California Trash Law: SB 1383 Rules, Waivers, and Fines

California SB 1383 requires every city and county in the state to collect organic waste separately from landfill trash, forces large food businesses to donate surplus edible food instead of discarding it, and authorizes fines against both local governments and individual generators who fall short. The law, formally the Short-Lived Climate Pollutants Reduction Act, took regulatory effect on January 1, 2022, with enforcement penalties for residents and businesses in play since January 1, 2024.

What the Law Covers

SB 1383 was signed in 2016 to cut methane emissions from organic material rotting in landfills. It sets two statewide benchmarks: a 50 percent reduction in organic waste disposal from 2014 levels by 2020, and a 75 percent reduction by 2025.¹

“Organic waste” is broader than most people assume. It includes food scraps and yard trimmings, but also paper products, cardboard, wood, lumber, organic textiles, carpets, manure, biosolids, and digestate.² A separate target requires jurisdictions to recover 20 percent of currently disposed edible food statewide by 2025, keeping it out of the waste stream entirely.³

How Collection Works at Your Property

A common misconception is that every address in California must use a three-bin setup. The law actually lets each jurisdiction pick from three collection models based on local processing infrastructure.⁴

A three-container system uses a green bin for organic waste, a blue bin for recyclables, and a gray bin for everything else.
A two-container system mixes some streams together, with the mixed bin sent to a high-diversion processing facility.
A single-container system sends all waste to a high-diversion organic waste processing facility for sorting.

Most jurisdictions use the three-container model. Under that model, the green bin accepts food scraps, yard waste, and food-soiled paper. The blue bin takes traditional recyclables and can also accept clean paper, cardboard, dry lumber, and textiles. The gray bin is strictly for what cannot be composted or recycled.⁵

Why You Might Find a Tag on Your Bin

Jurisdictions must actively monitor contamination through route reviews, waste evaluations at processing facilities, or both. Route reviews randomly sample containers along collection routes at least once per year. Waste evaluations happen at least twice a year in two different seasons. If sampled containers on a route show more than 25 percent contamination by weight, the jurisdiction has to either educate every generator on that route or conduct targeted follow-up reviews and educate the specific generators with contaminated bins.⁶ A tag on your cart or a mailer explaining what belongs where is usually the first signal that your household or business was flagged.

Rules for Food Businesses

If you run a food business, SB 1383 may require you to donate surplus edible food. The regulations split covered businesses into two tiers with different start dates.

Tier One

Tier One generators have been subject to the rules since January 1, 2022. The category covers supermarkets with at least $2 million in gross annual sales, grocery stores of 10,000 square feet or larger, food service providers operating under contract with institutions, food distributors, and wholesale food vendors.⁷

Tier Two

Tier Two compliance started January 1, 2024, and reaches a broader group:⁷

Restaurants with 250 or more seats, or 5,000 square feet or larger
Hotels with 200 or more rooms and an on-site food facility
Health facilities with 100 or more beds and an on-site food facility
Large venues and events serving an average of more than 2,000 people per day of operation
State agency cafeterias with 250 or more seats, or 5,000 square feet or larger
Local education agencies and non-local entities with an on-site food facility

What Covered Businesses Must Do

Every commercial edible food generator must establish a contract or written agreement with a food recovery organization, keep records of the quantity of food recovered, and maintain documentation of those agreements.³ Intentionally spoiling food that could have been safely donated is explicitly prohibited. One narrow defense exists: if your jurisdiction has not built enough food recovery capacity and you can show compliance is impracticable, you may claim extraordinary circumstances as a temporary excuse.

Waivers and Exemptions

Several waivers exist for properties and jurisdictions that cannot reasonably meet the full requirements. None applies automatically. Each requires an application to CalRecycle or, in some cases, to the jurisdiction itself.⁸

A de minimis waiver is available to a non-local entity or local education agency that generates very little organic waste, though a blue recycling bin for paper and cardboard would still be required.
A physical space waiver is available to properties without room for additional containers.
An elevation waiver is available to jurisdictions entirely at or above 4,500 feet, or unincorporated census tracts at that elevation, for food waste and food-soiled paper separation.
A low-population waiver is available to cities and special districts that disposed of fewer than 5,000 tons of solid waste in 2014 and have a population under 7,500. For unincorporated areas, the relevant census tract must have fewer than 75 people per square mile.
A rural exemption from organic waste collection entirely is available to jurisdictions meeting the statutory definition of rural, provided the governing body adopts a formal resolution explaining the need.

If you think your property or organization qualifies, start by contacting your local waste hauler or your jurisdiction’s solid waste department.

Fines for Residents and Businesses

Since January 1, 2024, jurisdictions have been required to issue a notice of violation to generators that fail to comply. If a generator remains out of compliance 60 days after receiving that notice, the jurisdiction must impose penalties on an escalating scale:⁹

First violation: $50 to $100
Second violation of the same type within one year: $100 to $200
Third or subsequent violation of the same type within one year: $250 to $500

Fines apply per violation, so a business with multiple non-compliant bins or multiple compliance failures can accumulate charges quickly. Commercial businesses generating two or more cubic yards of solid waste per week get the closest scrutiny, because jurisdictions must review those accounts annually.¹⁰

Fines for Cities and Counties

CalRecycle enforces separately against jurisdictions, and the penalties are much larger. When CalRecycle finds a violation, it issues a notice giving the jurisdiction 90 days to fix the problem, with a possible extension to 180 days. If the jurisdiction still fails to comply, CalRecycle imposes administrative civil penalties scaled to severity:¹⁰

Minor violation: $500 to $4,000 per day
Moderate violation: $4,000 to $7,500 per day
Major violation: $7,500 to $10,000 per day

Combined penalties for multiple violations cannot exceed $10,000 per day. CalRecycle sets the actual amount based on the severity of the violation, the jurisdiction’s ability to pay, whether it took steps to avoid or correct the problem, and any economic benefit it gained from not complying. If a jurisdiction fails to enforce against a generator, or a generator operates across multiple jurisdictions, CalRecycle can step in and take direct enforcement action itself.¹¹

1
California Legislative Information. California Health and Safety Code 39730.6
2
CalRecycle. Statewide Mandatory Organic Waste Collection
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CalRecycle. Food Recovery Questions and Answers
4
CalRecycle. Collection Systems, Container Colors, and Labeling
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Cornell Law Institute. California Code of Regulations Title 14 18984.1 – Three-Container Organic Waste Collection Services
6
CalRecycle. Contamination Monitoring
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CalRecycle. How to Identify SB 1383 Commercial Edible Food Generators
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CalRecycle. Department-Issued Waivers
9
CalRecycle. Jurisdiction Enforcement
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CalRecycle. Enforcement Questions and Answers
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CalRecycle. CalRecycle Oversight and Enforcement