State Recycling Laws

This law requires California jurisdictions, businesses, and residents to reduce organic waste disposal to combat climate change. The law mandates a 75% reduction in organic waste sent to landfills by 2025 (from 2014 levels) and a 20% increase in the recovery of edible food for human consumption. It requires all households and businesses to separate organic waste (like food scraps and yard trimmings) and recyclables from garbage, and jurisdictions must provide organic waste collection services, conduct outreach, and enforce compliance. Additionally, public agencies must procure recycled organic products such as compost or renewable gas.

This law requires businesses in California that offer on-site food and beverage consumption (like fast-food restaurants and cafeterias), to provide clearly labeled recycling and organic waste bins for customer use. These bins must be placed adjacent to trash bins in all front-of-house areas and follow CalRecycle’s labeling and color standards: green (compost), blue (recycling), and gray/black(garbage). The goal is to help customers sort their waste properly and support broader statewide recycling and organics diversion goals.

AB 619 updates the California Retail Food Code to allow and encourage the use of clean, consumer-provided reusable containers at restaurants and temporary food facilities such as fairs and festivals. Customers may bring their own refillable containers for food and beverages, provided they are designed for reuse and properly cleaned. Food facilities must have written procedures in place to clean or isolate these containers to prevent cross-contamination and make those procedures available to health inspectors. This law aims to reduce single-use waste, offer consumers more flexibility, and support environmental protection by cutting down on disposable container usage.

AB 1276 expands California’s “straws-on-request” policy to include a wider range of single-use foodware accessories. Under this law, items like straws, utensils, chopsticks, stirrers, condiment packets, cups, splash sticks, and cocktail sticks must only be provided upon customer request, whether dining on-site or ordering through delivery platforms. Businesses are prohibited from bundling these items with meals and must offer each accessory individually. Drive-throughs and airports may ask proactively, but only if the customer initiates the request. The law helps reduce waste and litter, minimize contamination in recycling and organics streams, and reduce operational costs for businesses.

This law makes producers of single-use plastic packaging and plastic foodware responsible for reducing their environmental impact. By 2032, producers must reduce single-use plastic packaging by 25%, ensure that 65% of packaging is recyclable or compostable, and contribute $5 billion over 10 years to environmental mitigation, particularly in disadvantaged communities. Producers must also participate in a Producer Responsibility Organization (PRO) to manage compliance and implement reuse, recycling, and recovery systems.