[A late but timely response to Los Angeles County Grand Jury] Food waste recommendations taken with grain of salt

 ‘Not warranted, not reasonable,’ Hidden Hills says

Blog note: This article is about a Los Angeles Grand Jury report that rarely gets coverage. It is about the smallest city in the county at the very western edge of the county. Unusual that the LA jury would spend time on this. It was reported by a local weekly newspaper, the Acorn.

They may be accused of falling behind schedule, but when it comes to getting rid of food waste, Hidden Hills officials have a message regarding recommendations from the 2019-20 Los Angeles County civil grand jury: They’re a waste.

The 23-member grand jury investigated the issue of discarded food, which California is trying to steer away from landfills over public health concerns.

The grand jury investigation was spurred by Senate Bill 1383, a law signed by former Gov. Jerry Brown in 2016 that kick-started a statewide effort to reduce pollutant emissions by diverting organic waste from landfills.

Local communities, including Hidden Hills, haul their waste to the Calabasas Landfill.

SB 1383’s goal is to achieve a statewide reduction in the emission of so-called short-lived climate pollutant gases like methane, black carbon, and hydrofluorocarbon by up to half of 2013 levels in the year 2030.

SB 1383 hopes to achieve the goal by requiring 75% recycling of all organic waste—which creates methane gas when it decomposes— by 2025.

Foodservice providers, distributors, and entities in any industry where organic waste is present who don’t meet the standards that take effect in stages through 2024 are subject to fines.

Last year, the grand jury released a report titled “A Diet for Landfills: Cutting Down on Food Waste,” which details how food waste creates methane emissions in landfills and notes that only 4% of current organic waste recycling infrastructure can accept food waste.

Keep out of the trash bin

A guiding principle behind the report is that food doesn’t belong in the garbage. Nearly 2 million tons of food waste goes to landfills each year in Los Angeles County; the per-day tonnage is 4,000 to 6,000.

The state wants to see organic waste properly separated—both from the rest of the garbage and by whether it’s green or food waste—so it can be processed through composting or anaerobic digestion, that is, using fermentation to break down organic matter from animals, plants or sewage to produce biogas.

This, says the grand jury, is proving difficult in L.A. County.

“We discovered a labyrinth of ways that food waste continues to end up in landfills,” the report states. Against this backdrop, the grand jury made 14 recommendations and asked all 88 cities and unincorporated areas in the state for responses. Hidden Hills officials were required to respond to four of the recommendations, but they’ve been lax.

In an Oct. 22 report to the City Council, Roxanne Diaz, Hidden Hills city attorney, said the original response, which was supposed to be sent to the grand jury last summer, “was never processed.”

Only recently did it go to the council and mayor for review.

The gist, according to the letter of response that bears Mayor Stuart Siegel’s signature, is simple: Hidden Hills is a town of some 560 households and a real estate office, and the prevention of food waste is already a priority.

The four recommendations and the Hidden Hills responses are as follows:

Establish a weekly food waste drop-off center.

“This recommendation will not be implemented,” the city says, “because it is not warranted and is not reasonable. . . . Implementation would likely result in minimal diversion and would be an expense and burden on a staff of four persons. . . . Residents are provided a green waste bin and can place food waste in that container. The city’s waste hauler processes the bin for compost.”

Create an incentive program for residents and businesses to separate food waste. This could be in the form of a gift card to a local grocery store/farmers market or a discount on a solid-waste fee.

Once again, the city trashes the idea as neither warranted nor reasonable.

“The city is comprised of residential homes and no businesses (except for a small real estate office). Creating an incentive program is not warranted for a city of our size in addition to the fact that the city has no businesses in its jurisdiction.”

County officials should modify contracts with food vendor companies that are inside county facilities to include food waste separation and recycling.

The Hidden Hills response?

“The recommendation will not be implemented because it is not warranted since it pertains to county facilities.”

Elected officials in the county and cities should adopt the 11 suggestions in the March 2018 Countywide Organics Waste Management Plan and express support for the need to increase capacity and site, and build new facilities to handle organic waste.

While officials in Hidden Hills agree with the intent of this last recommendation, they will adopt only “what is required to be adopted” by state law.

Besides, the letter notes, Hidden Hills already has a solid-waste ordinance with self-haul provisions. The ordinance requires an accurate reporting of hauled waste to make sure diversion requirements are met. City officials did not respond to requests for comment.

The city’s franchise hauler, Waste Management, processes all residential organic waste generated in the city and is required to submit monthly activity reports to ensure compliance with state regulations.

Starting next year, households and businesses will be required to keep their food waste out of their trash bin. Customers will use their green cart for both green waste and food waste, which Waste Management is contracted to pick up and process for compost.

The Acorn
By Scott Steepleton
November 04, 2021