Hemet, CA Landscaping Rules: Composting (2026)

Composting in Hemet is shaped by California's SB 1383 organic-waste law, which since January 1, 2022 requires every California jurisdiction to provide organic-waste collection to residents and businesses to cut methane from landfills. Hemet contracts with CR&R Environmental Services to deliver this program. Residents collect food scraps in a CR&R-provided kitchen pail and empty them into the green organics cart, which is combined with yard/green waste; the cart is collected weekly along with regular trash and recycling. Acceptable organics include "all peels, nuts, seeds, meat, and shells" plus "all plant debris and landscaping waste." Prohibited items include plastic wrappers, plastic or paper bags, hoses, metal, glass, hazardous waste, and anything that doesn't grow from the earth. The collected food-and-yard mix is processed into soil amendment and renewable natural gas. Home/backyard composting remains a permitted alternative under SB 1383 — residents who compost their own food scraps and yard trimmings on-site reduce what they set out — but the City still provides the green cart so that compliance does not depend on every household composting. Note that yard waste must still be managed (cart or home compost); it cannot be allowed to accumulate as overgrown vegetation that would trigger the Fire Department's weed-abatement nuisance rules.