El Monte, CA Landscaping Rules: Composting (2026)

El Monte does not require a permit for ordinary backyard composting. 9(c). That means a single-family household can maintain its own compost pile instead of relying solely on the green container the city automatically enrolls it in. 020, which defines 'community composting' as any activity composting green material, agricultural material, food material, and vegetative food material, alone or in combination, provided the total amount of feedstock and compost on-site at any one time does not exceed 100 cubic yards and 750 square feet, tracking the state standard at 14 CCR Section 17855(a)(4).

A pile larger than that threshold falls outside the 'community composting' exemption and would need to be handled through a permitted composting operation or facility rather than an informal backyard or neighborhood setup. 055 separately requires any community composting operator to report information to the city, on request, to support the city's organic-waste capacity planning, and to respond to such a request within 60 days. 2(a)(4): the product resulting from the controlled biological decomposition of organic solid wastes that are source-separated from the municipal solid waste stream or separated at a centralized facility.