Food Recovery in California (2024)

FAQs

What is the food recovery law in California? ›

SB 1383 requires the state, by 2025, to recover 20 percent of edible food for human consumption that would otherwise be disposed. This is a statewide goal that California must collectively achieve. It is not a goal for individual jurisdictions to achieve.

SB 1383's statute requires CalRecycle to adopt regulations that include requirements intended to meet the goal that not less than 20 percent of edible food that is currently disposed is recovered for human consumption by 2025. The statute does not state that 20 percent of healthy or nutritious food must be recovered.

Senate Bill 1383 and Food Recovery

To reduce food waste and help address food insecurity, SB 1383 requires that by 2025 California will recover 20 percent of edible food that would otherwise be sent to landfills, to feed people in need.

Californians throw away nearly 6 million tons of food scraps or food waste each year. This represents about 18 percent of all the material that goes to landfills. In order for California to reach its goal of 75% source reduction, recycling and composting, food waste must be addressed.

Beginning January 1, 2022, all California residents, businesses, and multifamily complexes will be required to separate food waste and yard waste from their trash and recycle in a separate organics cart.

On October 7, 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 418, titled the California Food Safety Act (the FSA). The FSA prohibits the manufacture, sale, and distribution of food products that contain brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, propylparaben, or red dye 3.

The California State Legislature passed Senate Bill 1383 (SB 1383) which requires cities and counties to reduce organic waste disposal by 75% by 2025.

General Information. The SB 1383 regulations require that jurisdictions conduct education and outreach on organics recycling to all residents, businesses (including those that generate edible food that can be donated) haulers, solid waste facilities, and local food banks and other food recovery organizations.

Beginning January 1, 2019, AB 1826 requires businesses that generate four+ cubic yards of solid waste per week to establish an organic waste recycling program. SB 1383 establishes guidelines for organic waste reduction and edible food recovery targets for businesses.

California State Law AB 2176 and SB 1383 require large events and venues to plan for convenient recycling and organics collection, and excess edible food recovery, and report information upon request to their local jurisdiction.

Does SB 1383 apply to schools? ›

SB 1383 applies to all local education agencies, including: K-12 public and charter schools. School districts. County offices of education (that are not subject to the control of the city or county solid waste regulations)

Preventable food waste is once-edible food that should have been consumed but instead is wasted, such as moldy bread or sour milk. Five of the most wasted foods include milk, cheese, potatoes, apples, and bread.

The wasted food rots and produces methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times as potent as CO2 at trapping heat in the atmosphere. EPA estimates that wasted food is responsible for 58% of landfill methane emissions to the atmosphere.

Californians are required by law (S.B. 1383) to separate organic waste out of their trash and add that waste to their previously named green waste cart. This law targets removing food waste, and organic material as a whole, from landfills.

AB 1228, which was signed in September 2024, sets a new $20-per-hour minimum wage for fast food workers and created the so-called Fast Food Council, which will adjust the hourly minimum wage each year through 2029.

California's new law that creates a separate minimum wage applicable only to fast food restaurant employees took effect on April 1, 2024. Under Labor Code Section 1475 (LC 1475), this minimum wage is $20 per hour.

The California Food Safety Act prohibits the manufacture, distribution and sale of food and beverages containing the food additives BVO, potassium bromate, propylparaben, and Red Dye 3. Enacted in October 2023, the law will go into effect in January 2027.

Residents could be fined for failing to recycle food waste. Starting Jan. 1, an enforcement provision has gone into effect for California's compost law, which means throwing away food scraps rather than recycling could bring a fine.