CHULA VISTA, Calif. — The concept of recycling food waste is going to take adjusting on many people’s part.
But right now, in the City of Chula Vista there are people patrolling to make sure you’re following the rules.
In this Earth 8 report, Neda Iranpour shows us some of the biggest offenders.
CBS 8 joined Manuel Medrano on one of his trash patrols. He is the Environmental Services Manager for the City of Chula Vista.
Medrano explains, “people will be able put food waste in with their yard (waste) container. That’s where you can put your banana, old bread.”
Medrano is literally lifting lids to find out what people are throwing out.
That’s because the new food waste recycling law went into effect across California starting January 1, 2022.
So, it’s fairly new. Republic Services, which services Chula Vista, also had a monthlong strike during this rollout, which added to the delay.
“We’ve been recycling 30-40 years yet sometimes we don’t get it right still,” Medrano said, which is why he knows it’ll take people some time and he’ll keep on trying to teach the rights and wrongs of recycling.
When it comes to organic waste, he says the biggest wrong would-be plastics.
He opens a bin on the street and points out some flowers that were put into a plastic bag and explains why that’s a contamination for the entire yard waste bin.
He says, imagine bags going into compost where they get broken down into plastic confetti, that’s not going to be good to put back into our soil.
Even bags that say “compost” on them are a contaminant because, “you can buy these anywhere with that claim and we don’t know if they’re compostable or not.”
So, your food waste should not be put into plastic bags, just like recyclables should not be.
“This is an example…people think the best thing to do is to bag recyclables and it’s not, it contaminates. It tangles up at the center so please we ask residents of every city throughout the world do not put the recyclables in plastic.”
But while we were with Medrano on his patrols, we saw back-to-back bins from different homes that must’ve missed the memo.
That’s why Medrano is tagging them, “definitely this one will get one of these tags letting them know plastic bags do not belong here.”
The fliers let people know what to throw into the trash bin, the green bin, and the blue bin. The goal is to have as little trash as possible, which he has already started to see.
But after Super Bowl weekend, for example, a lot of mistakes are made like red solo cups being put in the blue bin. They cannot be recycled.
So, he removes what’s consider flimsy plastic and then would tag the bin.
The trash truck workers and Medrano will mark their own records to know which house has been tagged so they can track repeat offenders.
For now, these are warnings – or “oopsie notes” - as Medrano would call it.
By 2024, the City of Chula Vista will consider citing and fining people. People may have to pay the price for any wrongful waste.
Medrano wants people to keep in mind that food waste is a resource.
“This (recycling food waste) is the easiest way for you to do your part to help with climate change,” he explains.
Reducing the food that goes into landfills also reduces the toxic gas or methane that spews into our atmosphere.
Plus, your food waste can all go back full circle. Once it’s turned into compost, it goes back into our soil.
“It’s breaking down in a natural way where it’s used for our land, our gardens, for our farmers, where it belongs in the soil not in our atmosphere.”
And with the Otay landfill expected to close by the end of this decade, the city of running out of time to reduce its waste.
Calrecycle says with every city eventually on board, they hope to recycle 2 to 3 million tons of trash, instead of it all going to landfills.
For more information on the state organic waste recycling law, visit here.
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