Throwing Away Food Scraps is Now Illegal in Calif

[Ben]

Apparently it is now illegal to throw your food scraps in the trash in California. Not sure exactly how they are going to big brother this. Reading about it elsewhere, apparently all the trash trucks there now have cameras that record trash being dumped from the can into the truck, but if your stuff is in a garbage bag?

https://abc7news.com/ca-composting-law-compost-how-to-california-new/11416032/

[HankB]

. . . but if your stuff is in a garbage bag? . . .

If your stuff is in a garbage bag? IF?!? I shudder to think of what odors will proliferate - especially during the summer - if you DON'T bag your trash. Especially perishable trash like food scraps. (Even with closed bags, SOME smell gets out.)

On the other hand . . . California? Maybe that's not so much of an issue in a state where public sidewalk defecation is accepted.

[WLJ]

Just throw it onto the sidewalk and/or in the street like the homeless do.

[MechAg94]

I am honestly surprised they haven't tried to outlaw trash bags, but maybe I just didn't hear about it.   

[MechAg94]

How would apartment buildings handle this?  Would they have a communal compost bin that gets emptied by someone?  That could get pretty ripe. 

[MechAg94]

The article indicates the goal is to reduce the amount of stuff going into landfills.  They can do that very quick by banning single use plastic containers and such. 

[Ben]

They can do that very quick by banning single use plastic containers and such.

They're already doing that with a lot of stuff. Remember this is the state that has already banned plastic straws.

[lee n. field]

Just throw it onto the sidewalk and/or in the street like the homeless do.

For that wonderful 12th century ambiance

[WLJ]

Just throw it onto the sidewalk and/or in the street like the homeless do.

For that wonderful 12th century ambiance

They've already got the human waste part of that going.

[HankB]

They've already got the human waste part of that going.

I wonder if apartment dwellers will revive the neighborly Medieval call "Coming Out!" when dwellers on the 2nd floor and higher empty their chamber pots and slops buckets out the window as a warning to those walking below . . .

[WLJ]

I wonder if apartment dwellers will revive the neighborly Medieval call "Coming Out!" when dwellers on the 2nd floor and higher empty their chamber pots and slops buckets out the window as a warning to those walking below . . .

Nowadays when you hear "Coming Out" it has a wholly different meaning.

[AZRedhawk44]

The article indicates the goal is to reduce the amount of stuff going into landfills.  They can do that very quick by banning single use plastic containers and such.

I just noticed that my grocery store (Albertsons) is bringing back glass milk containers, under a deposit system.  Made me smile a little bit; I still remember the 1980's Reduce/Reuse/Recycle campaign and how that got quietly swept under the rug once Big Plastic decided that disposable everything was our only viable future.

Glass weighs a lot more from a freight standpoint, and probably involves some breakage, and taking those milk bottles back to the dairy (and sterilizing them) takes effort.  I'm willing to pay for it though.  Waxed paper containers may biodegrade but they don't really get recycled.  We all know that plastic "recycling" was a way to con Asian port cities into buying trash from us and then dump it in the Pacific Ocean when they realized only a little bit of the plastic was worth the effort.  Metal and glass are actually recyclable, and glass is even reusable without resorting to melting stuff down to slag and reforming it.

It'd be nice if you could buy condiments and cooking oils and such in a way that you squeeze X ounces into your own container that you sterilize on your own, from a big dispensing station. 

[K Frame]

Loophole!

Eating those scraps and crapping them onto a public street.

[zxcvbob]

Nowadays when you hear "Coming Out" it has a wholly different meaning.

Not really.   

[French G.]

Said as a person going into vermiculture and hoping to go large scale, I have my doubts because government.

[MechAg94]

I just noticed that my grocery store (Albertsons) is bringing back glass milk containers, under a deposit system.  Made me smile a little bit; I still remember the 1980's Reduce/Reuse/Recycle campaign and how that got quietly swept under the rug once Big Plastic decided that disposable everything was our only viable future.

Glass weighs a lot more from a freight standpoint, and probably involves some breakage, and taking those milk bottles back to the dairy (and sterilizing them) takes effort.  I'm willing to pay for it though.  Waxed paper containers may biodegrade but they don't really get recycled.  We all know that plastic "recycling" was a way to con Asian port cities into buying trash from us and then dump it in the Pacific Ocean when they realized only a little bit of the plastic was worth the effort.  Metal and glass are actually recyclable, and glass is even reusable without resorting to melting stuff down to slag and reforming it.

It'd be nice if you could buy condiments and cooking oils and such in a way that you squeeze X ounces into your own container that you sterilize on your own, from a big dispensing station.

It seems to me they could make plastic containers that are easier to recycle/reuse.  There is a lot more in the construction of those containers than I know about, but I don't think that is a priority.  I just feel there is a lot that could be done for trash and recycling that would be better than forcing consumers to do all the work separating trash that may not be recycled anyway.

[MechAg94]

I remember hearing about a pilot plant in Northern Nevada that took in certain types of trash in order to generate methane or other gases.  I was told of it when I was in Las Vegas.  I don't recall where it was.  I think food scraps would be part of the trash that plant was looking for.

[French G.]

30 years ago I had the idea that all the consumer brand non food products get sold by weight/volume whatever from in store dispensers and BYOB. Don't have the means to make it happen and the major brands wouldn't give up the bill board that is their package.

[AmbulanceDriver]

30 years ago I had the idea that all the consumer brand non food products get sold by weight/volume whatever from in store dispensers and BYOB. Don't have the means to make it happen and the major brands wouldn't give up the bill board that is their package.

That's basically the idea behind bulk food sections in stores.   Local PNW chain (WinCo) has a lot of dry goods in bulk - some is even name brand (Bob's Red Mill for example).  Even some liquid goods, mostly things like honey and agave nectar, but also nut butters (that have dedicated grinders right there in the bulk section).  They even have some individually wrapped name brand items, notably candies and teabags.

[230RN]

AZRedhawk44 Commented,

It'd be nice if you could buy condiments and cooking oils and such in a way that you squeeze X ounces into your own container that you sterilize on your own, from a big dispensing station. 

I kinda  like the direction that's heading. Sort of like the old-time General Store.



 Deserves more thought.  Food preservation in large containers would be a  major concern, I guess.  Also the rising trend in delivery of products, even groceries, might become a problem in terms of public acceptance.

I just have to laugh at the "Stop Oil" dumbwads.  They don't seem to realize how many things depend on petroleum, from medical prescriptions to the the paint on their walls, besides such obvious things as plastic milk bottle jugs.

I remember as a kid in the mid-1940s bringing in the delivered milk where freezing had pushed up the paper bottle tops by the cream on top of the milk.  Part of that little chore was putting our rinsed empties out there for pick-up as well.  The system seemed to work OK even with the expense of delivering the milk by truck  The only consumables besides the gas in the truck were the milk and the paper bottle tops.

Terry, 230RN