Recycling & Organics Collection
Bay Cities Refuse—Carrying Our Community to Sustainability
Sausalito, Marin City and our unincorporated county service area has joined the rest of Marin County in having a food scrap recycling program included in your weekly collection service. This means green waste/compostable are now picked up on a weekly basis, same as your regular garbage and recycling service.
The green cart is to be used for your household “green waste” and compostable food scraps. See below for guidelines on what is compostable and what is garbage. We encourage you to utilize the cart weekly on your regular collection day.
The blue cart is to be used for your “commingled” recycling. All glass, aluminum, tin, newspaper, junk mail, magazines, etc. is to be placed in this cart and placed at the curb every week. No need to separate, place it all in the cart.
Bay Cities Refuse Service and the Sausalito Sustainability Commission are pleased to announce the Green Waste and Recycling “How-To’s” for Residents and Businesses
Recycling is Changing
Which means changes for us.
Recycling loads must be cleaner to be accepted for processing and remanufacturing.
What can you do to help?
• Take personal responsibility—keep trash out of your recycling containers.
• Put materials in the right containers
• Place recyclables loose in the recycling container.
• Plastic bags/thin films must be placed in a large clear plastic bag and tied off.
• Put food soiled paper (napkins/paper food boxes) in the organics container.
• Wipe or scrape food residue out of containers.
Containers should be clean, but do not need to be spotless.
• Keep food containers, paper and plastic Empty, Clean and Dry.
• And most of all…
NO GARBAGE IN RECYCLING CONTAINERS!
Below are the guidelines for your weekly pick up.
Treated Wood Waste Update
The alternative management standard (AMS), which allows waste haulers to accept treated wood waste (TWW) from residential and commercial customers, expired on December 31, 2020.
For this reason, beginning on January 1, 2021, waste haulers in the County of Marin cannot accept TWW at their facilities, in their debris boxes, and in the garbage, recycling, or composting bins, as treated wood is now considered hazardous waste.
The Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) is working on some variances that could allow some facilities to receive TWW. Until the variances are applied, DTSC suggests generators delay removing treated wood if possible or temporarily storing the waste before disposal.
Currently, the Marin Household Hazardous Waste facility cannot accept TWW from residential or commercial generators. Please do not bring TWW to the facility, and please do not instruct your customers to do so, either.
If you must remove any TWW, read the DTSC factsheet to avoid any penalties and get a disposal estimate from an approved hazardous waste hauler. To find more information related to the topic, visit the DTSC website.
Below is a list of companies that you can contact for transportation and disposal of TWW:
ACTenviro
CleanEarth
Clean Harbors
Why Divert Organics from Trash?
Diverting organic material is arguably more important than diverting recyclable material because when organic materials enter the landfill, it breaks down and releases a gas known as methane.
Methane is a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change in the same way that CO2 does, but has a warming effect 34 times stronger than CO2. Composting one ton of organic waste has the same emission reductions as taking a car off the road for two months.
In addition to diverting waste from landfills and reducing harmful emissions, finished compost has many environmental benefits as a soil additive, including reducing the need for chemical fertilizers, improving soil water retention, and assisting in erosion control.
EARTH DAY is approaching and now is the time to think of how you can make a difference going forward:
•Reduce the amount of material you put in the Landfill.
•Separate your Compostables from your Landfil.
•Reuse composted material in your garden.
HOW?
•Bring your own bags and buckets and scoop what you need from the wooden compost bin at MLK Park parking lot (by the tennis courts) off Coloma Street.
•Open daily, FREE!
Factoids, Tips & Tricks
Did you know that food scraps and other organic materials in the landfill contribute to the single largest direct human source of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas? Help make a positive environmental impact by properly diverting food scraps and other organic materials into your GREEN bin to be composted.
•25-30% of items in our local garbage are food and other organic materials. Diverting these materials to your green compost bin saves room in your garbage and the landfill.
•Food scraps, food-soiled paper products, such as paper plates & cups, paper towels, pizza boxes and yard trimmings all belong in the green bin.
•Bones, fish, shellfish and their shells? Skip the garbage and make sure all these items go into your green compost bin.
•Food soiled cardboard and paper takeout containers can all go into the green compost bin.
•Did you know that natural (plastic-free) wine corks can go into the green bin?
•Coffee grounds, coffee filters and tea bags are all green compost bin approved.
•Uncoated wooden items like chopsticks, coffee stirrers, toothpicks and popsicle sticks can be thrown into the green bin.
Do you have questions?
Where Do Your Organics Go?
Have you ever wondered where your organic materials
go if they are not buried in a landfill?
Organics make up more than two-thirds of the daily solid waste stream and these compostable materials can be diverted and used to make soil amendment products.
The organics that are collected each week are comprised of many different elements that include yard waste, food scrap, food soiled paper, cardboard and compostable bags.
In order to conserve landfill space and benefit the environment, organics are transferred to a processing facility where they go through a series of steps to become compost.These materials that otherwise would be landfilled will become useful products in a few short months.
When the compostable materials are initially delivered to the organics processing facility they are ground up and placed in static piles.
After this process, the compostable materials are moved into what are called “windrows” where they are turned every few days and watered down to control the heat generated by the decomposition process. The organics will be processed for a total of 50-60 days and once a windrow reaches a temperature of about 145 degrees it is ready to be screened.
During the screening process non-compostables such as glass and plastic are removed to prevent contamination of the finished compost. The finished product is a rich soil material that resembles ground coffee and can be sold for use by local residents, gardeners and farmers.
Recycling Myth — Are Pizza Boxes Recyclable?
There’s a widespread misconception pizza boxes go
in your recycling bin because they’re cardboard.
- Pizza boxes are made from corrugated cardboard, which is NO LONGER RECYCLABLE when soiled with cheese, grease and other foods.
- Only clean paper and cardboard can be made into new products. That dirty box creates a larger problem when it’s placed in the recycling container because it can contaminate items that are recyclable—sending them to the landfill instead of a recycling facility.
- Make sure your pizza boxes are put in the green organic waste container and
NOT THE BLUE RECYCLING CONTAINER.
Proper Disposal of Batteries to Reduce Fire Risk
NO Batteries in the Recycling, Organics or Trash Container!
Batteries if disposed of incorrectly can release toxins in the air and on the ground poisoning the environment around us. When crushed, they can also combust causing significant fire hazards. Start practicing safer battery habits:
- ALL batteries should be removed before disposing of any device, power tools,
cameras, games and toys, flashlights, hearing aids, etc. - Buy & use rechargeable batteries and battery chargers.
- Charge only batteries marked rechargeable to avoid toxic leaks or ruptures.
- Remove batteries from stored/seldom-used devices to avoid toxic leaks.
- Don’t mix old batteries with new ones.
- Don’t mix different types of batteries, or rechargeable with non-rechargeable batteries, in the same device.
- Don’t place batteries, or devices with batteries, where they could overheat.
- Don’t open or tamper with battery cases.
Bring your used batteries to the Household Hazardous Waste Facility | 565 Jacoby St., San Rafael, 415-485-6806
