Republic Services acquires anaerobic digestion facility in California

Republic Services Inc., Phoenix, is expanding its organics recycling operations in California with its acquisition of North State Bioenergy, an anaerobic digestion facility in Oroville, California.   

California requires the diversion of food and yard waste from landfills as part of its climate strategy, which includes cutting organic waste disposal by 75 percent by 2025. As part of SB 1383, which took effect last year, the goal is part of a statewide effort to reduce emissions of short-lived climate pollutants.   

The law was enacted to curb data found by CalRecycle that showed that landfills are the third largest source of methane in California. The organization says landfills contribute up to 20 percent of the state’s methane.  

The North State facility, owned by North State Rendering also based in Oroville, is the company's first anaerobic digester. The company says this infrastructure will help Republic customers comply with the law and meet their sustainability goals.   

"Republic Services is a leader in recycling and composting in California, and we're committed to helping our customers divert valuable material from the waste stream and reduce emissions," says Pete Keller, vice president of recycling and sustainability for Republic. "California is taking bold steps to address climate challenges, and we're continuing to invest in solutions that enable greater circularity and support decarbonization."  

The North State Bioenergy facility recycles food waste and other organics collected from across Northern California. The facility was remolded in 2017 as a result of a grant the California Energy Commission gave North State Rendering. Today, the facility's operations, which can process up to 100 tons of organic material daily, are fully circular, with biogas generating enough electricity to power the facility.  

The acquisition of this facility comes as the state continues to ramp up its organics recycling efforts. According to a 2020 report from CalRecycle, several of the state’s jurisdictions do not have adequate services to achieve compliance with SB 1383.   

The report also found that California did not have the organics processing infrastructure necessary to fully support SB 1383 compliance by the time regulations went into effect. Additional collection routes and about 100 new composting or anaerobic digestion facilities would be needed to satisfy the state’s capacity demand.  

A 2019 report by CalRecycle estimated the state would need to double the capacity of composters and anaerobic digesters to process the additional waste. At the time, the state only had 160 permitted composting facilities and more than a dozen anaerobic digestion facilities that accept about 6 million tons of organic materials.  

In 2022, Republic recycled 1 million tons of food and yard waste. Diverting this organic material from a landfill provides a climate benefit equivalent to removing the annual emissions of 16,000 passenger vehicles. Organics recycling supports Republic's sustainability goal to increase the recovery and circularity of materials from the waste stream by 40 percent by 2030.