SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - This month, the City of San Diego began to check trash cans in neighborhoods across the city. Workers want to make sure people are sorting the right waste into the right bin.
"We’ve never been this detailed and thorough with it," said City Waste Reduction Program Manager Alexander Galasso.
Teams of Compliance Officers, more commonly called "lid lifters," will walk through neighborhoods to make sure everyone is disposing of their waste properly. It's a requirement under Senate Bill 1883, which went into effect recently and required Californians to recycle organic waste separately from the rest of their trash and recycling.
"I'm excited," said Galasso. "I’m weird, I’m excited. I think it’s cool to dig through trash. But I’m not the normal person."
The lid lifters won't actually dig through trash. They just raise the top and take a simple look at the upper layer. If they see something that doesn't belong, they put an "oops" tag on the bin, letting the homeowner know about the mistake.
Galasso said the whole effort is about education over enforcement.
"We're not going to be doing any citations for major or minor contaminations," he said.
There's also a safety element. Already this year, 20 City waste trucks have caught fire, mainly because of batteries or other items that get improperly thrown out.
"The way the trucks are set up, they’ll crush the compacted material," Galasso said. "Unfortunately, batteries, especially lithium ion, when they get crushed those cells explode and fire is a real threat."
If the contamination is especially bad, workers may put a "do not collect" sticker on the bin, or turn it around so the waste collection teams leave it. Then the homeowners have to take the contamination out and call the city for a new pickup.
Every home will be checked at least once a year.
"Waste doesn’t end when you come to the trash can," Galasso said. "There is a life after waste and we want to make sure that these are sorted correctly, because not only does it impact our staff and trucks, but it impacts what goes into our landfill."
Complete information on the city's trash regulations can be found at https://www.sandiego.gov/environmental-services/collection/general.
