San Diegans can expect to start recycling food and yard waste by early 2023. Trash bins are stacked up and ready to roll out, “These are actually a couple thousand behind me, we have 260,000 we’re going to get out the door over six months. 15,000 a week. We have bins coming in and going out,” said Conrad Wear, the Deputy Director of the Collections Services Division.
They serve the City of San Diego, nearly 300,000 people who will soon have to change the way they throw away their trash. The bins will also come with a smaller kitchen pail, where you can throw your food waste before dumping it into the larger bins. Wear says, “These are 95-gallon green organic bins. We have three sizes: 95, 65, and 35 (gallons) that’ll go out to different people.”
You’re also being asked to dump your yard waste into the same green bins. “These bins are designed to be picked up by sanitation vehicles. Those old round ones will not be used anymore,” Wear explains. As for what type of food to dump? Well, banana peels and watermelon core, rice, beans, bones, bread, cheese, even paper towels are all ok. Just nothing that has cleaning spray or other hazards. That includes no human or pet waste. And, definitely no bags, even if they say compostable on them.