Mill Valley Refuse Service provides commercial recycling service in Almonte, Alto, Belvedere, Corte Madera, Homestead, Mill Valley, Strawberry, Tiburon and several unincorporated areas of Marin County. Visit our Commercial Service Guidelines to learn more about our collection service.
It’s the law: California businesses that generate four or more cubic yards of solid waste must recycle. Learn more.
Not sure how to properly dispose of something? Search our What Goes Where tool to find out if a material can be reused, recycled, composted, or disposed of in your trash.
Below are guidelines about what can and cannot go in your Recycle Cart, but we suggest using the What Goes Where tool above to look up specific items.
*To dispose of these hazardous wastes visit our Hazardous Waste page.
We know that it can be difficult to determine what materials are recyclable. Unfortunately, when in doubt, it’s better to throw it out (in the garbage) than to risk contaminating your recycling cart.
Contamination is the term used to describe anything that renders your recycled items non-recyclable. Besides ruining good material, contamination increases labor costs at processing plants as workers try to separate contaminated material from good material. Contamination typically occurs when:
Instead, our driver will leave a Violation Notice (click on image at right to see a bigger version) on the cart handle describing the contaminant observed in the cart, and providing an opportunity to clean out the cart for pick up the following week. Or you may opt to request a special pickup (for a fee) after cleaning the cart.
When a cart is tagged, a sticker that describes a number of the most common contaminants will be placed on the cart lid as a permanent reminder of what should NOT be put in the cart.
The common contaminants listed on the violation notice are:
If you receive a Violation Notice and want to schedule a special pickup, call our office at (415) 457-9760.
