Food Scraps

Food scraps includes kitchen food waste items like

• Meat, poultry, fish, and beans
• Dairy products
• Fruits and vegetables
• Breads, grains, and pastas
• Eggshells and nutshells
• Coffee grounds
• Table scraps and leftovers.

Food scraps also includes food-soiled paper like:

• Pizza delivery boxes and waxed cardboard boxes
• Coffee filters and tea bags
• Paper towels and napkins
• Paper egg cartons and berry cartons
• Uncoated "Non-Shiny" paper plates, cups, and bowls
• Paper grocery bags containing food scraps, and even soiled pizza boxes and waxed cardboard boxes.

Instead of sending food scraps to a landfill which typically lacks the correct environment for decomposition, it can be picked up by a vendor for commercial composting. Not only is this option more environmentally sustainable, it saves money because commercial composting rates are usually much less expensive than garbage service. 

Though it costs the customer less to dispose of food scraps and yard waste by composting, much of a curbside program's costs are for the equipment, fuel, and staff costs to pick up the material from each location and deliver it to the compost facility. Homeowners can save money by hauling their own food scraps and yard waste to the Clean Green areas at the Waste to Energy Facility, the North County or Valley transfer stations, or Sunshine Disposal and Recycling's transfer station.