City-Wide Organics Collection Coming July/August 2016!
By July/August 2016, the current system of collecting yard waste loose in the street will change to a hybrid system of yard waste piles and organics carts. Once the Organics Program begins, all residents and business in Davis will have access to food scrap recycling service through Davis Waste Removal.This organics program will help the City achieve its 75% waste diversion goal.
The City will be hosting several community meetings in the coming months to discuss the upcoming city-wide Organics Program and answer questions.

  • Tuesday, February 16, 2016 at 6:30 p.m. in the Game Room at the VMC
  • Thursday, February 25, 2016 at 6:30 p.m. in the Game Room at the VMC

Click here to view the presentation shown at the January 2016 meeting.  The meetings will be held in Game Room at the Veterans’ Memorial Center at 203 E. 14th Street (corner of E. 14th & B Sts.).These meetings will include a short presentation on the details of the Organics Program and a question and answer session. Additional community meetings will be scheduled in the coming months.

If your neighborhood or organization would like the City to attend one of your meetings to discuss the Organics Program, please email PWWeb@CityofDavis.org. For an Organics Program Fact Sheet .

In May 2015, City Council approved the organics collection program to begin in 2016. Solid Waste fees collected as part of existing rates will pay for the initial implementation of this service. The Organics Program is as follows:

  • Single-family residential customers will receive a 95-gallon organics cart that will be picked up once a week, on the same day as trash and recycling.
  • Apartment, multi-family, and non-restaurant commercial customers will receive a 95-gallon organics cart for each parcel. Carts will be serviced once a week, on the same day that residential carts are serviced in the area.
  • Restaurants, grocery stores, and other commercial customers with large amounts of food scraps will receive a 65-gallon food scrap cart that will be picked up twice a week.
  • Additional organics carts will be available to all customers for a fee.
  • Organics carts can be filled with yard trimmings, food scraps and food-soiled paper (paper towels, paper plates, milk cartons, etc.).
  • Yard trimmings that can’t fit into the organics carts can be piled in the street for collection. Piles will be collected once a month (during the first full week of every month) AND every week during the leaf-drop season (October 15 to December 15).
  • Yard trimming piles may be placed in the street no more than 5 days prior to a scheduled pick-up.
  • Streets will be swept once a month after yard trimming piles are collected.

“We have heard a lot of concern from residents that think the yard trimming piles are going away,” says Mayor Dan Wolk. “That’s not the case. The Organics Program will include on-street pick-up of yard trimmings. This program is a hybrid — a meeting in the middle between residents who do not want the on-street pile pick-up and the residents who do.”

Davis has a goal of diverting 75% of its waste from the landfill by 2020. Currently, Davis diverts 64% of its waste. The City is looking to the organics program as a way to boost waste diversion and get closer to the 75% goal.

“Organics cart pick-up will allow the City to collect food scraps for composting—fruits, vegetables, meats and used paper goods—rather than sending them to the landfill,” says Stan Gryczko, Assistant Public Works Director. The City estimates this will reduce waste sent to the landfill by an average of 5 pounds a week per residence.
The main objective of the organics program is waste reduction. Recent State law (AB 1826) requires cities to implement a program to collect organic wastes (including food scraps) from businesses for composting. The organics program will make it easier for businesses to meet the required mandates for composting food scraps. The program has been endorsed by CalRecycle as the kind of program they want to see as a result of AB 1826.
In addition, The City is looking to the future and expects to see the State imposing stricter guidelines on placing yard trimmings piles loose in the street as it pertains to storm water quality. When grass clippings and leaves are washed down a storm drain by wind or water, they decompose and remove oxygen from the water, killing fish and other aquatic life. The Sacramento-Yolo Mosquito & Vector Control District have also expressed concern that grass clippings in storm drains harbor mosquito larvae, as they feed on the grass clippings. The clippings also retain small pools of water in the storm drain system, creating breeding habitat for the mosquitoes.
Removing organic material from the landfill will also help the City move closer to its greenhouse gas reduction goals. When organics decompose in a landfill they produce methane, which is 72 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
If your neighborhood or organization would like the City to attend one of your meetings to discuss the Organics Program, please email pwweb@CityofDavis.org. More information about the organics program is available online at DavisRecycling.org.
For more information, please contact Jennifer Gilbert, Conservation Coordinator, at 530-757-5686 or jgilbert@CityofDavis.org.