Mill Valley Refuse Service provides residential recycling service in Almonte, Alto, Belvedere, Corte Madera, Homestead, Mill Valley, Strawberry, Tiburon and several unincorporated areas of Marin County.
Visit our Residential Service Guidelines to learn more about our collection service.
For many years, Mill Valley Refuse Service operated a mixed — or single-stream — recycling service allowing our customers to mix all of their recycling materials in one cart for weekly collection. In August of 2019, after a successful pilot program was completed and with the support of our jurisdictions, we made the decision to switch to a dual stream recycling collection method for our residential customers which produces cleaner, higher-quality recycling material and cuts our carbon footprint by allowing us to drop off recyclables at the Marin Recycling Center in San Rafael.
We provide two recycle carts — one for Paper and one for Containers — and pick each up on an alternating week pick up schedule.
New recycling carts are being distributed through the month of August 2019. As soon as you receive your new cart, you should begin duel stream sorting of your recycling as described below.
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.
We suggest:
The brown cart with the blue lid is for clean paper and cardboard material only.
Please keep paper separate from container recycling before placing in the cart to prevent contamination.
Below are guidelines about what can and cannot go in your Paper Cart, but we suggest using the What Goes Where tool above to look up specific items.
The brown cart with the brown lid is for containers only (i.e. glass jars and bottles, metal and aluminum cans, and plastic bottles).
All items must be rinsed or wiped clean of food residue.
Please keep containers separate from paper recycling before placing in the cart to prevent contamination.
Below are guidelines about what can and cannot go in your Container 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.
Download a printable version of the Alternating Week Recycling Pickup Calendar. This one prints on a single, standard, letter-size paper.
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:
We know it may take time to get used to dual stream recycling. There will be a grace period if mistakes are made in which our drivers will dump your carts. However, they will leave the following Courtesy Service Notice on your cart as a reminder before they have to start leaving carts that aren’t sorted correctly in October.
If you receive a Courtesy Service Notice and want to schedule a special pickup, call our office at (415) 457-9760.
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.