For years, I’ve been buying green “compostable” bags to line my little kitchen compost bin. Composting is great for the environment, but can get pretty nasty, and I appreciate how the bags make taking out the food slop a little less disgusting.
But thanks to a recent Oaklandside story, I just learned that the city of Oakland, where I live, doesn’t actually accept these compost liners – and hasn’t for a few years now. Not even the ones that are BPI-certified (meaning the Biodegradable Products Institute has independently tested the product to verify it will break down quickly in a commercial compost facility). I’m not the only one who’s been getting this wrong, Oakland recycling program manager Rebecca Parnes told SFGATE. We were trying to do the right thing by composting – what gives?
“I think when compostable plastics first came on the market, folks that work in zero waste were super excited about the potential for helping make food scrap diversion a lot easier for the public,” Parnes said. “And then little by little realizing that one, a lot of them don’t decompose in the average compost facility, and then two, if they do, it’s bad for the compost.”
It turns out that many commercial composting facilities don’t provide the necessary conditions for items like compostable liners to break down. Some Oakland compost is sent to Waste Management’s processing facility in Altamont. There, “compostable” plastics are considered to be contamination and are “sorted out during processing and directed to the landfill,” spokesperson Daiane Cezário told Oaklandside. SFGATE could not reach Waste Management for comment in time for publication.
Oakland doesn’t accept green “compostable” bags in the compost, but some Bay Area cities, like San Francisco, still do. (MediaNews Group/Getty Images)
That was news to me. I decided to see what other Bay Area cities and counties do.
RethinkWaste, a public agency that manages waste reduction, recycling, and garbage collection services for over 420,000 residents in San Mateo County, said that its Republic Services and Recology-owned partner facilities in North San Jose and the Central Valley are the ones that determine what they can and cannot accept.
“Those facilities have determined that while the material may indeed be compostable at some point, it doesn’t break down in the 90- to 100-day production cycle that they have,” RethinkWaste Executive Director Joe La Mariana told SFGATE. “That’s the problem. So all of the goodwill, it just makes me crazy because so many people are trying to do the right thing,”
What’s more, even “certified compostable” products are only required to degrade 90%, according to the regional public agency StopWaste. So if they are left in the compost, these products can leave behind microplastics, which can contaminate soil and pose environmental and health risks, according to the agency’s website.
What’s confusing, though, is that some Bay Area cities still accept “compostable” bags. Even within Alameda County, cities including Berkeley, Fremont and Union City accept the bags. And so does San Francisco. I was more confused than ever.
For San Francisco, it’s a matter of focusing on what’s most important: getting people to actually compost, said Hilary Near, the city of San Francisco’s commercial zero waste senior coordinator.
FILE: Recology worker Miguel Rojas throws a bag of compostable material into his truck on Dec. 10, 2010, in San Francisco. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
“We need everyone to put their food scraps in the green cart,” she told SFGATE. “… We think liners do help residents of apartment buildings get their material into a green cart because they’re going down flights of stairs.”
She called the focus on the green compostable bags a distraction from the real problem: conventional plastics.
“At this point, our main concern is conventional plastics getting into our compost because people still put the wrong things,” she said. “They put their food scraps in plastic bags or they put packaged food in their compost.”
That said, Near shared some of the same concerns surrounding compostable products and microplastics. And she said that Recology San Francisco, the city’s waste management and recycling company, is not actually able to discern between compostable products and plastic ones at its composting facilities, so they often all get marked as contamination and removed.
Fortunately, some new laws should help make composting less confusing in the near future. Assembly Bill 1201, which was signed into law in 2021 and goes into effect in June 2027, says a company cannot sell a product labeled as compostable unless it meets specified standards. SB 54, which was signed into law in 2022, will help reduce packaging waste by requiring all single-use packaging and foodware sold in California to be recyclable or compostable by 2032.
Oakland doesn’t accept green “compostable” bags in the compost, but some Bay Area cities, like San Francisco, still do. (Zarina Lukash/Getty Images)
“We likely will change to harmonize with the state around foodware and other packaging,” when these laws go into effect, Near said. “I don’t want to jerk our residents around and say something now.”
In an email to SFGATE, Recology spokesperson Robert Reed said, “We continue to have discussions with The City on the subject and potential program changes to address these challenges and to prepare for potential changes due to SB 54.”
Instead of lining your kitchen pail with compostable liners, Reed suggested placing a paper napkin or paper towel at the bottom of the pail to absorb moisture, and to empty your pail every night to avoid odors. Parnes suggested using old bread bags or newspapers, or even flattening a cardboard box to put at the bottom.
“I think folks who are engaged enough to be willing to spend a little more to buy these bags are clearly trying to do the right thing for the environment,” she said. “So it’s unfortunate that this isn’t the right thing.”
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This article originally published at Oakland won’t accept green ‘compost’ bags. Here’s why SF still does..