Food waste can now be placed in the City of Manteca green carts.

For now, that means without any packaging or wrapping.

In doing so Manteca is one of the cities in  the region to start the new state mandate to avoid burying organic waste in landfills. Manteca is a bit ahead of the game because for more than 25 years the city has been collecting yard waste in green carts and trucking it to a composting operation in Lathrop.

The state is now mandating all jurisdictions switch to a three-cart system — one for garbage, one for items that can be recycled in today’s market, and one for organic the yard and food waste. It is the same system Manteca has had in place for years.

Many cities only have a two-cart system. And some jurisdictions such as San Joaquin County have  a one-cart system.

The other cities and counties will be switching to the three-cart systems. The cost of adding carts for existing customers significant is  coming in at nearly $200 for the 96-gallon carts. It is a cost Manteca won’t incur although they are being required to change out some lids of carts in use that don’t comply with the state-imposed color-coded solid waste system.

Manteca is able to add residential food waste because the firms they are working with to take compost will allow between 15 and 25 percent of the what they accept to be food waste with the rest being organic yard waste. Eventually, an $800,000 device that uses centrifuge forces to separate food waste from garbage the city is installing at the Lovelace Transfer Station in partnership with San Joaquin County will separate organic wastes from other trash placed in brown carts. Once that happens, the slime or sludge it creates will be transported to the Manteca municipal wastewater treatment plant to be combined with methane gas to produce liquefied compress gas. Currently such gas created from the methane gas output by the wastewater treatment process is powering a  number of city solid waste collection trucks.

Food waste collected from rural residents by the county and possibly that from nearby cities could also make their way to the Manteca wastewater treatment plant. An $18 million price tag has been placed on equipment needed to get the food waste/methane gas to fuel process operating at optimum efficiency and capacity. The process for now is effective at avoiding the release of methane gas into the atmosphere. It is a concern not just for air quality but climate change challenges as well.

Manteca’s progress in converting its wastewater treatment plant to a gas refinery and its effort to do the same with food waste has prompted a flurry of inquiries form cities throughout the state including Los Angeles, according go Penni Basalusalu who oversees Manteca’s solid waste division.

In response to query from Councilman Charlie Halford about how food waste in a green cart that was only collected every two weeks work on 110-degree days, Basalusalu said the city is working toward collecting green carts every week instead.

Plans are already in the works for a separate collection route for commercial food waste generators such as stores that sell groceries and restaurants.

Basalusalu noted the city is planning an education campaign regarding what  can now be placed in green carts. The effort will include several community workshops. The city is working with San Joaquin County to devise a way of meeting a state mandate that 20 percent of the edible food tossed by restaurants and those selling groceries can be collected and diverting to help feeding Californians that have food insecurity.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com