Los Angeles has rolled out its curbside composting program to an initial group of 40,000 homes. The program encourages residents to deposit coffee grounds, egg shells, moldy bread, spoiled fruit, uneaten lasagna and all manner of other kitchen leftovers to the green waste bins where they already dump their yard trimmings.
All of this may sound routine to many Bay Area and Orange County residents who have participated in residential composting programs for years. But because of its vast scale, Los Angeles could have a transformational effect on diverting food waste, experts say. Los Angeles isn’t advancing this environmental cause on its own. It is scrambling to meet a state-mandated deadline to move food waste out of landfills by the end of the year. To make the program available to all 750,000 of L.A.’s households, the city must build the capacity to handle a huge wave of organic waste, eventually up to 3,000 tons a day.
“We are trying to return to a future where everyone is more considerate of how they use water and other natural resources,” said Barbara Romero, director of L.A. Sanitation & Environment. “It requires a behavior change, but I think everyone wants to be part of the solution. We are going to do our part, but we need the public as our partners.”