What is SB 1383?

In September 2016, the State set methane emission reduction targets for California in Senate Bill 1383, intended as a statewide effort to reduce emissions of short-lived climate pollutants (like organic waste) in various sectors of California’s economy.

SB 1383 establishes statewide targets to reduce the amount of organic waste disposed of in landfills (50% reduction by 2020 and 75% by 2025). It also sets a goal to rescue at least 20% of currently disposed edible food by 2025 and redirect that food to people in need.

What is Organic Waste?  The state defines “Organic Waste” as food, landscape and pruning trimmings, lumber, wood, manure, cardboard, paper products, printing and writing paper, and other plant and animal-based products.

From 2016-2020, the California Department of Resources, Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) worked to develop regulations to achieve the goals of SB 1383. These new regulations were finalized by CalRecycle in November 2020 and take effect in January 2022.

Effective, January 1, 2022 all California residences, multi-family complexes and businesses will be required to separate organic waste from the trash and participate in an organics collection program per Senate Bill (SB) 1383, California’s Short-Lived Climate Pollutant Reduction Strategy.

Why is SB 1383 Important?

The State has committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve human health, and create clean jobs that support resilient local economies. Implementing the statewide plan under SB 1383 will reduce short-lived, harmful, super pollutants with significant warming impacts, and is essential to achieving California’s climate goals.

Organic waste in landfills emit 20% of the state’s methane, a climate super pollutant 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Organic waste, such as food scraps, yard trimmings, paper, and cardboard, make up half of what Californians send to landfills. 

What are the components of SB1383?

Fortunately for the City of Dana Point, we are already well on our way toward compliance with SB 1383 with the introduction of organics waste collection in January 2020 and the adoption of an Ordinance in this regard by the City Council in December 2021. However, there are many other parts of SB 1383 that will take work to develop and implement. The City is working with our hauler, CR&R, Inc. on an implementation plan so that the City will have a roadmap to address any gaps to meeting the requirements of the various portions of the new regulations.

The pie chart below shows the six main elements of the SB 1383 regulations that apply to the City of Dana Point. Some aspects of these elements are explained briefly below along with the City’s current status and potential next steps. 

Please note that the full text of the regulations is 126 pages—below is a simplified summary of some of the major components only. The full regulations can be found here:  Senate Bill 1383

• Organics and Recycling Collection. One of the main requirements, ensuring that all residents and business have access to recycling and organics collection, has been in place in Dana Point since January 2020. SB 1383 requires specific colors for waste collection containers for consistency: trash containers must be grey or black, organics containers must be green (or have a green lid), and recycling containers must be brown or blue. All new containers must be clearly labeled with what does and does not go into them.

• Anticipated Updates to Comply with Regulations: The City of Dana Point is compliant with this requirement.  Any new carts provided to City customers will be color compliant with the State mandate.  All residential trash, recycling and organics carts must be compliant with the specific color coding throughout the State of California by 2036.

• Contamination Monitoring The regulations require waste audits to be conducted on each trash, recycling, and organics route regularly, to check bins for contamination (which means that recycling and organics waste is not being sorted correctly). Specific recording, reporting and follow-up is required for any contamination that is found.  While some audits are currently conducted by CR&R, Inc. where there is concern, this is not currently done on all routes in order to monitor contamination levels.

• Anticipated Updates to Comply with Regulations: SB1383 requires that all service routes be audited randomly on an annual basis to look for contamination in your curbside carts with the goal of reducing contamination and improving your recycle programs..  Please don’t be alarmed if you happen to see a route auditor looking through your Trash, Recycling and Organics cart on your service day.  This is a regulatory requirement of SB1383.

• Education and Outreach. SB 1383 regulations will require the City to conduct specific outreach to residents, schools, businesses and edible food generators on an annual basis. The outreach must be translated into multiple languages, based on the most recent census results.  CR&R, Inc. does already provide annual outreach to these specific groups regarding waste sorting and recycling.

• Anticipated Updates to Comply with Regulations: The City of Dana Point and CR&R, Inc. will review its current outreach program to ensure that every aspect follows the language, timing, and translation requirements of SB 1383.

• Capacity Planning. The City will collaborate with CR&R, Inc., the County of Orange and possibly other jurisdictions to determine the necessary organic waste recycling and edible food recovery capacity needed to divert organic waste and edible food from the landfill as required under the regulations.  Currently, CR&R, Inc. brings all of the organic waste collected in the City of Dana Point to its Anaerobic Digestor Facility for processing of organic waste collected from their partner jurisdictions.  The City of Dana Point has participated in this program since January 2020

• Anticipated Updates to Comply with Regulations: All Organic waste collected within the City of Dana Point will continue to be diverted and processed at CR&R’s Anaerobic Digestor facility.   City staff and CR&R, Inc. are working collaboratively to assess the City’s current edible food recovery need to determine future edible food recovery programs with the City’s largest food establishments.

• Procurement Requirements. Beginning January 1, 2022, the City must annually procure a certain quantity of recovered organic waste products. Jurisdictions can fulfill their target by procuring any combination of eligible products such as compost, mulch, and renewable energy. The City is also required to purchase recycled-content paper.  Fortunately, the City has had a purchasing policy in place for years that requires the purchasing of recycled-content paper and other office related supplies. Please click here for the City’s Environmental Policy.  The City currently does use some compost from CR&R’s Anaerobic Digestor in parks and greenbelts each year, but not enough to fulfill the SB 1383 target of nearly 2,600 tons of recovered organic waste products.

• Anticipated Updates to Comply with Regulations: The City’s and CR&R, Inc.’s Implementation Plan will provide some alternative options for the City to meet the additional procurement quantity for recovered organic waste products.

• Edible Food Recovery. The City must identify the edible food recovery generators that are required to implement edible food recovery programs, connect them with local food recovery organizations, provide annual outreach to the edible food generators about their requirements under SB 1383, and perform annual inspections to ensure they have contracts in place with edible food recovery organizations, and are keeping records of all recovered edible food.  The efforts related to edible food recovery programs are being led by both City staff and CR&R, Inc.. The City has been working with both CR&R, Inc. and Orange County Health Care Agency to identify all the edible food generators within the City of Dana Point that will be affected by SB 1383.
• EDIBLE FOOD DONATION

• To reduce unnecessary food waste and help address food insecurity, SB 1383 requires that by 2025, the state of California will recover and redistribute 20 percent of edible food that would have otherwise be sent to landfills.

  What Is Edible Food? Edible food is food intended for people to eat, including food not sold because of appearance, age, freshness, grade, surplus, etc. Edible food includes, but is not limited to, prepared foods, packaged foods and produce. All edible food must meet the food safety requirements of the California Retail Food Code.

  Who must donate edible food?   SB 1383 requires certain businesses that are defined as either a “Tier 1” or “Tier 2” edible food generators to recover edible food and make formal arrangements for items to be donated to organizations that will distribute food to food insecure individuals and families in the community. 

   Tier 1 Generators:  These entities are required to recover the maximum amount of edible food that otherwise would have been disposed of by January 1, 2022 and include:

  • Grocery Stores
  • Supermarkets
  • Food Service Providers
  • Food Distributors
  • Wholesale Food Vendors

  Tier 2 Generators:  These entities are required to recover the maximum amount of edible food that otherwise would have been disposed of by January 1, 2024 and include: 

  • Restaurants with 250 or more seats or greater than 5,000 square feet of facility space
  • Hotels with on-site food facilities and 200 or more rooms
  • Health facility with on-site food facility and 100 or more beds
  • Large venues
  • Large events
  • State agencies with a cafeteria with 250 or more seats or greater than 5,000 square feet of cafeteria space
  • Local education agencies with on-site food facility

  More information about donations required by Tier 1 and Tier 2 generators can be found on CalRecycle's website.

  What organizations can I donate to?   The City will periodically update the information below to ensure business know which organizations in Orange County accept food donations.

  Food Finders	10539 Humbolt St, Los Alamitos, CA 90720 (562) 283-1400	foodfinders.org	Perishable and non-perishable food products, pet food, and baby food.
  Abound Food Care	2450 N Glassell St, Orange, CA 92865 (855) 700-9662	aboundfoodcare.org	Fresh, frozen, perishable and non-perishable, packaged or bulk food products.
  Community Action Partnership of Orange County Food Bank	11870 Monarch Street, Garden Grove, CA 92841 (714) 897-6670	capoc.org	Fresh, frozen, perishable and non-perishable food products.
  Chefs to End Hunger	13527 Orden Drive, Santa Fe Springs, CA 90670 (562) 741-2200	chefsendhunger.org	Fresh, frozen, perishable and non-perishable, and prepared food products.
  Second Harvest	8014 Marine Way, Irvine, CA 92618 (949) 653-2900	feedoc.org	Perishable and non-perishable food products that meet nutritional guidelines (healthy).
  How We Help	One Hope Drive Tustin, CA 92782 (714) 247-4300

   

CALIFORNIA GOOD SAMARITAN FOOD DONATION ACT

Provides liability protections for entities that make good faith donations of surplus food. AB 1219 clarifies and expands  liability protections for donated surplus food by:

• Creating a more comprehensive list of entities covered by law
• Explicitly states that donation of past-date food is subject to liability protection
• Expands liability protection to donations made by food facilities, which are subject to food safety regulations and inspections, directly to individuals for consumption (direct donation).
• For the original donor, there is no protection for gross negligence or intentional misconduct; for the ultimate distributor, there is no protection for gross negligence, or intentional misconduct.

Donors are protected under the Federal Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act: “a person or gleaner shall not be subject to civil or criminal liability arising from the nature, age, packaging, or condition or apparently wholesome food or an apparently fit grocery product that the person or gleaner donated in good faith to a nonprofit organization for ultimate distribution to needy individuals.

Please direct any questions related to SB1383 to Jennifer Anderson, Senior Management Analyst, at janderson@danapoint.org  or please contact CR&R, Inc.’s Sustainability Specialist, Chris Kapp, at chrisk@crrmail.com.

Additional information on SB 1383 is available on CalRecycle’s webpage: https://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/organics/slcp