Building a Better Waste System, Brick by Brick at LEGOLAND California

Walk through any major theme park at lunchtime and you will see families balancing trays, drinks, napkins and half-eaten food while searching for somewhere to throw everything away. That moment matters. Which bin a guest chooses determines whether that material gets recycled, composted, or sent to a landfill.

LEGOLAND® California Resort once offered only two options in guest areas: recycling or landfill. Today, most dining locations feature a third choice, compost. Making that shift required much more than adding another container. It meant aligning packaging, infrastructure, hauling, signage and daily operations across a busy park that serves thousands of meals every day.

California’s organics diversion laws require compost collection at food establishments, but meeting the requirement is only the starting point, especially at a venue serving thousands of meals a day.

In 2023, Eco-Products Product & Zero Waste Specialist Meghan Ibach began working with LEGOLAND and Aramark to understand what implementation would truly involve. At the time, the park already recycled extensively but had no clear pathway for food scraps or compostable serviceware.

“The biggest question wasn’t what products to use,” Ibach says. “It was whether there was infrastructure that would accept them. Compostables deliver the greatest impact when there’s infrastructure to process them.”

That pathway emerged through collaboration with Republic Services and its Otay Sustainability Park, which had been testing acceptance of BPI- and CMA-certified compostable materials. Because Republic already hauled the park’s waste, the connection between collection and processing was already in place.

Ibach worked closely with park leadership to identify compostable options that could perform under real conditions. Items had to handle hot foods, sauces and fast service without disrupting kitchen operations.

“Each location had different needs,” Ibach says. “From barbecue and pizza to burgers and churros, we needed products that worked across the menu without forcing staff to change how they serve guests.”

At the same time, the park launched a back-of-house food scrap diversion program. Capturing kitchen waste before it reaches public areas often produces immediate results because contamination is easier to control behind the scenes.

In early 2025, regional responsibilities shifted and Eco-Products PZW Specialist Ciara Aw assumed coverage for Southern California. Instead of starting over, she built on the foundation already in place.

During her site visit, Aw found that LEGOLAND had begun installing three-bin stations in dining areas. Her focus became refinement. She worked on placement, signage and alignment with City of Carlsbad requirements so the system would function smoothly day to day.

“They were already moving in the right direction,” Aw says. “Our goal was to make sure the bins were where guests naturally look for them and that signage matched the products people were actually holding.”

Coordination with Republic Services remained critical to ensure that materials placed in compost bins would be accepted and processed rather than redirected to the landfill due to contamination.

The most visible change for guests is the disposal station itself. Three bins only work if people can quickly understand what goes where, particularly during busy periods. LEGOLAND updated signage to show specific examples of items sold in the park that belong in each stream.

“Clarity makes all the difference,” Aw notes. “When people see the exact item in their hand on the sign, they make the right choice without thinking twice.”

Staff training and monitoring support the system behind the scenes, helping maintain a clean compost stream as attendance fluctuates throughout the year.

LEGOLAND continues expanding three-bin coverage as new dining locations open. The effort goes beyond checking a regulatory box. It shows how large public venues can implement organics diversion in a way that holds up under real operating conditions.

For guests, it is simply a choice between three bins. For operators, it reflects years of coordination among suppliers, staff, haulers and processors to ensure compostable materials are actually composted.

“Success isn’t just putting out a compost bin,” Ibach says. “It’s making sure everything behind that bin works too.”