VICTORVILLE, Calif. – Victorville’s new residential organics program for garden trimmings and food scraps is off to a great start in its first six months! The program launched in December 2023, with the distribution of approximately 32,000 green organics carts to all single-family homes. Multi-family homes on curbside cart service received green organics carts in February 2024, and multi-family complexes on dumpster service received organics carts in April 2024. With the addition of green organics carts, all residential customers in the City now have three containers: a blue container for recyclables; a green container for organics, and a black (or gray) container for trash.

In January 2024, 679 tons of residential organics were diverted from the landfill. As of July 2024, the residential organics program had grown to recover approximately 1,000 tons per month. The best month so far was April, with 1,262 tons of organics diverted through the green cart program. This equates to 155 truckloads of residential organics collected, averaging about seven loads per weekday, 57 tons per day, and 114,720 pounds each weekday!

All organic material from the green carts is delivered to the Victor Valley Compost Facility, located at 17188 E. Abbey Ln., in Victorville where the material is converted into compost. The finished compost is used on farmland and is made available free to residents.

In April, the City began offering free compost to residents at the City of Victorville Recycling Drop-off Center, located at 15164 Anacapa Rd., Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. The free compost is available for residents of the City of Victorville only. (A photo ID and a current utility bill with a City address are required to pick up free compost.) Residents can get up to 50 gallons of compost per visit. They should bring their own containers and shovel, as this is a “load your own compost” program.

The City implemented the new organics recycling program to comply with California state Senate Bill (SB) 1383 which established the goal of reducing organic waste sent to landfills by 75% by 2025, compared to 2014 levels. SB 1383 regulations require all jurisdictions to implement programs to divert organic materials such as garden trimmings and food scraps from landfill disposal. Diverting these materials saves

valuable resources and reduces the amount of greenhouse gas methane released to the atmosphere from decomposing trash in landfills.

SB 1383 regulations also require communities to educate customers about proper sorting and develop programs to minimize contamination. This “Container Contamination Minimization” program includes route reviews to check trash, recycle, and organics containers to ensure proper sorting. Per State regulations, all trash, recycle, and organics routes must be checked each year.

Contamination and incorrect sorting cause problems at the recycling and composting processing facilities. Recyclables are delivered to the Victor Valley Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) and organics are delivered to the Victor Valley Compost Facility. Contaminants damage and jam sorting equipment, cause shutdowns, and increase processing costs. If an incoming load is too contaminated, the entire load cannot be processed and will need to be disposed of as trash, wasting valuable resources and increasing costs. The biggest problem with contamination, however, is that contaminated loads endanger the health and safety of workers at the processing facilities.

After the successful start of the organics recycling program, the next goal for the program is to further increase the amount of material diverted and to decrease contamination. To accomplish this goal, in May the City and Victorville Disposal began implementing the Container Contamination Minimization program by “lifting lids” to inspect the contents of residential trash, recycle, and organics containers for correct sorting. Cart tags/notices were left on all curbside carts to let customers know how they were doing with sorting and remind them of “what goes where.” A record of any contamination was noted on the customer’s account.

To encourage residents to sort correctly, the City’s hauler Victorville Disposal/Burrtec Waste Industries is sponsoring a monthly prize for customers who have their carts checked. Customers who sort correctly received a “Great Job!” rating or a gold tag on their carts, and their address was entered into a contest for a chance to win a $100 prize donated by Victorville Disposal/Burrtec Waste Industries.

Approximately 2,000 household containers were checked during May, and 3,700 containers were checked during the month of June. In total, containers at about 5,700 homes in Victorville have been checked so far. The City and Victorville Disposal/Burrtec will continue to do cart inspections and tagging throughout the year, either in response to complaints or to reduce contamination in loads from specific areas. All organics loads are inspected when they are delivered to the compost facility. Loads with excess contamination are identified and reported, so that containers from those routes can be checked and additional information can be provided to residents on how to sort correctly.

The container inspections and tagging are informational at the present time. In the future, however, containers with repeated contamination may not be collected, and a non-collection notice will be left on the container. Customers will need to either re-sort and remove contaminants prior to the next pickup day, or they may call the City to arrange to have the blue recycle cart or green organics containers dumped as trash—for an extra charge. Separation of designated recyclables and organics from trash is mandatory per Victorville Municipal Code Chapters 6.36 and 6.37. Continued failure to sort correctly could ultimately result in a Notice of Violation and/or Administrative Citation and fine. Per State regulations, the City is required to enforce the mandatory recycling ordinance.

The City and Victorville Disposal will also continue other efforts to educate residents about proper sorting, via water/sanitation bill inserts, social media posts, mailings, and via information booths at public events.

Residents can help make the new program a success by following these sorting guidelines. Sorting is as easy as 1, 2, 3!

1. Use the Green Cart Only for Organic Material: Organic material includes BAGGED food scraps and LOOSE (unbagged) garden trimmings. Food waste includes items such as eggshells, fruit and vegetable peelings, plate scrapings, bakery items, coffee grounds, meat, poultry, fish, and bones. Food waste should be removed from packaging. Garden trimmings include branches, grass, flowers, leaves, and weeds. (No cactus, dirt, or rocks.) Food waste should always be bagged, and yard trimmings should always be loose. Remember, the green organics cart must NOT include any recyclables or trash.
   
   
2. Use the Blue Cart Only for Recyclables: Recyclable items include glass bottles and jars, tin and aluminum cans, rigid plastic containers such as milk jugs, laundry detergent bottles, yogurt cups, ketchup bottles, etc. In addition, clean and dry paper and cardboard such as junk mail, cereal boxes, and school papers can go in the blue cart. All bottles and cans must be clean, dry, and empty (free of food residue). Recyclables should be loose and NOT bagged. The recycle cart must not contain any trash, organics, or contaminants, such as plastic bags, soiled paper, food, or garden trimmings.
   
   
3. Use the Black Cart Only for Trash: Items that belong in the trash cart include plastic bags, diapers, pet waste, old clothing, hoses, gloves, sponges, soiled paper and soiled cardboard, napkins and wipes, as well as straws, film, bubble wrap, snack and candy wrappers, broken dishes, and chip bags. The other part of correctly sorting your materials is to make sure there are no recyclables or organic contents in the black trash cart.

Residents are reminded that some items such as tires, bulky items, electronics, and batteries don’t belong in the trash, organics, or recycle bins because they contain hazardous materials or are hard to handle. Fortunately, the City offers other free, year-round, convenient programs for disposal of bulky items, electronics, tires, and household hazardous wastes including used motor oil, sharps (needles), paint, and batteries.

For more information regarding the City’s new organics recycling program and other year-round programs for the free disposal of bulky items, tires, and household hazardous waste, please call the City’s Environmental Programs Division at 760-955-8615 or visit VictorvilleCA.gov/DumpItRightVV.

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