What you need to know about California’s new composting law — a game changer for food waste

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-12-26/organic-waste-composting-law-2022-recycling

More green bureaucracy, burping out the latest think tank brain fart. Basically, this is not going to happen unless they start got can by can down the street and inspecting. I guess the rats and flies will not be a problem. Coyotes are actually doing rat duty in LA.

Americas high level of sanitation is we because don’t do stupid crap like this on anything but the smallest scale “by the hippie down the street.” Cans of rotting food sitting out front all day when it’s 105 degrees creates Green Weenie Perfume.

I’ve got a garbage disposal. It goes to the sewage treatment plant. They can scoop it out there.

 

In my country this has been happening for many years. There's a green lid bin for green waste, a yellow lid bin for anything which can be recycled, and a red lid bin for everything else (which shouldn't be much, and for most it isn't). Only the red lid stuff goes to landfill. Further, we have very hot summers here, and don't have encounter any particular problem with 'smells'.

I can't imagine why anyone would have an issue with doing this. It takes very little effort and thought, and after the first few weeks becomes second nature.

PS: You'll note the red bin is smaller - for good reason. It's the least likely to fill up.

 

It works well here. You can also put in some green waste from the garden.

I'm actually surprised how late California are to the party. In Germany where I was staying there was no red bin. Basically nothing went to landfill, and everything in one way or another was recycled.

 

All of my organic waste goes in my mulcher.

 

I’ll tell my slaves to mulch it.

 

My ex's grandfather was a really nice guy. He had a composting bin and a small brick fireplace in his backyard. He had a garden and burned anything that could burn. If you could collect everything he actually put in his bin for pickup for one year, it wouldn't fill one kitchen size garbage bag.

 

I compost everything I can! Best and cheapest fertilizer, ever!

 

Burning some things literally adds poison to the air. Less than one garbage bag per year? What wasn’t he burning?

 

He had some kind of formula. It's been years, he's gone and we're divorced so I can't give you particulars. However, he did use his recycle bin so everything wasn't being burned, necessarily. It was just not put in the garbage bin. He even removed labels from cans to recycle (separated the paper from the metals).

 

Its commonly illegal to burn even yard waste now, to say nothing of trash. I can only burn tree trimmings as long as I have a hotdog on a stick somewhere nearby so I can say its a 'cooking fire.' And I live basically in the middle of nowhere.

 

Do you live in a community managed by a HOA? Is it rural? I've noticed that friends I have in the South have more wiggle room for that kind of thing.

I've lived in houses with HOAs and houses without HOAs and all of them restricted private owners from burning things. They all offered a recycling day, chemical waste pick up, shredding days and branch pick up at the end of Fall and after Christmas.

I think it makes sense especially here of late with the number of people that have latched onto the "baby reveal" parties with fireworks and such and the number of fires that have gotten out of hand. Like everything else, the laws are calibrated toward irresponsible.

 

Can’t burn in California cities. (Except in some rural towns)
Compost releases bad gasses: carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide.

 

He lived in Iowa and had been there for 95 years (out of 101) so he probably got a pass because the townspeople loved him. He was a really nice guy. Too bad it didn't pass down to his descendants. LOL

 

yep, the whole second hand smoke is evil has made this push all over the country

some are even trying to ban fireplaces

smoke is smoke, regardless if it comes from a cigarette or a camp fire

 

Compost is one of the earth’s most basic functions. Circle of life; all that.

 

The Green Weenies are planning to change the circle of life to what they think it should be.

 

My composting saves plastic, money and gives my veggie garden the best possible fertilizer. What a strange thing to be against!

 

Very rural. No HOA, its a city ordinance. The hills around my little town are high desert and burn easily half the year, but our town itself and the immediately surrounding farmland is a valley of sorts, irrigated and green, doesnt burn easily. The ordinance seems focussed only on preventing smoke. It just seems silly because we've always been inundated with smoke during the summer and fall from forest fires that are not close enough to be caused by any of the residences where burning is banned. Some days you can't even see the sun through the smoke. Burning lawn waste would be like a fart in hurricane.