Did you know that food waste can be recycled to create green energy? The Sanitation Districts developed the Food Waste Recovery Program in an ongoing effort to “convert waste into resources.” Today, this program is successfully diverting food waste from landfills and helping create green energy.

Food Waste Tipping Fee Rate

Criteria for Food Waste Loads

Acceptable Material in Any Quantity (Clean Loads)

• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Pastas, grains, rice, and beans
• Bread, cheese, and pastries
• Waste meat, eggs, poultry, and fish materials that are generated by residential sources and restaurants will continue to be accepted
• Until further notice, the PHMRF cannot accept "packinghouse waste"*
  
  *Packinghouse waste is defined in the California Department of Food & Agriculture (CDFA) regulations as meat scraps, offal, fat, bones, organs, hooves, intestines, hair, skin, hides, condemned animal carcasses and other animal materials including fish, from slaughterhouses, butcher shops, meat and poultry processing plants, retail stores and other commercial facilities that dispose of animal materials. For more information regarding requirements for packinghouse waste from commercial food facilities, please refer to the CDFA’s Rendering Program website.)

Acceptable Materials in Minimal Quantities

• Oil, grease and bones
• Packaging and cardboard
• Paper or biodegradable plates, cups, and utensils
• Plastic containers
• Clear plastic bags

Unacceptable Materials

• Metal
• Poultry feathers
• Yard waste
• Glass
• Non-Clear Plastic bag
• Lumber and drywall
• Packinghouse waste

Procedure for Food Waste Loads

• The truck containing food waste will be charged the refuse tipping fee at the scales until the load is verified as acceptable during inspection.
• The truck will be directed to the food waste unloading area where the load will be inspected by a Sanitation Districts' inspector. If the load is acceptable, the inspector will stamp the receipt and its load.
• If the load is unacceptable, the receipt will not be stamped. Partial diversion credit may be given. We may expect trucks to weigh back.
• Trucks/loads that receive the stamp will be required to weigh back, submit their stamped receipt to the weigh scale operators, and will then be charged the food waste tipping fee and will receive diversion credit for that load.

Examples of Food Waste

Questions about the PHMRF’s food waste acceptance procedures? Contact Guadalupe Rodriguez, Supervising Waste Inspector, at grodriguez@lacsd.org or (562) 908-4288 ext. 6016.