Ready to roll out: Waste Management says it will begin replacing trash and recycling carts July 8

Jun. 26—After three years of discussion and planning, residents will finally be issued new waste collection carts that will comply with state law.

WM announced Tuesday that it would begin replacing curbside collection carts on July 8 with color-coded containers for solid waste, recycling and yard waste.

Currently, residents have a mixture of cart colors and lids, which WM said impacts waste sorting and statewide methane emission reduction efforts.

New carts containers will be green, and those designated for solid waste will have black lids. Recycling carts will have blue lids and carts for yard waste and organics will have green lids.

Replacing all carts in the city is expected to take as long as three months to complete, the company said.

Residents will receive instructions to leave the old containers out until 5 p.m. on their regular service day.

Commercial customers and residents who already have compliant carts will not be affected.

WM is encouraging customers to create an account at wm.com and set notification preferences to receive same-day service alerts.

Replacing waste collection carts is part of the city's compliance with Senate Bill 1383, which set a statewide goal to reduce organic waste disposal in landfills 75% from 2014 levels by 2025, or from about 23 million tons to 5.7 million tons.

The new law requires residents to place all excess food — or organic waste — into their yard waste bins instead of the trash.

Organic waste includes food, green material, landscape and pruning waste, organic textiles and carpets, lumber, wood, paper products, printing and writing paper, manure, biosolids, digestate and sludges, according to CalRecycle.

When these organic materials break down they emit methane, a climate "super pollutant" 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

According to CalRecycle, organic materials make up 20% of the state's methane.

Contents of the yard and organics waste containers will be placed on a compost pile to create biogas, a renewable energy source that can be used as fuel for vehicles or a replacement of natural gas used for heating and cooking, according to www.nationalgrid.com.

Last year, WM began collecting the yard waste bins on a weekly basis, rather than every other week.

California became the second state in the country to ban residents from throwing food waste into the trash.

In 2020, Vermont implemented a law directing residents to compost waste in their yards, place it in their green waste bins for curbside pickup, or take it to waste stations.

The cities of Seattle and San Francisco have similar programs.

When SB 1383 was signed into law, California also set a 2025 goal of diverting 20% of food that would have gone to landfills to feed people in need.

According to CalRecycle, residents send 11.2 billion pounds of food to landfills each year, some of which was still fresh enough to feed people in need.

Under SB 1383, food service business such as supermarkets, hotels, restaurants, hospitals, schools and large event venues must donate their excess food to soup kitchens, food banks and other food recovery programs.