Sutter County, CA Trash & Recycling: Mandatory Organics Recycling (2026)

California SB 1383 (the Short-Lived Climate Pollutant Reduction Act of 2016) requires every jurisdiction to provide organic-waste collection and to adopt an enforceable ordinance by January 1, 2022. In the Yuba-Sutter region that ordinance is the Regional Waste Management Authority's Mandatory Organic Waste Disposal Reduction Ordinance No. 22-1, adopted on behalf of member agencies including the County of Sutter. Section 4 requires single-family organic-waste generators, except those in Low-Population Census Tract Areas With Approved Waivers, to separate and self-haul organics per Section 10 or participate in the Member Agency's organics and recyclables collection programs, placing designated materials in the correct containers and keeping contaminants and organics out of the trash. Section 5 imposes parallel duties on commercial businesses and multifamily dwellings of five or more units. The green organics cart takes food scraps (where provided), grass clippings, leaves, plant trimmings and food-soiled paper. The ordinance's waivers (Section 6) include de minimis and physical-space waivers for businesses, and CalRecycle-approved low-population census-tract areas are exempt from mandatory collection entirely (the County applied low-population waivers for rural unincorporated tracts, where residents may instead self-haul, grasscycle or home-compost). Enforcement (Section 12) provides an education period from January 1, 2022 through December 31, 2023, with administrative civil penalties beginning January 1, 2024: base penalties of $50 for a first violation, $100 for a second, and $250 for a third or subsequent violation, with each day a separate violation after a Notice of Violation.