Hawthorne, CA Trash & Recycling: Mandatory Organics Recycling (2026)

California's SB 1383 (Lara, 2016) requires every jurisdiction to provide and require organic-waste collection and to recover surplus edible food, with statewide goals to cut organic-waste disposal 50% by 2020 and 75% by 2025 and recover at least 20% of edible food by 2025. Hawthorne implements this through its Mandatory Organic Waste Disposal Reduction chapter of the Hawthorne Municipal Code. Because Hawthorne's population is roughly 88,000, it is well above the 70,000-resident threshold and does not qualify for the low-population rural exemption from SB 1383, so the full mandate applies. Under SB 1383, organic waste includes green waste, wood waste, food waste, and fibers like paper and cardboard. In Hawthorne, food waste is directed to the brown cart along with palm fronds, ivy, iceplant, cactus, and small pieces of wood, while the green cart handles grass clippings, small branches, and houseplant clippings. Residents, businesses, and multifamily properties must separate organic and recyclable materials from trash and either subscribe to the required collection service or self-haul the sorted material to a facility that can divert each stream. The code also requires generators to provide adequately sized, labeled containers, with recycling and organics container labels in English and Spanish compliant with SB 1383. Republic Services monitors participation and contamination for compliance.