By David Garrick / San Diego Union-Tribune / June 22, 2021
San Diego is spending $15 million to buy 240,000 green recycling bins and kitchen pails so city residents can begin recycling food scraps to comply with a new state law that will fundamentally change recycling in California.
The new organics recycling law, SB 1383, forces residents and businesses to start separating out food waste and food-soiled paper products from their trash so that they can go in green bins for recycling. CalRecycle, the state agency charged with overseeing recycling efforts in California, says organic waste, including food scraps and yard cuttings, makes up more than half the trash dumped in California’s landfills each year.
Many government agencies across the region are scrambling to work with the private trash haulers they have under contract so they can comply with the new law before it takes effect in January. But San Diego faces a much more daunting challenge because of a city law called the People’s Ordinance, which guarantees free trash and recycling services to all residents living in single-family homes with access to a public street.
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What could possibly go wrong?
Seriously, if you listen to our elected officials, nearly everything that has ever gone wrong in San Diego, with the possible exception of the loss of the Chargers, is the result of the People’s Ordinance. Maybe I’m naive, but I can’t believe that the cost of the People’s Ordinance, which works out to less than 0.3% of the city’s budget, is such a terrible thing. I probably would not vote for it if it were proposed today, but still… Almost every time I discuss any problem with the staff of council members, the cost of the People’s Ordinance comes up. Really. It’s almost like a job requirement to bring the People’s Ordinance into every conversation.
Oh, the alleys are gonna smell so RIPE in the summertime!
While the City is looking at garbage cans, perhaps they could give some thought to replacing the black cans with white. In Mission Beach without a second trash pickup, we end up with a fly infestation nearly every summer because the temperatures in the black cans increase so that the fly cycle decreases to less than 7 days. I am convinced that replacing the black with white cans would result in lower temperatures in the cans and potentially mitigate the fly problem.
sweet