Organics Recycling Rules for LA Apartment Owners: What SB 1383 Asks of a Five-Unit Building

For Owners · Building Operations & Compliance · October 2026 · 11 min read

A city inspector walks the trash enclosure behind a six-unit building in Inglewood. There are two black bins and a blue one. There is no green bin, no label on any of them, and nothing in the lease file showing the tenants were ever told how to sort. Before 2024 a visit like that ended with education material. Since January 1, 2024, it can end with a citation.

California’s organic waste law, SB 1383, treats an apartment building of five or more units like a business when it comes to trash. The owner has to arrange organics collection, put the right containers where tenants can reach them, and give tenants sorting information every year and within 14 days of move-in. Each city then runs its own collection system and enforcement on top of the state rule. This guide covers what the state regulations require, how Los Angeles, Inglewood, Culver City and Beverly Hills carry it out, the two waivers, and the fine schedule. Every rule here comes from the regulation text or the city’s own published material, linked at the end.

Which buildings are covered

The obligations in this guide attach to multifamily properties of five or more units. CalRecycle’s summary of the regulations says multifamily complexes of five units or more must either participate in the local organics service or self-haul, and Los Angeles, Inglewood and Beverly Hills all publish the same five-unit line. Inglewood writes it into its code: section 7-53.2 defines a multifamily dwelling as any building or lot containing five or more dwelling units.

A duplex, triplex or fourplex is not exempt from organics recycling. It is simply handled as residential service. In the City of Los Angeles, LA Sanitation (LASAN) serves homes of one to four units directly, while larger buildings go through the recycLA franchise system described below. Tenants in those buildings still have to sort correctly. What a small building’s owner does not carry is the specific duty to run an annual tenant education program and a 14-day move-in notice, because that duty sits in the section written for commercial businesses, and multifamily buildings of five or more units are counted as commercial businesses for this purpose.

Mixed-use buildings deserve a second look. If the ground floor is a restaurant or shop, the commercial tenant has its own obligations, and a restaurant may also be an edible food generator with separate food-donation rules. That part is outside this guide; ask the city’s solid waste staff which obligations land on you and which on the tenant.

The four things the owner has to do

Section 18984.10 of Title 14 is short. It is titled Commercial Business Owner Responsibilities, and it applies to a five-plus unit building’s owner as a commercial business. It contains four duties.

1. Provide or arrange organics collection

The owner must provide or arrange organic waste collection for employees, contractors, tenants and customers, consistent with the state article and local requirements. In practice that means subscribing to the service your city or its franchise hauler offers. CalRecycle’s summary and Beverly Hills’ requirements both list self-hauling to a compliant facility as the alternative.

2. Supply enough of the right containers

The regulation requires supplying and allowing access to an adequate number, size and location of containers with sufficient labels or container color. The state color scheme is green for organics. Beverly Hills spells out its version: gray or black, or blue, for mixed waste (trash and recyclables) and green for organics, with either the lid or the body in the compliant color. You do not have to throw out working containers. Under section 18984.9(d), functioning containers do not need to be replaced before the end of their useful life or January 1, 2036, whichever comes first. Beverly Hills adds that every new bin bought after January 1, 2022 must be color compliant.

3. Educate tenants every year

Owners must annually provide information to employees, contractors, tenants and customers about organic waste recovery requirements and proper sorting. The regulation does not prescribe a form. A dated letter, flyer or email that explains what goes in each bin, plus signs at the enclosure, is the sort of record that answers the question if an inspector asks.

4. Inform new tenants within 14 days

Section 18984.10(b)(1) requires the information to go to new tenants before or within 14 days of occupation of the premises. The simplest way to never miss it is to put the sorting sheet in the move-in packet so it goes out the day keys change hands.

The same section also requires owners to provide or arrange access to the property for inspections under the state enforcement article. It adds a limit worth knowing: section 18984.10(c)(1) does not allow a CalRecycle employee, agent or jurisdiction to enter the interior of a private residential property. The access duty reaches the property, not the inside of a tenant’s home.

What the state rule does not ask of an apartment building

Section 18984.9(b) puts extra duties on commercial businesses, then exempts multifamily residential dwellings from them. A store or office has to place organics and recycling containers in every area where it provides trash containers for customers (restrooms excepted), forbid employees from putting organics in the wrong bin, and periodically inspect organics containers for contamination. At the state level, an apartment building does not.

Local codes can go further, and Beverly Hills does. Its multifamily requirements say every designated waste area on the property that holds a trash container must have an organics container next to it, labeled with what is and is not accepted, and that there must be enough carts to collect all the organics the building generates. Read your city’s rule before deciding a single green bin at the back of the lot is enough.

How each city runs it

Los Angeles

Buildings of five or more units in the City of Los Angeles are served through recycLA, the city’s franchise system, under which each area of the city has a designated recycLA Service Provider. LASAN’s commercial and multifamily organics page tells owners to call the 24-hour Customer Care Center at 1-800-773-2489 or use MyLA311 to reach their provider. The provider will do a free waste assessment to size bins and pick a collection frequency. LASAN publishes a Property Owner toolkit with posters and bin labels you can use for the tenant education requirement. The recycLA newsletter published for the city in spring 2024 states that, as of January 2024, commercial and multifamily properties without organics recycling service are subject to penalties under Los Angeles Municipal Code section 66.07.

Inglewood

Inglewood put the state rules into its Solid Waste Code, Chapter 7, Article 5, by Ordinance 22-07, adopted April 5, 2022. Section 7-53.5 requires the responsible party for a multifamily dwelling to subscribe to and pay for franchisee-provided collection services, with at least weekly collection of recyclables, organics and solid waste, to supply and allow access to an adequate number, size and location of containers, to give occupants sorting information annually, and to educate new tenants before or within fourteen days of occupation. Inglewood’s code follows the state schedule for enforcement: an education period from January 1, 2022 through December 31, 2023, and administrative civil penalties starting January 1, 2024. For a contamination problem, the code calls for notice by cart tag or similar communication when the violation is identified, and a notice of violation with a compliance deadline before any citation.

Culver City

Culver City runs its own recycling and organics collection service. Its 2026 owner and manager guide for multifamily units says owners must subscribe to and participate in the city’s recycling and organics service, keep organics and recycling carts in each trash enclosure in sufficient numbers, put organics and recycling bins next to trash bins in offices and common areas, label bins, educate tenants, employees and contractors annually, and give new tenants sorting information within 14 days of occupancy. Food-scrap pails for tenants’ kitchens can be requested from the city at Sustainability@CulverCity.org, and service questions go to PWEPO@CulverCity.org. The guide also suggests asking the city for a 40-yard roll-off during heavy move-out periods, signed for furniture and mattresses only. The guide does not list fine amounts; it says violations of the city’s waste ordinances, including SB 1383 violations, will result in penalties.

Beverly Hills

Beverly Hills requires multifamily properties of five or more units to subscribe to and participate in the city’s organics collection service or self-haul to an SB 1383 compliant facility, provide separate organics collection for tenants, employees and contractors, and meet the container, color and labeling rules described above. Organics carts must be in an area tenants can reach. Owners must educate tenants, employees and contractors annually and give new arrivals sorting information within 14 days. The city provides label templates for indoor signage and tenant education material on its resource page. Public Works solid waste operations can be reached at (310) 285-1000.

Owners with property in the unincorporated County, such as Ladera Heights or View Park, should check with LA County Public Works, for the rules that apply there.

The two waivers

A city can waive the organics or recycling requirement in two situations. The thresholds below are the ones LASAN and Inglewood publish.

• De minimis volume. If your total solid waste service is two cubic yards or more per week, a stream that runs under 20 gallons per week can qualify. If total service is under two cubic yards per week, the cutoff is 10 gallons per week (Inglewood section 7-53.7(b)).
• Physical space. If the premises lack adequate space for any allowed organics container configuration, with documentation to show it (Inglewood section 7-53.7(c)). Inglewood states that an approved waiver is valid for five years.

A waiver has to be applied for and granted. In Los Angeles the request goes through LASAN’s online waiver form, and the city notifies you of its decision. Until you have a written approval, assume the full requirement applies.

Fines

The state regulation sets a base penalty schedule in Title 14, section 18997.2, and Inglewood’s section 7-53.13(e) adopts the same figures:

The amounts are per violation, so a missing subscription and a missing tenant notice are two problems, not one. The dollar figures are modest, and the fix (service, bins, signs, letters) costs the same whether you do it before or after an inspection.

Making it routine

• Confirm the service. Pull the hauler or city invoice and check that it lists an organics container and pickup, not only trash and recycling.
• Walk the enclosure. Count the bins, check the colors, and add a label to anything that is not the right color. In Beverly Hills and Culver City, put an organics container next to each trash location.
• Put the sorting sheet in the move-in packet. That meets the 14-day rule every time without a separate calendar item.
• Send the annual notice on a fixed date. Pick a month, send it to every unit, and keep the dated copy with the building’s records.
• Keep receptacles in good repair. Separate from SB 1383, Civil Code section 1941.1(a)(7) lists an adequate number of appropriate garbage and rubbish receptacles, in clean condition and good repair, among the conditions of a habitable unit. Our guide to repair requests and habitability covers that statute in full.
• Before billing trash back to tenants, read our guide to RUBS and submetering. Utility cost recovery has its own rules, especially in rent-stabilized buildings.

Questions owners ask

I own a fourplex. Do I have to send tenants an annual sorting notice?

Not under the state’s commercial business section, which covers multifamily buildings of five or more units. Your tenants still have to sort into the city’s carts, and a short note at move-in costs nothing, but the formal annual and 14-day duties start at five units.

Can I be fined because a tenant threw food in the trash bin?

The owner’s duties are to arrange service, supply containers and educate tenants. Inglewood’s code provides for a cart tag or similar notice when contamination is found and a notice of violation with a deadline before a citation. It also lets the city charge contamination processing fees or contamination penalties if it finds contaminants in the same containers on more than one occasion (section 7-53.13(d)(3)). If you get a contamination notice, re-send the sorting information to every unit and keep the dated copy.

My bins are all black. Do I need to buy new ones?

Not if they still work. The state regulation lets existing containers stay in service until the end of their useful life or January 1, 2036, whichever comes first. A label on each bin showing what goes in it is still the cheapest way to make the sorting clear to tenants. New containers should be the compliant color; Beverly Hills applies that to every bin bought after January 1, 2022.

Can the inspector come into a tenant’s unit to check their kitchen pail?

No. Section 18984.10(c)(1) says the access duty does not allow CalRecycle, its agents or a jurisdiction to enter the interior of a private residential property.

There is no room in my enclosure for another bin. What now?

Ask your city or hauler about a physical space waiver, and document the space you have. Until a waiver is approved in writing, the requirement applies, so ask the hauler whether a smaller organics container or a different pickup schedule fits.

Sources and disclaimer. California Code of Regulations, Title 14, sections 18984.10, 18984.9 and 18997.2, as published by the Legal Information Institute; CalRecycle, Statewide Mandatory Organic Waste Collection; LA Sanitation, Mandatory Commercial and Multifamily Organics Recycling (recycLA); recycLA, Rec Waste News, Spring 2024; Inglewood Municipal Code Chapter 7, Article 5, sections 7-53 et seq.; City of Culver City, multifamily owner and manager guide (February 2026); City of Beverly Hills, Requirements for Multi-Family Management; California Civil Code section 1941.1. Current as of October 2026. This article is general information for property owners from a California DRE-licensed property management company, not legal advice. Confirm your building’s obligations with your city’s solid waste program, and talk to a real estate attorney before relying on a waiver or contesting a citation.