West

Behind schedule: California bit off more than it could chew food with food waste recycling goals

Published

2 years ago

February 21, 2024

Behind schedule: California bit off more than it could chew food with food waste recycling goals

Two years after California launched an effort to keep organic waste out of landfills, the state is so far behind on getting food recycling programs up and running that it’s widely accepted next year’s ambitious waste-reduction targets won’t be met.

Over time, food scraps and other organic materials like yard waste emit methane, a gas more potent and damaging in the short-term than carbon emissions from fossil fuels. California’s goal is to keep that waste from piling up in landfills, instead turning it into compost or biogas.

Everything from banana peels and used coffee grounds to yard waste and soiled paper products like pizza boxes counts as organic waste. Households and businesses are now supposed to sort that material into a different bin.

OFFICIALS CALL ON EPA TO COMBAT ALARMING FOOD WASTE AND METHANE EMISSIONS

But it has been hard to change people’s behavior in such a short period of time and cities were delayed setting up contracts to haul organic waste due to the pandemic. In Southern California, the nation’s largest facility to convert food waste into biogas has filed for bankruptcy because it’s not getting enough of the organic material.

“We’re way behind on implementation,” said Coby Skye, the recently retired deputy director for environmental services at Los Angeles County Public Works. “In America, for better or worse, we want convenience, and it’s very difficult to spend a lot of time and effort educating people about separation.”

Meanwhile, some communities that ramped up collection now have more compost than they know what to do with, a sign that more challenges are yet to come as the nation’s most populous state plows ahead with its recycling plans.

Trash is unloaded at the Otay Landfill, a site that processes 200 tons of organic waste daily and hopes to double that amount as more cities ramp up collection, in Chula Vista, Calif., on Jan. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Only a handful of states mandate organics recycling, and none are running a program as large as California’s, which seeks to slash by 75% the amount of organic waste it sends to landfills by 2025 from 2014 levels.

Reaching that goal within a year would be a stretch, experts said.

About three-quarters of communities are currently collecting organic waste from homes, said Rachel Machi Wagoner, CalRecycle’s director. While some places are lagging, her aim isn’t to punish them but to help them get started, adding that every bit helps the state move towards its goal of reducing emissions.

“My goal is about figuring out where the challenges are and getting us as quickly as possible to success,” she said.

“I don’t know when we will reach our 75% goal, but we will reach it,” she added.

CalRecycle hasn’t tallied data yet on how much organic waste was diverted from landfills in 2023. Jurisdictions reported diverting 11.2 million tons of organics at the end of 2022, up from 9.9 million tons the prior year, Wagoner said.

Some challenges include getting residents on board with sorting their trash into a third bin and knowing what goes where. Others concern what to do with the nutrient-rich compost once it’s been created from collected grass clippings, tree branches and food scraps.

At Otay Landfill near the Mexican border, workers pick through heaps of branches and leaves to pull out plastic bits before the material is placed under tarps. The site processes 200 tons of organic waste daily and hopes to double that amount as more cities ramp up collection, said Gabe Gonzales, the landfill’s operations manager.

Once the compost is made, California’s law requires cities to use much of it. But many say they don’t have enough space to lay it all out.

Chula Vista, a San Diego County city of 275,000 people, is supposed to use 14,000 tons of compost a year but uses a few thousand at best, said Manuel Medrano, the city’s environmental services manager. Some is doled out in free compost giveaways for residents, while heaps of the material are stored in a fenced area of a local park.

“To transport it is really expensive, to spread it is really expensive,” Medrano said. “We’re nowhere near meeting that requirement.”

Communities with more open space might fare better. Cody Cain, head of marketing and sales for compost-maker Agromin, said his company has developed a plan to link cities struggling to meet these requirements with farmers who need the material for their soil.

“We basically are matchmakers. Call us the ‘Tinder’ of compost, and we’ll bring the farmer together with the city,” Cain said.

Food waste also can be converted into biogas to fuel vehicles or industrial operations. But a massive facility built three years ago in the Southern California city of Rialto now finds itself facing bankruptcy after Los Angeles was slow to ramp up collection, leaving the plant with insufficient waste, said Yaniv Scherson, chief operating officer for Anaergia Inc.

“It’s because the cities didn’t enforce on time the market is struggling,” he said. “If it doesn’t get feedstock this year, there is a chance it shuts down completely.”

LA Sanitation & Environment, which handles trash and recycling for the city of nearly 4 million people, had no immediate comment.

Heidi Sanborn, founding director of the environmental National Stewardship Action Council, said she supports the state’s law but wants more done to keep plastics out of compost and to develop alternative energy solutions. Some of California’s challenges stem from the fact the state is trying to build a system on a scale the country hasn’t seen, she said.

“We’re trying to fix incredibly tough problems. We’re not going to find the perfect solution out of the gate,” she said.

But, Sanborn added, “we’re on our way.”

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Montana

Your guide to local sports events, plus what’s on TV

Published

5 minutes ago

March 2, 2026

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Your guide to local sports events, plus what’s on TV

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Nevada

How the strikes on Iran could impact gas prices in northern Nevada

Published

17 minutes ago

March 2, 2026

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How the strikes on Iran could impact gas prices in northern Nevada

The United States and Israel launched targeted attacks on Iran on Saturday. The move brought new uncertainty into global energy markets, as northern Nevadans could be paying more at the pump in the coming weeks.

Following the strikes, oil prices increased. Brent crude, the international benchmark, jumped to roughly $73 a barrel, while the national benchmark, West Texas Intermediate, traded above $67.

Much of the concern centers around the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway between Iran and Oman. which carries about a fifth of the world’s oil supplies.

Patrick de Haan, head of petroleum analysis with GasBuddy, a price tracking company, spoke on the current questions in the region.

“The known would reduce oil prices if there becomes clarity, but it’s the unknown that is stoking fears…. If there is some sort of clarity in the days ahead, whether from Iran, the United States, or Israel, on how long this would last. We’d be able to put potentially an end date for the potential impacts that we’re seeing,” said de Haan.

Experts say for every $5 to $10 increase in oil prices, drivers could pay 15 to 25 cents more per gallon.

According to Triple-A, the average price of a gallon of gas in Nevada on Sunday comes in at $3.70, which comes in above the national average of roughly $2.98.

Over at the Rainbow Market on Vassar Street, prices sat just below four dollars a gallon on Sunday. Reno resident Abran Reyes talked about gas prices potentially going up.

“Whether it’s to work, to maybe run errands, to do stuff that helps you, gas is essential…. That gas price really hits, especially in today’s economy, where gas prices are extraordinary…. I just hope everyone’s safe. I hope our soldiers and all of our troops can be okay,” said Reyes.

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New Mexico

3 thoughts: New Mexico 81, SDSU 76 … Kudos for the local kid, mid-majors getting the squeeze and European bigs

Published

35 minutes ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

3 thoughts: New Mexico 81, SDSU 76 … Kudos for the local kid, mid-majors getting the squeeze and European bigs

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Three thoughts on San Diego State’s 81-76 loss at New Mexico on Saturday afternoon:

1. Kudos

No loss is a happy occasion within SDSU’s basketball program, but it was mitigated somewhat by the how and who:

The how: A 3-pointer from the left wing with 43 seconds left that broke a 74-74 tie.

The who: Luke Haupt, a sixth-year senior from St. Augustine High School and Point Loma Nazarene University who is one of those classy, genuine guys you can’t help but root for.

Aztecs coaches know him and his family well, his father Mike being the longtime head coach at Saints who sent Trey Kell to them. Aztecs players know him from the Swish summer league and open gyms during the summer.

Coach Brian Dutcher: “Kudos to Luke, known him a long time. Coaches are a little different than fan bases, where sometimes (fans) get too hard on the opposition. I wanted to win in the worst way, trust me when I tell you that. But … tip your hat to guys who make important and timely plays.”

Junior guard Miles Byrd: “Credit to Luke Haupt. He’s a San Diego kid. He’s going to (get) up for these type of games. You respect that. Players show up in games like this, and he showed up.”

There’s respect for the moment and respect for what it took to get there.

Haupt grew up, like most kids in San Diego, watching the Aztecs and dreaming of maybe one day playing in Viejas Arena. He went to Division II PLNU instead and toiled in relative anonymity for five seasons, one of which was abbreviated by the pandemic and 1½ of which was wiped out by knee surgery.

The 6-foot-7 wing finally got to Division I for his sixth and final year, lured to New Mexico by former UC San Diego coach Eric Olen, and has averaged 7.2 points per game with a career high of 30 against Boise State. He had 17 on Saturday against his hometown team, the final three coming with 43 seconds left in a tie game.

The play wasn’t designed for him. Fate sent the ball his way.

“It was a big shot, but it was everything I’ve worked on my entire career and basketball life,” Haupt said. “It’s all the people who have helped me get here and all the work that’s been put in.

“These are moments you dream about.”

2. Death of Cinderella

The Aztecs have slipped off the NCAA Tournament bubble with losses in three of their last four games, yet their metrics are comparable and in some cases better than a year ago, when they didn’t win the conference tournament and sneaked into the First Four in Dayton.

They are hanging tough at 42 in Kenpom and 44 in NET. Last year they were 46 and 52 on Selection Sunday.

The problem is that there might be historically few at-large berths available to mid-major conferences as the preposterous sums of money coursing through the sport accentuates the divide between the haves and have-nots. The latest field from ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has 11 teams from the SEC, nine from the Big Ten and eight each from the Big 12 and ACC.

The Big East, considered a power conference given its financial commitment to men’s basketball (although that is starting to wane), is expected to get only three, but do the math: Power conferences account for 34 of the 37 at-large invitations to the 68-team field.

Lunardi, and several other bracketologists, has only three mid-majors getting at-large berths: Saint Mary’s and Santa Clara from the WCC, and New Mexico from the Mountain West.

Only Saint Mary’s is in the main bracket. Santa Clara and New Mexico are in his First Four (and the Lobos are his last team in).

“It’s harder,” Dutcher said, “because there are only so many at-large bids that are going to go to non-power conference teams. When thrown up against the power conferences, the Selection Committee is finding ways to put the power conference teams in.”

Since the tournament expanded from 65 to 68 in 2011, mid-majors have averaged a combined 6.3 at-large berths. The high was 10 in 2013, but it’s been seven as recently as 2024. Last year it slipped to four, equaling the record low, and no mid-major teams reached the Sweet 16.

If teams like Utah State, Saint Louis and Miami (Ohio) win their conference tournaments, knocking out “bid stealers,” it could be three, maybe even two.

Money is talking. It doesn’t guarantee success, but it certainly increases the chances.

3. Euros

The Aztecs have not dipped into the European professional market for players, but maybe this season will change their perspective.

They have nine losses. Seven have come against teams with a European big.

The latest was New Mexico, which got 24 points and 18 rebounds from the 6-foot-9, 240-pound Tomislav Buljan, a 23-year-old Croatian pro granted one season of collegiate eligibility by the NCAA. He had 20 and 14 in the first meeting, when the Aztecs narrowly escaped with an 83-79 win after trailing in the final minute.

“He was a monster tonight,” Haupt said. “That was huge for us. Loved the way he played.”

The week before, the Aztecs lost to Colorado State and Rashaan Mbemba from Austria.

They’ve lost to Grand Canyon twice with 7-1 Turkish pro Efe Demirel, a 21-year-old “freshman” who has experience in the Euroleague, the continent’s most prestigious competition.

In the December loss to Arizona where the Aztecs were crushed 52-28 on the boards, 7-2, 260-pound Lithuanian center Motiejus Krivas had 13.

Michigan, which beat SDSU in November, has 7-3 Aday Mara of Spain.

Baylor beat the Aztecs two days later with 6-9 Michael Rataj of Germany, then a few weeks later added 7-0 James Nnaji from Spanish club FC Barcelona.

Only Troy and Utah State didn’t start a European big in wins against SDSU — although Mexican forward Victor Valdes had 20 points for Troy.

“Obviously, it’s changing the game,” Dutcher said. “The European pros are coming over because they can make more money over here than they can in Europe. They come over and they’re making good money, whether it’s Demirel at Grand Canyon or it’s Buljan at New Mexico.

“These are good players who come up through a club system and are basically professional basketball players.”

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