How WeHo can curb landfill waste

Vice Mayor Chelsea Lee Byers will never forget the landfills she saw as a child in Arizona while accompanying her father on his construction jobs.

“Something about seeing those landfills regularly really struck me and sort of haunted me,” Byers said. “It was alarming and scary to think about all of this waste we were incessantly producing as people. But it made me curious and inspired to understand the many people and policies working to ensure that waste wasn’t just a pile of refuse but instead a tool for us to pave the way for a sustainable planet.”

Byers helped organize Wednesday evening’s Sustainability Town Hall with Athens Services to ring the alarm on just how much WeHoans are wasting — and how much more we could be helping fight climate change. Jennifer Masterson, director of government affairs at Athens, brought her team to explain the ins and outs of using the new green organic waste bins, and how crucial separating food waste from recycling and trash is to curbing methane emissions.

The two dozen or so attendees were passionate about the plight of the environment and eager to learn what they were doing wrong and how to make it right.

To comply with waste management legislation, West Hollywood uses Athens’ state-of-the-art diversion facilities. Key legislation includes various California Assembly and Senate Bills, particularly SB 1383, the Short-Lived Climate Pollutant Reduction Act. SB 1383 mandates that all properties must have a green container for landscaping waste, food-soiled paper, and food waste. The goals are to reduce organic landfill waste by 50% by 2020 and 75% by 2025, and to recover 20% of edible food from landfills by 2025. This applies to single-family homes, multi-family dwellings, and businesses, with mandatory participation starting in January 2022.

Everything you throw away into your blue recycling or green organics container goes to a material recovery facility. There, items are separated by commodities like paper, plastics, metal, glass, and cardboard. Organic materials are taken out if they are not supposed to be there. Recycling items need to be empty, clean, and free of food or liquid.

Organic waste going to landfills is the largest contributor to landfill volume. In California, organic waste makes up 48% of what is thrown away, with 18% of that being wasted food. Using the term “wasted food” highlights that food shouldn’t be wasted in the first place.

When organic material breaks down in anaerobic conditions in landfills, it produces 20% of California’s methane emissions, making it the third-largest source of human-related methane emissions in the state. This problem led to the passing of SB 1383. Additionally, one in five Californians lacks enough healthy food, yet we throw away nearly half of our organic material.

Managing organic waste is crucial because individuals have control over it. Unlike other areas where choices are limited—such as the fuel for cars or materials for EVs—organic waste management is accessible and actionable. This control over organic waste can significantly impact the environment.

There were a number of surprising facts we learned:

• The average Californian produces almost 7 pounds of waste per day. More affluent people produce more waste.
• Employers and landlords are required by law to educate their employees, contractors and tenants on how to properly sort out the material into the correct containers for trash, recycling and organics. When new tenants move into a property, landlords must inform them of these services either before or within 14 days of their moving in.
• If an item is smaller than the palm of your hand, it cannot be recycled. That includes plastic spoons, straws and even cups.
• The lack of oxygen in landfills slows the decomposition process significantly. This is why items like newspapers can still be readable and hot dog casings can remain intact even after 100 years.
• It’s illegal to throw household hazardous waste, e-waste, cleaning materials, batteries or anything labeled as toxic, poisonous, carcinogenic, flammable, combustible or irritant into either the blue, black or green bins. 
• Bulk pickup doesn’t include anything that requires more than two people to lift it (e.g. a piano).
• On average 30% of what people throw in the blue container is not recyclable.
• Most tea bags are not compostable and cannot be placed in the green bin. 
• Gum, being made of plastic, is not compostable or recyclable.
• Cardboard boxes must be broken down and free of tape before they can be recycled

The Green Bin 

✅ organic waste and composting
✅ food scraps
✅ food-soiled paper
✅ coffee grounds
✅ leaves and branches
❌ palm fronds, yucca, succulents or cacti
❌ bioplastics and wax-coated items
❌ tea bags