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Santa Barbara explains 'no-sort' approach: residents place food scraps in trash; city sorts at MRF to make compost and energy
Summary
City presenters said residents can put food scraps unbagged into household trash for sorting at a local materials recovery facility; organics are diverted to an anaerobic digester that produces compost used locally and methane burned for electricity. Restaurants remain required by municipal code to separate and recover food.
Santa Barbara presenters described a residential "no-sort" approach to food scraps in which residents may place food directly into household trash, and the city's materials recovery facility (MRF) separates and diverts organics for composting and energy production.
Unidentified Speaker 2 said the policy is designed to simplify participation: "So all residents need to do is put their food directly into the trash, unbagged," and, the speaker added, when that trash reaches the resource center "the food will be sorted out and then composted." According to Unidentified Speaker 3, the facility's recovery processes pull out "roughly 80% of the organics that's in people's trash cans."
The presenters described…
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