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

Section 7-14.060 of the Novato Municipal Code sits inside the city's Reusable Foodware Ordinance (section 7-14, adopted by Ordinance No. 1701 on May 9, 2023) and is the code's organics separation rule for food vendors. It applies to any food vendor that provides solid waste containers for customer use. Such a vendor must provide separate receptacles for solid waste, recyclables and organics, colored black or grey for garbage, blue for recycling and green for compost/organics. To the extent possible given space constraints, the three receptacles are placed adjacent to one another, and graphic-rich signage following the waste hauler's guidelines must be posted on or above each receptacle.

Section 7-14.010 defines food vendor to include a restaurant, bar, grocery store, delicatessen, bakery, food truck, pushcart, farmers market, caterer and cottage food operation selling prepared food within the city, and it excludes a public or private school cafeteria. Under section 7-14.070, entities packaging prepared foods outside Marin County are exempt from the chapter, and the city council or its designee can exempt vendors in an emergency or natural disaster.

Enforcement is delegated. Section 7-14.080 designates the Marin County Environmental Health Services Division as the enforcement agency within the city, starting November 10, 2023 on the regular inspection schedule of covered food vendors, and requires written notice of noncompliance and a reasonable opportunity to correct before any penalty. The same chapter requires reusable foodware for dine-in service, reusable or compostable natural fiber foodware for takeout, and a $0.25 charge on every nonreusable cup, so the green organics bin is the disposal end of a compost-oriented foodware system. The quoted provision governs the bins a food vendor provides to customers. It does not set collection service levels for haulers.