Eight Pasadena Parks Eyed as Locations for Community Composting Hubs

Pasadena’s Public Works Department has identified proposed locations for community composting hubs where residents would be able to drop off their vegetative food scraps to be turned into soil amendments or into biogas, which could ultimately be converted to electricity and vehicle fuel. 

The proposed parks identified are Brookside, La Pintoresca, McDonald, Memorial, Victory, Villa Parke, San Rafael and Allendale.

“Right now we’re looking at the parks as the primary option and if something changes and there’s no support at those locations, our fallback would be to look at other city vacant lots to see if there would be other locations where we can establish these composting hubs going forward,” Public Works Director Tony Olmos said at the Municipal Services Committee meeting on Tuesday. 

Olmos said the staff has already met with representatives of the Parks, Recreation and Community Services department and Council district liaisons to review the specific locations. 

Community outreach meetings have already been scheduled to gather feedback from neighbors located near the proposed sites, he said. 

According to Gabriel Silva of the Public Works Department’s resource recovery and recycling division, the first two to three composting hubs are planned to be established this year while the remaining hubs are targeted to be completed next year.

“We’d like to have two to three sites in place this year. We like to start slowly so that we will ensure that it is a successful program. And we should have all of the eight composting hubs in place by next year.” 

The City Council on March 14 adopted an ordinance which formalized the organic recycling program in the city in compliance with SB 1838, which requires cities in California to provide organic waste collection service to all residents and businesses to limit the amount of organic material entering landfills.

Currently, residents are required to place food waste into their yard waste container.

The Public Works Department’s Operations Section separates the food waste and the yard waste. The yard waste is sent to a composting facility while the food waste is taken to a recovery facility where it is turned into biogas.

Currently, the Public Works Department is collecting eight tons of organic waste per month. According to Olmos, the goal is to collect closer to 50 to 60 tons per month. 

“We think outreach is going to be key in trying to get more participation,”  Olmos said at the hearing. 

For more information regarding the city’s organic waste recycling program visit:https://www.cityofpasadena.net/public-works/street-maintenance-waste-management/trash-and-recycling/