Pasadena, CA Landscaping Rules: Composting (2026)

050(l), part of the chapter implementing the state's SB 1383 organics law, states that nothing in the commercial organics requirements prohibits a generator from preventing or reducing waste generation, managing organic waste on site, or using a Community Composting site, so a resident or business can compost food scraps and yard trimmings at home instead of enrolling those materials in the city's organics container. 030(F) sets the operative size limit for any such site: it covers any activity that composts organics, agricultural material, food material and vegetative food material, alone or combined, so long as the total feedstock and finished compost on-site at any one time does not exceed 100 cubic yards and 750 square feet, tracking the state cap in 14 CCR Section 17855(a)(4).

275 requires any franchisee that collects, transports or hauls organics or other compostable material to take it only to a composting facility that has been permitted or certified by the State of California, so a hauler cannot dump collected yard trimmings or food scraps at an unpermitted site. Composting is not itself licensed or inspected by the city at the residential scale; the size cap and the franchisee delivery rule are the two hard limits the code sets.