Businesses are the source of 60% of all landfill waste. Food scraps make up 30% of that amount. Starting Jan. 1, 2022, California’s Short-lived Climate Pollutant law (SB1383) requires businesses to separate food and landscape materials from the garbage. Your business needs to set up this weekly service.

Why Changes are Required

When we landfill food and landscape material it generates methane. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that causes climate change. Removing these materials from the landfill reduces our impacts on climate change.

Setting up Your Food Scraps Service

The City and Specialty will contact your business in 2023. Get prepared by reading the resources below.

Commercial Food Scraps Resources

• Food Scraps Training Guide
• California’s Short-Lived Climate Pollutant law (SB1383)
• Visit Specialty Solid Waste & Recycling for implementation materials

SB1383 requires some food service businesses to donate edible food to food recovery organizations. These donations will help feed the almost one in four Californians without enough to eat. It is legal to donate food per the Good Samaritan Food Donation Act Public Law 104-210. Depending on the size of your business, donations either started January 2022 (Tier 1) or will start January 2024 (Tier 2).

Tier 1 Food Service Businesses – Effective January 2022

• Wholesale Food Vendors
• Food service providers and food distributors
• Grocery stores (facilities 10,000 square feet or more)
• Supermarkets

Tier 2 Food Service Businesses – Effective January 2024

• Restaurants (facilities 5,000 square feet or more)
• Hotels (with on-site food facility and 200 rooms or more)
• Local education agencies with on-site food facility
• Large venues and events
• State agencies with cafeterias
• Health facilities (with on-site food facility and 200 rooms or more)

Where to Donate Food Locally

• Second Harvest Food Bank
• Waste No Food
• Peninsula Food Runners