities in California that has implemented a mandatory food recycling program. Joy Klineberg, the mother of three, puts coffee grounds, peels and cooking residues into a metal box labeled "compost" on her countertop. When preparing dinner, she dumped the excess food on the cutting board into the trash can.
Every few days, she dumped the contents into the green trash can outside her and was picked up and sent to a facility in the county. She said that the unpleasant smell of the countertop trash can is not a problem.
"What you change is where you throw things, it's just another trash can," she said. "It's really easy, and you have so much less trash, it's amazing."
Implementing similar programs in large cities is more challenging.
The two most populous cities in the state — Los Angeles and San Diego, which together account for about one-eighth of Californians — are cities that will not have plans for all families next month.
This is because it takes time to purchase necessary equipment, such as buying green trash cans for households that do not have yard waste, and time to set up facilities for receiving materials. Garbage collection fees will increase in many places.
Like Davis, CalRecycle wants to focus more on education rather than punishment. If the government does not make a plan and outline the start-up plan, they can avoid penalties by reporting to the state before March. Cities that refuse to comply may eventually be fined up to $10,000 per day.
Ken Prue, deputy director of the San Diego Department of Environmental Services, said the city has invested nearly $9 million in this year's budget to buy more trash cans, kitchen top containers and trucks to transport additional garbage.
Prue hopes that San Diego residents will quickly realize the importance of recycling food waste after the program starts next summer.
"Hopefully it has become second nature before they know it," he said.
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