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

SB 1383 is the statewide Short-Lived Climate Pollutants law requiring jurisdictions to divert organic waste from landfills and recover edible food. Tehama County adopted Chapter 9.44 (Mandatory Organic Waste Disposal Regulations), including an enforcement section at 9.44.150, to implement it. However, Tehama is one of 19 California counties with fewer than 70,000 residents that qualify for a rural/low-population exemption: AB 2902 (signed by the Governor on September 22, 2024) extended the rural exemption for these counties — Tehama among them — from SB 1383's organic-waste collection mandate. CalRecycle's framework also allows low-population waivers for unincorporated census tracts with a density under 75 people per square mile, which fits much of rural Tehama County. County officials describe the County as temporarily exempt from several SB 1383 requirements until a collection program must be operating around January 1, 2027, with a likely pilot using existing green-waste bins and expanded organics processing at the landfill. Crucially, even with the collection exemption, the County must still implement SB 1383's edible-food-recovery program (Tier 1 generators since Jan. 1, 2022; Tier 2 since Jan. 1, 2024), recycled-paper procurement, and model water-efficient landscaping requirements. The County accepts SB 1383 complaints (e.g., about non-compliant edible-food generators) via its Landfill Agency.