Single Family Residential
Every resident in the City of Santa Cruz is required to properly separate out their recyclables, food scraps, yard waste, and trash. It is your responsibility to correctly sort waste into the appropriate bins and avoid contamination in the curbside carts. Carts must be removed from the street or sidewalk within 24-hours of service. State law and City municipal code mandate everyone's participation (residential and commercial) in separating food scraps/organics and recyclables from the landfill.
Recycle Right!
Download the City's recycling guide here.(PDF, 12MB) See a list of what items are and aren’t allowed in City of Santa Cruz recycling bins. The easiest way to "recycle right!" is to match the photos in the blue section. If something isn't pictured there, it probably goes in the trash! Remember to keep all of your recyclables clean, dry, and loose in the cart. Recycling should never be bagged (except for your bag-of-bags).
Still unsure what to do with something? Look up specific items using our Waste Wizard tool!
Food Scraps:
All residents are required to separate food scraps and other organics from the trash. If your property is not set up with this service yet, contact SCMU Customer Service to receive your curbside brown food scrap pail.
Don't miss out on your free 2-gallon countertop pail! City residents are eligible to receive a free 2-gallon countertop food scrap pail that helps collect food scraps in the kitchen and transfer them to the larger collection pail.
Remember, the City does not have a commercial compost program. We use collected food scraps to create biogas! For this reason, we do not accept any bags (including compostable bags), paper products, or food packaging (including compostable packaging). We only want the food. Thank you for keeping our food scrap program among the cleanest in the region!
Large, Bulky Items:
Large items like mattresses or furniture do not belong in the trash or on the sidewalk. To dispose of these oversized items, take them directly to the City's Resource Recovery Facility (to be sorted for recycling or trash) at 605 Dimeo Lane, or use the City's Bulky Item Pick Up service to have us remove them. Non-account holders pay a small fee to schedule bulky item pickups. For more information, check out the Bulky Item Pick Up page.
TVs, Electronics, Batteries, and Hazardous Waste:
These items cannot go in the garbage. Many common household products contain chemicals that can be harmful to humans, animals, and the environment. Examples include paint, solvents, pesticides, household batteries, cleaning products, and auto care products. It is dangerous and illegal to dispose of household hazardous waste in the garbage, down the drain, or on the ground.
TVs and electronics are considered e-waste. E-waste is recyclable, but not something we can accept in the curbside blue recycling cart. These items must be brought to a specific e-waste collection site for separate processing. The City's Resource Recovery Facility at 605 Dimeo Lane accepts small e-waste items and batteries.
Waste Streams and Fee Schedule
Five Waste Streams
Trash: The City provides residential refuse pickup one to six days a week, as needed. Container options include:
- Carts — 20, 32, 64 and 95 gallon
- Containers — 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8 yard
- Roll-off boxes — 10, 15, 20 and 30 yard
- Temporary service — 5 and 10 day temporary service is available for containers and roll-off boxes.
Mixed Recycle: The City provides recycling carts or containers and collection service to refuse customers at no additional cost.
Food Scraps: The City provides carts or containers for food scrap collection. Check with City staff to determine what service level is best for your household. Residents are eligible to receive a free 2-gallon food scrap transfer pail.
Yard Waste: The City offers one free yard waste cart per customer. There is a monthly service fee for each additional yard waste cart when such service is requested by the customer.
Contaminated recycle, cardboard, food scrap, or yard waste will be charged as refuse.
On August 8th, 2023, City Council approved a new five-year rate schedule, which went into effect on September 1st, 2023.
Special Services
Contact Customer Service for any of the following services:
- Call-back Service - "Late set outs" requiring a Call Back will be assessed a fee.
- Special Haul Service
- Bulky Item Pickup and Mattress Collection
- Street Sweeping
- Construction and Demolition
- Extra food scraps for fruit trees
Waste Audits & Inspections
Have you noticed City staff checking on your recycling or trash cart? Per S.C.M.C. 6.12.115, Resource Recovery staff may inspect and audit waste producers for compliance with City municipal code and state regulations.
We inspect carts and containers for several overlapping reasons:
1. Catch contamination early: Recycling works best if the materials are clean and what we accept. We check bins for "contamination" — things like plastic clamshell containers in recycling, food waste in trash, or trash in the yard waste. Unacceptable items from one blue cart can potentially contaminate an entire truckload of recycling, or damage equipment at our sorting facility.
2. Understand where customers are confused and how we can better tailor our education materials to provide clarity.
3. Hazardous waste detection: We want to prevent hazardous and dangerous waste from being collected, where it may pose a fire and safety risk to our equipment and staff. Electronics, batteries, chemicals, and medical waste shouldn't go in regular containers at all, for safety and environmental reasons.
If a cart or container contains unacceptable materials, City staff may tag it. If your cart or container receives a yellow "OOPS!" tag, this means that there are a few items we don't want in there. A yellow-tagged cart will still be emptied on its service day. Please read the tag and avoid putting incorrect material in the tagged container. If your cart or container receives an orange "NOTICE" tag, this means that the cart has been rejected due to high contamination or hazardous materials. The account holder is notified of the rejected cart. The unacceptable material can either be removed from the container and serviced on its next service day, or the account holder can pay to have the container emptied as trash. If you find a yellow or orange tag on your cart, contact SCMU Customer Service for more information.
Resources
The Waste Reduction Department offers many resources to help residents meet compliance. Contact staff if you would like printed guides for your household.
Find printer-friendly yes/no guides for recycling, food scraps, yard waste, and HHW here!