SB 1383: California's Organics Diversion Law and What It Requires from Your Business

SB 1383, officially the Short-Lived Climate Pollutant Reduction Act, is the most aggressive organics diversion law in the United States. It sets a statewide goal of reducing organic waste disposal by 75% from the 2014 baseline and recovering 20% of edible food that would otherwise be sent to landfill for human consumption.

For commercial operators in California, SB 1383 has two parallel compliance tracks: organics recycling (required of essentially every generator) and edible food recovery (required of designated grocery, distribution, and food service operators).

What SB 1383 Requires

Every commercial generator of organic waste in California must subscribe to an organics collection service or arrange equivalent diversion. Organic waste under SB 1383 includes food waste, green waste, landscape and pruning waste, nonhazardous wood waste, food-soiled paper, and manure.

Edible Food Recovery Tiers

The law splits high-volume food generators into two tiers with phased compliance dates.

Tier 1 Generators (effective January 1, 2022)

- Supermarkets and grocery stores - Food service providers (catering, contract food service) - Food distributors - Wholesale food vendors - Food manufacturers and processors - Hotels with on-site food facilities

Tier 2 Generators (effective January 1, 2024)

- Restaurants with 250+ seats or 5,000+ square feet - Hotels without on-site food facilities - Health facilities with on-site food facilities (250+ beds) - Large venues and events - State agency cafeterias - Local education agencies with on-site food facilities

Each Tier 1 and Tier 2 generator must establish a written agreement or contract with a food recovery organization or food recovery service. The agreement must cover the maximum amount of edible food the generator can recover.

Enforcement and Penalties

CalRecycle has overall responsibility, with local jurisdictions (cities and counties) responsible for direct enforcement.

Business fines for non-compliance: $50 to $500 per violation, per day.

Jurisdictions that fail to adopt SB 1383-compliant programs face fines from CalRecycle of up to $10,000 per day.

Records Required

For Tier 1 and Tier 2 generators:

- Signed written agreement with a food recovery organization or food recovery service - Weight or volume logs of edible food donated, by category - Receiving organization confirmations - Employee training records (date, attendees, topics) - Records retained for a minimum of 5 years

For all organic waste generators:

- Hauler contracts covering organics collection - Monthly weight tickets or diversion reports - Documentation of end destination (composting, anaerobic digestion, animal feed recovery) - Local jurisdiction reporting as required

How ICTV Helps

ICTV serves commercial and multi-site operations as a single point of accountability for SB 1383 compliance. We coordinate organics collection across all sites, structure edible food recovery agreements with qualified partners, generate consolidated documentation, and produce SB 1383-aligned reporting in a format CalRecycle and local jurisdictions accept.

For multi-location operators, the value is consistency: every site documents diversion the same way, and corporate sustainability teams can produce verified rolled-up reporting on demand.