Find a SLO County CRV redemption center to turn in bottles and cans.

Click here for more information on your food scrap pail.

Use ByeByeMattress to find a mattress collection site, recycling facility, or collection event near you!

What we can and can’t recycle is driven by market demand for recycled materials. Because polystyrene (the generic name for Styrofoam) is so light and delicate, it is not cost-effective for the recycling industry to ship and process.

Our local Household Hazardous Waste Facilities do not accept large appliances or any appliances, like refridgerators, containing freon. We reccomend contacting a local landfill or appliance store (retail or second hand) for disposal. 

The SLO County IWMA does not offer services to pick up goods for disposal, you will need to contact your solid waste hauler directly. 

Use our "Recycling Guide" to determine the best way to dispose of typical consumer and household goods!

Recycling reduces the amount of valuable materials that end up in our landfills and conserves limited natural resources.

Under US law, recycling programs have to be run at the state and local level, so there is no national standard. What can and cannot be recycled — and how you recycle — can vary even between adjoining towns and cities. 

Rest assured that your recycling is headed for the sorting facility, not the dump. It costs money to deliver trash to the dump; conversely, recyclable materials are valuable and can be sold for profit.

That said, some items that are deposited in recycling bins can end up in the trash because they have been deemed not recyclable or have been rejected by sorting machines. Occasionally a load of recyclables is so heavily contaminated with hazardous materials or non-recyclables that it must be thrown in the trash.

Single stream recycling is a sorting method that makes recycling easy for residents. All recyclable materials (glass, plastic, paper, etc.) go into a single cart or bin at the curb, rather than getting separated into multiple bins. 

Bags can jam up sensitive equipment at the recycling facility and cannot be recycled. We encourage you to rinse out or clean your kitchen recycling  container regularly - or you can use a liner but dispose of it in the trash after placing recyclables in the recycling bin.

If you’re unsure what to do with something, you can always use our search tool. Putting non-recyclable items in the recycling can be expensive (labor cost of sorting out non-recyclables and/or lowered resale value of contaminated recyclables), and also even potentially dangerous (workers having to extract items from machinery). So when it doubt, throw it out. 

Complaints for alleged violations of local, regional, or statewide regulations can be submitted using the IWMA’s Complaint Form.

You can purchase a ready-made worm bin at a local hardware or outdoor supplier, or make your own! Learn more »