The Record Searchlight reporting staff as seen clockwise from top left: Nada Atieh, Damon Arthur, Michele Chandler, David Benda, Mike Chapman, Ethan Hanson and Jessica Skropanic.

Dear Readers,

As 2021 comes to a close, our Ask the Record Searchlight live chat team is taking a break from hosting the chat in real time.

Ask the R-S returns in January, along with new features. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, the newsroom decided to spotlight your coolest Ask the R-S live chat questions from throughout the year right here.

Ask the R-S is a newsroom-wide initiative to connect with you, our readers. If you wondered about something happening around town or want to know more about a North State issue, please send us your questions.

Find out how to Ask the Record Searchlight at the bottom of this story. Thanks for making our 2021 amazing. Wishing everyone all the best in 2022.

Nasty onions, mushy lettuce? Food scrap ‘recycling’ coming to Redding (July)

Q. A family member informed me about a new California law coming Jan. 1 that will require households and businesses to put food scraps into green bins instead of into the trash. San Diego is giving people small green bins for their kitchens to collect food scraps that then are transferred to the green bins and collected. What plans does Redding have to support this law?

A pilot food waste drop-off service will begin at the Northeast Recycling Center in New Unionville on Nov. 1. Green Camino subscribers will be able to use collection bins located at the center to deposit their compostable food waste.

A. Redding officials said plans are underway to start collecting food scraps from households and businesses in January 2022, when provisions of Senate Bill 1383 activate.

Why care about garbage? Rubbish including food scraps and yard trimmings comprise half of what ends up in California’s landfills, according to the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle).

That so-called organic waste shipped off to landfills to rot ends up emitting an estimated 20% of the state’s methane, “a climate super-pollutant that is 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide,” according to CalRecycle’s website.

That’s where Redding’s program comes in.

The new law will mean changes for consumers ranging from individual households and restaurants to big grocery store chains. Supermarkets are especially of interest, said Public Works Supervisor Mike Deedon, as they are major generators of food waste, including spoiled vegetables.

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Under the effort, household organic waste — including onions gone nasty or a mushy head of lettuce — would be placed in a city-provided sealable receptacle that would be collected, with the contents eventually being processed into compost, Deedon said.

Read more: When it comes to recycling, you may be doing it wrong

The new law also calls for surplus, unopened food from groceries that remains good and edible to be rescued and directed “to avenues where it could be used in a safe fashion” instead of heading to the compost heap, Deedon said.

For now, to explore the possibilities and needed equipment, there’s a pilot project involving a single Redding restaurant that is collecting diners’ plate scraps and sending them to the city for composting. The test, which started in April …….

Source: https://sports.yahoo.com/amphtml/ask-r-chats-garden-lights-150030544.html