More Long Beach residents will begin seeing changes to their City-service waste collection services this summer.

The Department of Public Works will begin issuing new green organic waste carts to 19,000 more single and multi-family households as part of the second wave of the City’s Residential Organics Collection Program rollout.

Residential organics collection plays a key role in the City’s climate resiliency efforts by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting sustainable waste management.

Households with Monday collection service can expect to receive their new green carts in June or July, at which point residents can begin placing food scraps and yard trimmings within to be collected for pickup alongside its brown and purple bin counterparts.

The City will continue to expand the program to other households throughout the remainder of the year. In August, households with Tuesday and Wednesday serviced pickup will get their green carts, followed by Thursday and Friday scheduled households in October. Residents can view the City’s MapIt web application to find out when their organics collection service is scheduled.

Also part of the program, the City will retire the traditional purple carts used for recycling and replace them with new blue ones – more information on that process will be shared in early 2026.

The Residential Organics Collection Program is purposed to reduce landfill-bound organic waste and cut climate pollutants like methane and is required under the Short-Lived Climate Pollutant Reduction Strategy bill (SB 1383).

Since beginning the rollout in fall 2024 to 8,000 households, the City is already seeing promising impacts. Over 900 tons – or 1.8 million pounds – of organic material has been successfully diverted from landfills thus far.

To help residents adjust to the change and learn to appropriately contribute organic waste before they receive their new cart, they’ll receive mailers instructing how to utilize the new amenity.

Residents can also request a change in cart size to best fit their individual household needs but must utilize the green cart issued to them for at least two weeks before requesting a size change evaluation. Residents who wish to request a different cart size or an additional organics cart can do so online at lbcity.info/CartSupport or by calling the Public Works Refuse Services Call Center at (562) 570-2876.

Billing for organics collection service will begin August 1 for residents who’ve received their green cart and started that service, while remaining households will not be billed until their service begins.

The City has been working to fully implement SB 1383 for years. Between 2021 and 2023, the City implemented its Commercial Food Scraps Collection Program for City-serviced commercial businesses to divert food scraps and yard debris from the waste stream, reduce waste and improve recycling across the city.

These programs are among many other climate resiliency efforts being conducted by the City to build a more sustainable, climate-resilient Long Beach.

More information about the Residential Organics Collection Program is available on longbeach.gov/lborganics.