Santa Cruz's Residential Food Waste Program

[@WMmaster626]

Big time"what the hell" vibes but super unique and all around interesting to see. Gives me the same vibes from 30 years ago when recycling and automation started coming in. Awesome find!

[@brianspencer6955]

what the hell vibes are what I got too.

[@zp12684]

Thanks Aaron! I was thinking the same thing when filming.

[@Trashmaster15]

Orrrr you could run a mini….

[@SDRefuse333]

The best way to do food waste. Pretty cool to see, loved it. Awesome video!

[@zp12684]

thanks! Glad you enjoyed

[@socalgarbagetrucks]

Good on you for getting out there and getting some quality footage of all these wacky new programs across the state. Though a strikingly different operation from that of San Diego, I think it all comes down to what’s most efficient at the end of the day. I dig the setup they have on this Bridgeport but for a guy to get out ever stop to empty a tiny half full kitchen pail just seems like a waste. San Diego had the right idea of rolling out primarily 30s for commingled yard and foodwaste and automating the whole thing, but I guess Santa Cruz wants a cleaner product in this case. This route would be far more efficient with a mini truck no doubt… hell throwing the slop into the bed of an F250 would do the truck. But I wonder how much he weighs in at the dump… a heavy stream despite the small volume might garner the use of a full size truck in this case. In any case, awesome video man. Looking forward to see what you upload next!

[@brianspencer6955]

The way I see it is they can also mix in commercial food waste stops. Also in many cases food waste processing is more expensive than general yard waste which might be why they decided to separate them.

[@legalizeweed3830]

I used to dump food waste all day in Canada. After a full day we dumped between 6-11 tons.

[@dickhead0423]

These small slop buckets are standard in the UK. A significantly smaller truck is normally used, with a driver and one or two loaders

[@zp12684]

I feel that Santa Cruz is the perfect city for something like this, it's small enough the routes don't take 8+ hours to complete, there's basically no future development that'll add tons and tons of houses to routes and people in the Bay Area tend to already have a green mindset. Depending on the day, he'll dump anywhere between 1.5-2 tons of food waste at their processing plant. I agree that a smaller truck would do the trick, hell even a non CDL rear loader would work, but Santa Cruz prefers to have a truck that can be used on every route. Before these were assigned to food waste, they were doing trash. Thanks for the comment Eli! More organic waste routes coming in the future!

[@zp12684]

@@brianspencer6955 They actually have a ACX Freedom that does commercial food waste.

[@milldogg7311]

This is a great video bud! Interesting to see how different areas of California are dealing with the new mandates. For all those asking the question why is food waste separated and not mixed with green waste, here is why: the separated food waste is not going for composting. It is going to either go to be dehydrated and made into animal feed or will be sent for anaerobic digestion at the city’s waste water treatment facility to create biogas. Found this in the city website. Not every city/county in California has a yard waste composing facility that can accept food waste with the green waste. Hell, my county doesn’t even have a yard waste facility. So now into the near future, we will be seeing how different areas of the state will be implementing the “new laws” in the most economical means for what their different areas have to offer. Should be very interesting!

[@zp12684]

Thank you! To further on your point about what you read from the city website, Santa Cruz couldn't get a permit to have commingled green and food waste so that's why they went with this system. I'm excited to see how other haulers will deal with food waste.

[@SDESD383]

Nice job! interesting way for food waste collection.

[@zp12684]

Agreed! Don't know any other city in California that does it quite like this.

[@garbagetrucksofsanmarcosca]

Excellent video man this truck is cool.

[@nate9002]

If these are split what else do they do I’m also suprised bridgeport didn’t build like some sort of recycler bucket for it overall it’s a cool set up

[@zp12684]

For some reason, all the trucks Santa Cruz buys are split, despite only doing one stream

[@cincinnatirefusetrucks1722]

This is one heck of a food waste program. Nice video!

[@zp12684]

Thanks you!

[@trainstracksandtrucks]

Super cool video! Nice job!

[@zp12684]

Thanks!

[@minibinwaredisposaldude5641]

My family would need 5 of those lol

[@zp12684]

You all produce 30 gallons of food waste a week??

[@minibinwaredisposaldude5641]

@@zp12684 more like 20 gallons

[@minibinwaredisposaldude5641]

@@zp12684 it’s a big family

[@westsacramentowastetrucks]

What a solid example of how whacked out CA is…could’ve just done what everyone else is doing but no they gotta be different. At least they could hire a couple more drivers so that’s good in terms of adding jobs, wouldn’t be a bad idea to encourage the young CDL drivers to get into these positions. Agility, speed and awareness, all very much needed and very strong in the us younger folks. Great video though boss, definitely gotta make a trip out to SC for some carts.

[@zp12684]

They wanted to do commingled food and green but it's the permits that prevented them from doing it lol. Thanks Brady! Lots of WMX carts with the Waste Management of Santa Cruz County sticker still surviving

[@westsacramentowastetrucks]

@@zp12684 definitely plan to make a trip into SC for some WMX bins

[@TheNVTrashMan]

How innovative of the city! Glad you were able to catch this! Any idea what ASLs they run?

[@garian_martin5586]

Looks like a Bridgeport

[@westernstategarbagetrucks]

They run a bunch of labries

[@zp12684]

ACX and Mack Labries

[@SBCounty_Refuse]

Is this a bridge port

[@zp12684]

yes

[@kevinmendoza8079]

zp12684 can you do a video of waste management in Tulare CA

[@zp12684]

I will try!

[@kevinmendoza8079]

I like your videos keep up the great work, I want be a garbage truck driver myself thank you for replying

[@WMAC_Master]

yeah it might be less contaminated but where'd the money come from?? why didn't they just combine it then the driver just checks both?

[@zp12684]

money came from the monthly trash bill the residents pay. They couldn't get permits to commingle food and green

[@WMAC_Master]

@@zp12684 interesting

[@RecologySpencer]

Certainly a unique operation! Interesting how they modified this truck, making it look more like an older recycler, but with an arm without grippers. Is the 21 gal toter held on around the tipper bar? Seems like contamination wasn't present for the most part, which is nice to see. Seems like it would've made more sense to mix yard waste and food scraps, but if this works for them then it sure does ensure clean product. Pretty raw given how loose everything is, would've thought they might have residents utilize some Bio Bags to keep things more contained. Surprised to see brown food pails, seems like green makes more sense, since most are that color, especially with the color coding initiative. Overall, looks like some clean food waste is being collected, great video!

[@zp12684]

When they first got this truck, it came with the standard claw set up but they fitted it with a tipper bar when it switched to food waste. Santa Cruz prefers to keep things in house and they couldn't get permits to commingle green and food at their processing plant so they chose the next best option. During the pilot program, they handed out green pails but since SB1383 calls for brown pails for food waste, they switched to brown when they rolled the rest of the city out. Thanks Spencer!

[@courty1968]

That’s one way to do it I guess