Mandatory Commercial Recycling

Mandatory Commercial Organics Recycling Law (Assembly Bill (AB) 341)

AB 341 requires mandatory commercial recycling in California beginning July 1, 2012. A business that disposes of 4 cubic yards or more of solid waste per week or multi-family dwelling of 5 units or more are required to recycle. This can be accomplished in a few ways:

  • Self-haul to a recycling facility
  • Subscribe to a hauler's recycling service
  • Sell or donate recyclables
  • Subscribe to a recycling service that includes mixed waste processing

The City's franchised hauler offers recycling services at a discounted cost (half the cost of solid waste collection service for the same size container). It may be to your advantage to subscribe to a separate recycling service for paper, plastic, glass, and metals.

Mandatory Organics Recycling (AB 1826)

The law requires that businesses arrange for recycling services for the following types of organic waste:

  • Food waste
  • Green waste
  • Landscape and pruning waste
  • Nonhazardous wood waste
  • Food soiled paper

Multi-family complexes must arrange for recycling services for the same material with the exception of food waste and food-soiled paper. Most organic waste is recyclable through methods such as composting, mulching and anaerobic digestion. Organic recycling services often accept a wide variety of different tuples of organic waste. Check with the City of Lynwood to learn how to arrange for recycling.

Businesses and multifamily complexes must start recycling organic waste by the following dates:

  • April 1, 2016 - generators of 8 or more cubic yards of organic waste per week
  • January 1, 2017 - generators of 4 or more cubic yards of organic waste per week
  • January 1, 2019 - generators of 2 or more cubic yards of solid waste per week
  • January 1, 2020 - generators of 2 or more cubic yards of solid waste per week, if statewide disposal of organic waste is not decrease by half

The requirement to recycle organic waste can be met by taking one or any combination of the following actions, provided that the action is in compliance with the local ordinance:

  • Source-separate organic waste from other waste and subscribe to an organic waste recycling service that specifically includes collection and recycling of organic waste
  • Recycle organic waste on-site, or self-haul organic waste for organic recycling
  • Subscribe to an organic waste recycling service that includes mixed-waste processing that specifically recycles organic waste
  • Sell or donate the generated organic waste