The complete SB 1383 compliance checklist for jurisdictions

How to use this checklist

SB 1383 is not one requirement, it is roughly a dozen programs that each generate their own evidence. Jurisdictions rarely fail because they neglected a whole program; they fail because two or three programs were running informally and left no record.

So read this in two passes. First, check that each program exists. Second — and this is the pass that decides compliance reviews — check that each program produces a record somebody could hand to CalRecycle without a reconstruction project. If you can only do one pass, do the second.

1. Ordinance and enforceable mechanism

You need adopted legal authority requiring organic waste generators in your jurisdiction to comply — typically an ordinance, but the regulation allows other enforceable mechanisms such as franchise agreements or contracts, provided they are genuinely enforceable against the parties you need to reach.

• An adopted ordinance or equivalent enforceable mechanism is in force.
• It reaches residential, commercial, and multifamily generators.
• It gives you authority to inspect and to enforce, including penalties.
• The adopted text and adoption record are in your Implementation Record.

2. Organic waste collection service

Every organic waste generator must be provided with organic waste collection service. The regulation allows several service configurations — three-container, two-container, and other approved arrangements — and what matters is that generators are served and that you can describe and evidence the configuration you chose.

• All generators — residential, commercial, and multifamily — are provided service.
• Your collection configuration is documented in a written program description.
• Container colours meet the regulation: containers procured from 2022 onward comply, with older containers usable through their useful life but no later than January 1, 2036.
• Containers carry compliant labelling or signage about what belongs in them.

Reference: 14 CCR §§ 18984.1–18984.9

3. Contamination minimization and route reviews

Jurisdictions must monitor contamination in collection containers and act on what they find. This is done through route reviews or waste evaluations, and it is one of the most frequently thin sections in an Implementation Record — often because reviews were conducted but the findings were never written up.

• A contamination monitoring programme is running — route reviews, waste evaluations, or both.
• Findings are recorded per account, with dates, not just summarised in aggregate.
• Follow-up with contaminated accounts is documented, including education and any escalation.
• Repeat offenders are visible as repeat offenders, which is what makes enforcement defensible.

4. Waivers and exemptions

Jurisdictions may grant de minimis waivers, physical space waivers, and collection waivers to qualifying generators. Each one is a decision you will have to justify, and each requires supporting evidence — not merely a record that the waiver was granted.

• Every granted waiver has documented evidence supporting the qualifying condition.
• Waivers are reviewed on the required cycle rather than granted indefinitely.
• Waiver records are kept per the recordkeeping requirements for waivers and exemptions.

Reference: 14 CCR § 18984.14

5. Education and outreach

Jurisdictions must educate organic waste generators about their obligations and about the service provided to them, and must do so on a recurring basis rather than once at programme launch. Education is also the foundation of defensible enforcement: an escalation against a generator who was never informed is a weak case.

• Education reaches all generator types, including multifamily and commercial.
• Materials are provided in the languages your jurisdiction requires.
• You retain what was sent, to whom, and when — not just sample copies of the materials.
• Edible food generators receive the education specific to their obligations.

Reference: 14 CCR § 18985.3

6. Hauler oversight

Contracting with a hauler does not transfer your compliance obligation to them. Jurisdictions must oversee hauler programmes and be able to evidence that oversight — a distinction that catches out jurisdictions whose franchise agreement is excellent but whose monitoring file is empty.

• Hauler agreements require the reporting and performance SB 1383 depends on.
• Haulers submit tonnage and programme data on a defined schedule.
• You review what they submit, and the review itself leaves a record.
• Data from haulers serving multiple jurisdictions is attributed correctly to yours.

7. Edible food recovery

Jurisdictions must identify commercial edible food generators, ensure adequate recovery capacity exists, educate generators, inspect them, and keep the records. Tier 1 obligations took effect January 1, 2022; Tier 2 on January 1, 2024.

• A current list of Tier 1 and Tier 2 commercial edible food generators exists and is maintained.
• Recovery capacity has been assessed against the volume your generators produce.
• Generators have been educated about their obligations and available recovery organizations.
• Generators are inspected at a rate sufficient to determine compliance, including whether each holds a current contract or written agreement with a food recovery organization.
• Food recovery organizations and services operating in your jurisdiction are documented.

Reference: 14 CCR §§ 18991.1–18991.2

8. Recovered organic waste product procurement

Each jurisdiction has an annual procurement target assigned by CalRecycle based on population, calculated at 0.08 tons of organic waste per resident per year. Eligible products include compost, mulch, renewable natural gas, and electricity from biomass conversion, in any combination.

AB 2902 and AB 2346, both enacted in 2024, added flexibility to how jurisdictions can meet this requirement, and CalRecycle has published guidance on the new options.

• You know your current annual target and how it was calculated.
• Procurement is recorded as it happens, across every department that buys eligible product.
• Supporting documentation — invoices, delivery records, application records — is retained.
• Giveaway and direct-use programmes are documented, not just purchases.

9. Recycled-content paper procurement

A separate obligation from organics procurement, and a separate Implementation Record category. Jurisdictions must procure recycled-content paper meeting the specified criteria and keep the purchasing records to prove it.

• Paper purchasing meets the recycled-content requirements.
• Purchasing records are retained separately from organics procurement records.

10. CALGreen and Model Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance

Jurisdictions are required to implement and enforce the relevant CALGreen Building Standards and Model Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance provisions, and to report on them. This obligation frequently sits with building or planning departments rather than the waste programme, which is exactly why it goes unreported.

• The relevant CALGreen and MWELO provisions are being enforced.
• Whoever enforces them knows the data feeds your SB 1383 annual report.

11. Capacity planning

Jurisdictions must participate in organic waste recycling and edible food recovery capacity planning — estimating the organic waste your jurisdiction will generate and identifying the capacity needed to handle it, in coordination with your county.

• Capacity estimates have been produced and submitted as required.
• Coordination with the county capacity planning process is documented.

12. Inspection, enforcement, and complaint investigation

Jurisdictions act as the enforcement authority for the regulated entities within their boundaries. That means inspecting, issuing notices of violation where warranted, escalating, and investigating complaints of alleged violations.

• An inspection programme is running across regulated entity types, at a documented rate.
• Notices of violation link to the inspection that prompted them and the resolution that closed them.
• Complaints of alleged violations are received, investigated, and resolved on the record.
• Penalties are available and used where escalation requires them.

Reference: 14 CCR §§ 18995.1, 18995.3, 18995.4

13. Recordkeeping and the Implementation Record

This is the obligation that decides compliance reviews, because it is the one CalRecycle evaluates directly. All records required by the regulations must be maintained in a single Implementation Record.

• Records are placed in the Implementation Record within 60 days of being created.
• Records are retained for five years.
• The record lives in one central location, physical or electronic, that CalRecycle can readily access.
• You can provide access within ten business days of a request.
• Every category is populated: ordinances, programme descriptions, collection, contamination minimization, waivers, education, hauler oversight, edible food recovery, organics procurement, paper procurement, inspection and enforcement, compliance reviews, and complaint investigation.

Reference: 14 CCR § 18995.2

14. Annual reporting

Jurisdictions report annually to CalRecycle on implementation across every programme area. Reports are due on or before August 1 each year and cover the entire previous calendar year.

• The report is submitted by August 1.
• It covers January 1 to December 31 of the prior year.
• Every programme area is represented: collection, contamination monitoring, waivers, education and outreach, hauler oversight, edible food recovery, procurement, CALGreen and MWELO, capacity planning, and compliance monitoring and enforcement.
• The figures reported are traceable back to records in your Implementation Record.

Reference: 14 CCR § 18994.2

What CalRecycle tends to look at first

In practice, reviews concentrate on the places where evidence is thinnest across the sector. Contamination monitoring findings, edible food generator lists, procurement totals, and inspection rates are the four that most often turn out to be described rather than documented.

The pattern is consistent: the programme is real, the staff are competent, and the evidence is scattered. If you are auditing yourself against this checklist and only have time for four sections, make it those four.

CalRecycle updated its Implementation Record checklist in April 2025 with clearer recordkeeping guidance and instructions for granting the department access to your record — worth reading alongside this one, since it reflects what reviewers are actually asking for.

If this checklist found gaps

Most jurisdictions who work through it honestly find two or three. That is normal, and it is fixable — the programmes are usually running, and what is missing is the record that proves it.

CityGreen Consulting has guided California jurisdictions to compliance since 1991, and CityGreen Connect is the platform that came out of that practice. If you would like a straight assessment of where your programmes stand and what closing the gaps would involve, a consultation is no-obligation.