Waste

The City of Riverside’s Public Works Department is committed to implementing state mandates for waste diversion. To meet the State’s diversion goals, Public Works utilizes social media and community outreach to educate residents.    California Senate Bill 1383 aims to significantly reduce organic waste disposal by 75% and rescue at least 20% of surplus food for people in need by 2025 to cut methane emissions and combat climate change. To support these goals, the Ccity has partnered with EcoHero to deliver environmental education and outreach to students from K-12 within the Riverside School District. EcoHero provides engaging presentations at elementary schools, focusing on organic waste reduction, food surplus management, and recycling. 

 

Organic Waste Diversion 

In accordance with SB1383, the City’s Public Works Department introduced a new Food Waste Diversion Pprogram to allow every resident to easily recycle food scraps, food-soiled paper and yard trimmings and do their part to help the environment. This program is the next step in the City’s efforts to reduce waste and accelerate progress toward the City’s climate action goals.  By recycling organic waste, we transform it into valuable resources such as compost for our gardens and parks, and renewable natural gas for energy. This initiative not only supports the City's climate action goals but also helps create a sustainable future for our community. 

The City of Riverside’s Edible Food Recovery Program is a key initiative designed to address food waste and promote sustainability within the community. This program aims to significantly reduce the amount of surplus food discarded by redirecting it to those in need. Through partnerships with ReCreate Waste Collaborative and Feeding America, the program facilitates the collection and redistribution of edible food that would otherwise go to waste. By focusing on both environmental impact and community support, Riverside is working to create a more sustainable food system. For more information, please visit riversideca.gov/publicworks/EFR. 

 

Recycle From Home 

In partnership with CalRecycle and the City, Recycle From Home is here to make recycling for Riverside residents incredibly easy. You no longer need to load up your car and search for a redemption center. Recycle From Home provides collection bags and barcode tracking labels to sort your CA CRV aluminum cans, plastic, and glass bottles. Schedule a pickup online, place your items out for collection, and Recycle From Home handles the rest. Their team will pick up your recyclables at the designated time and process them within 24 hours. You’ll receive your redemption funds, calculated based on CA CRV rates, electronically or by check, minus a 10% service fee. To learn more, visit recyclefromhome.com/how-it-works/. 

 

Clean Up Riverside 

Clean Up Riverside is a program that promotes the value of having a clean City, raises consciousness of litter habits and improves overall community pride and involvement. Keeping our Ccity clean and well-maintained discourages vandalism, graffiti, littering and crime. As part of its Clean Up Riverside campaign, the City hosts periodic bulky item and electronic waste collection events for items too large to fit into residential trash containers. All items are collected free of charge for City residents. To learn more about CUR events, please visit riversideca.gov/publicworks/trash-recycling/clean-riverside.  

 

 

Metrics 

  • 2021 – Riverside contributed a total of 187,720.1 (commercial and residential) tons of trash .  ---> total diverted organics 21,975.63 tons 

  • 2022 –    total diverted organics 49,190.04 tons 

  • 2023 total diverted organics 53,857.55 tons 

  • 2023 – 5,358,283 Total pounds of edible food recovered by food recovery organizations and services in Riverside 
     

  • NOTE: Include Flyer below.  Include pie chart on main Sustainability page that shows diversion rate.  See Fort Collins image below. 

 

Construction and Demolition Waste Diversion and Recycling 

The EPA estimates that 230 to 530 million tons of construction and demolition waste is produced each year nationwide in the United States*. In California, construction and demolition debris accounts for between 21.7 to 25.5 percent of California’s waste disposal*. (*EPA Final Report The State of the Practice of Construction & Demolition Material Recovery 2017). (*CalRecycle 2014 Disposal Facility Based Characterization of Waste in California) 

https://calrecycle.ca.gov/lgcentral/library/canddmodel/ 

Federal and State law, including CALGreen, require regulation and proper documentation of construction and demolition waste as part of the overall effort to ensure various types of building materials such as wood, aggregate, and carpet, are properly diverted from landfills and/or recycled in a responsible, sustainable manner. 

SB 1383 regulations mandate that jurisdictions implement a system to enforce CALGreen’s 65% construction and demolition (C&D) debris recovery rate. This ensures that the maximum amount of organic waste mixed with C&D debris is recovered from building projects. The City of Riverside has adopted a C&D diversion ordinance and the California Green Building Standards Code (CALGreen). The Solid Waste Division is working closely with Building and Safety to ensure compliance with the C&D requirements and state mandates. The City has developed a C&D waste management plan that outlines the types of waste generated and describes the methods for recycling that waste.