Zabble’s grant-eligible AI assistance for SB 1383 monitoring

CalRecycle has allocated $90 million in funding for the SB 1383 Local Assistance Grant Program as part of the Circular Economy Package. Entities in California—all 615 of them—have until Nov. 15 to apply for this funding meant to accelerate required SB 1383 implementation activities, according to Walnut Creek, California-based Zabble Inc.

The award for each eligible entity ranges from a minimum of $75,000 to a maximum of more than $6.1 million, depending on the population.

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The most recent data from CalRecycle indicates that 74 percent (459 out of 615) of jurisdictions now have residential organics waste collection in place—the first part of California’s SB 1383 requirements. That means most jurisdictions are now shifting into the required monitoring phase, during which they need to track contamination and conduct site inspections at commercial and residential waste generators. 

In December 2022, Zabble received an EPA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I award to study the contamination monitoring aspects of the legislation. In spring 2023, Zabble interviewed more than 40 jurisdictions, haulers and consultants about the two ways to comply with this requirement: route reviews and waste evaluations. Zabble’s research showed a majority of jurisdictions selected lid flips as the primary method to monitor, track and ultimately decrease contamination in organic waste streams for cost, simplicity and community engagement.

The new grant program is non-competitive, and covered activities can be associated with, but not limited to, capacity planning, collection, edible food recovery, education and outreach, enforcement and inspection, program evaluation and gap analysis, procurement requirements and record keeping, says CalRecycle. Contamination monitoring software is an eligible expense covered by the grant, according to the agency. 

Any entity looking to use Zabble’s AI-powered lid flips to complete its contamination monitoring requirement can use the non-edible food recovery for record-keeping software to outline, budget and justify the program, Zabble says.

Eligible applicants include cities, counties, regional or joint power authorities and special districts that provide solid waste collection services. Entities must submit applications via the Grants Management System (GMS) by Nov. 15. 

Zabble says its latest AI-powered offering enables jurisdictions to:

• stay SB 1383 compliant;
• save team time and resources; and
• set themselves up to track the effectiveness of data-driven outreach campaigns and reduce contamination year after year.

The company says it can help with the grant application language that goes into both the requested narrative and budget templates for these respective categories. The company also can help plan what will be rolled out, when and by whom, if not decided upon yet at the time of application. When it’s time to implement lid flips, the Zabble team will assist entities to ensure all the account information is in one place and stakeholders are prepared to execute the activity.