by: Jenny Tan, City of Davis
April 2, 2026 – The City of Davis announced today that the annual waste collection route monitoring for contamination will soon begin in April to ensure the City is in compliance with State regulations under Senate Bill SB 1383, the Short-Lived Climate Pollutants Act.
The law, which went into effect in January 2022, requires all cities in California to perform contamination monitoring, a process to see how well waste is being sorted when placed in the trash, recycling and organics containers for collection. 2026 marks the 4th year the City is conducting this monitoring.
The law is very specific about how cities are to perform this contamination monitoring. Route monitoring, or “lid flipping” is when a number of containers on each hauler route are visually checked for proper waste sorting. If contamination is found, the City is required to provide additional education to customers on how to properly sort waste.
Over 1,000 trash, recycling and organics bins need to be checked throughout the City annually. To perform this task for the upcoming year, the City has hired APTIM, a private company that specializes in this type of work. APTIM staff will be wearing safety vests with the APTIM logo as well as ID tags that identify them as an APTIM employee working for the City of Davis.
Starting soon in April, APTIM staff will be checking trash, recycling and organics containers that are set out for collection. APTIM staff will lift the lid of containers to see the contents. Bagged waste will not be disturbed and only the material at the top of the container will be reviewed. If waste materials are sorted correctly in that container, they will leave a “congratulations” tag to thank the customer for doing a good job. If the container has contamination (items inside that should not be there) APTIM staff will leave a “let’s sort this out” tag, encouraging customers to place waste into the correct container. Both tags will also have a waste sorting guide on the back to show what goes in each container. The consultant will finish container checks by April 20.
When route monitoring was performed last year, 88% of the surveyed trash, recycling and organics bins were found to be correctly sorted. The most common contaminates found in recycling and organics bins were plastic bags, which are neither recyclable nor compostable. In 2023 and 2024, 81% of the surveyed trash, recycling and organics bins were found be correctly sorted.
“Correctly sorting waste is so important,” says Mayor Donna Neville. “Landfills are the 3rd largest source of methane emissions in California. The Davis community has consistently been ahead of the game across California in ensuring waste is being properly sorted, and now it’s more important than ever to understand the actions we can take to reduce our carbon footprint. These checks will help our staff understand what outreach is effective, and where we might have gaps.”
These State-mandated route monitoring checks are not punitive and the tags left by APTIM are not citations, fines or any other notice of violation. The waste container checks are only to see how the City overall is doing with waste diversion, with reminders given on how to sort waste properly.
City staff may follow-up with additional checks on excessively contaminated bins, but citations and fines for contaminated bins would not be considered unless there is an egregious situation with continued contamination over a long period of time where continued tagging and reminders is not showing any improvement in waste sorting behavior.
Visit www.DavisRecycling.org for more details on the SLCP regulations and for information on how to sort waste correctly. The Public Works Utilities and Operations Department can be reached at PWWeb@CityofDavis.org or 530-757-5686.
