LOS ANGELES — Go ahead. Throw that pizza box in the green yard waste bin. And while you’re at it, feel free to toss in your coffee grounds, veggie scraps and egg shells.
Starting this week, Los Angeles Sanitation and Environment says customers should use their green bins to not only get rid of mowed grass and tree trimmings but food scraps and food-soiled paper.
“LASAN is committed to diverting food waste from the landfill in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and create better air quality throughout Los Angeles,” LASAN Executive Director and General Manager Barbara Romero said in a statement.
The city department responsible for handling LA’s waste, LASAN has been preparing for its composting program for years, she said. LASAN ran a pilot program for OrganicsLA from 2019 to 2021, testing it with as many as 40,000 households. As of Monday, it is rolling it out to all 750,000 of the department’s residential customers.
Starting Jan. 23, LA residents who make an appointment can also pick up a two-gallon kitchen pail from various distribution sites around the city. The pails are designed to make it easier to separate food scraps from household trash, but they are not required to participate in the composting program.
Items that are now allowed in the green bin include:
- fruits and vegetables
- dairy and eggshells
- stale bread, cereal, grains, rice, pasta and beans
- old lunch meat, steak bones, chicken bones, fish bones and shells
- coffee grounds and used paper coffee filters
- food-soiled paper products such as used paper napkins and soiled pizza boxes
- yard trimmings including flowers and clean untreated wood
Known as OrganicsLA, the new system was created in response to California Senate Bill 1383, which requires cities to divert 75% of its organic waste from landfills by 2025. Food waste is responsible for 8% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization.