Anonymous
Source: City of Santa Barbara
Learn the new plastic recycling rules for your curbside blue bin. Recycle plastic bottles that hold liquid, plastic toys, flower pots and trays, and certain rigid plastics. Avoid or put in trash: Styrofoam, plastic produce or food containers, straws, cups, plates and utensils, and “compostable” plastics.
In Santa Barbara, the blue bin is for recycling.
NEW RECYCLING STANDARDS: For a complete list of Acceptable and Unacceptable items, review the detailed table at the bottom of the page.
Blue Bin Rules-of-thumb:
1. All items should be empty/clean, dry, and loose (not bagged).
2. No styrofoam or film plastics like plastic bags, plastic wrap, or bubble wrap.
Plastic Bags are Trash Flyer (English)
Plastic Bags are Trash Flyer (Spanish)
3. If you’re recycling correctly, with no food or liquid contamination, your bin will always be clean with no need for a liner or bag. (plastic bags are not allowed in the blue bin anyway)
Other Tips:
- All recyclables can be mixed together in the container.
- Please flatten cardboard boxes.
- Empty your recyclables of all of their contents.
- Emptying and rinsing containers is required because it keeps your recycling bin clean and makes the containers more likely to be recycled. Learn more: “How Clean Do My Recyclables Need to Be?”
- It is not necessary to remove labels, rings, staples, paperclips or other items.
- We DO NOT accept plastic bags in the blue bin and prefer you return them to a drop-off location or don’t take them at all. Learn more about plastic bag recycling.
What Happens to My Recycling?
Here in the City of Santa Barbara, our blue bin recyclables are collected and brought down to Gold Coast Recycling and Transfer Station in Ventura County where items are sorted into material types by machine and by hand on a sorting line. These materials are then purchased by buyers from companies that recycle them into other products. In the near future, the City’s recyclables will head to a new processing facility currently under construction by the County of Santa Barbara called the ReSource Center. Read more about the upcoming facility here.
Recycling markets have changed drastically over the last year, so our Accepted Items list has also changed. If there aren’t buyers for certain types of low quality plastics, then they cannot be recycled.
Acceptable
- All Metal
No liquids or food- Aluminum cans
- Aluminum foil and trays
- Caps and lids from bottles, jars and steel (tin) cans
- Paint cans (must be empty or dry)
- Spray cans (must be empty)
- Steel (tin) cans, scrap metal, metal parts
- Rigid Plastics greater than 6″ and Plastic Bottles
No Styrofoam, plastic wrap, or plastic labeled “compostable” or “biodegradable”- Any Liquid Bottles: beverage, shampoo, detergent etc. (emptied and it’s recommended to put the cap back on)
- Buckets (metal handle okay)
- Large plastic tubs
- Laundry detergent bottles (emptied)
- Plastic Flower Pots and Trays
- Plastic Toys (without cords or batteries)
- Most Paper
No paper food and beverage containers. No cartons. Items must be clean, dry, and unsoiled.- Paper Bags
- Cardboard (non-waxed)
- Cereal boxes and Paperboard (remove plastic liner)
- Computer and office paper
- Envelopes (windows okay)
- Junk mail and magazines
- Newspapers
- Packing or Kraft paper
- Phonebooks
- Shredded paper, but not crosscut
- All Glass Containers
Must be emptied of any food and liquid- Glass bottles and jars (metal caps and lids too)
- NO tempered glass like windows or kitchen glassware as this has been treated for heat which makes them hard to recycle
Unacceptable
- Paper Food and Beverage Containers: paper cups, cartons, “tetrapack”, aseptic containers
- All Plastic Bags and Film Plastics: saran wrap, pallet wrap, peel-away seals on food containers, food bags and wrappers, or any other type of flexible plastic wrapping
- Pizza Boxes (even if the lid is clean)
- Plastic Food Containers: clear plastic produce containers, yogurt cups, frozen meal containers, salsa cups, peanut butter jar, etc.
- Common Disposable Items: coffee cups, plastic utensils, plastic plates/cups, “styrofoam”, etc.
- Any food and liquid contaminated materials:grease stained, filled with a lot of liquid, impossible to clean all the food out of, etc.
Other Items:
- Batteries are acceptable in a sealed plastic bag placed on top of the blue bin (not inside) or in orange buckets for large apartment buildings
- Cartons (dairy, soup, juice, etc.) go in the trash
- Ceramic dishware or glassware
- Clothing, linens and rags
- Electronics
- CD’s, DVD’s, CDROM & Cases (remove paper insert )
- Foil-backed or plastic-backed paper
- Food (residents can do backyard composting and businesses can sign up for our Foodscraps Program)
- Glass mirrors and windows
- Large items (furniture, appliances, etc)
- Light bulbs: Incandescent, Fluorescents, CFLs, LEDs and HIDs
Incandescent light bulbs can go in the brown bin to the landfill. Fluorescents, CFLs, LEDs, and HID bulbs contain mercury and must be disposed of as hazardous waste. - Plastic labeled “Compostable” or “Biodegradable”
If the plastic says ‘compostable’ on it and you are a participant of the foodscraps program please put this material in the yellow bin. ‘Biodegradable’ is not a certified standard for any method of disposal. Please reuse these materials or put them in the landfill. - Soiled paper (paper cups, plates, napkins, tissues, towels, take-out boxes and greasy pizza boxes)
If you are part of the foodscraps program please put these materials in the yellow bin. - Styrofoam
We are currently unable to recycle styrofoam. You might see a recycling symbol on it, but it is not marketable. - “Tetrapak” lined aseptic cartons – these are shelf-stable products like soy milk and soup cartons
- Waxed cardboard and paper
If you are part of the foodscraps program please put these materials in the yellow bin. - Waxy paper milk or juice cartons
- Window glass
- Wine Corks
- Wood
- Yogurt Containers
Marborg does a great job- efficient service, clean equipment, friendly staff. As a point of comparison, we were traveling in eastern Canada (Prince Edward Island)- at that time that province had 5 different colors of recycling bin, along with a 30 page instruction book on what kind of waste to put where. Some of the recycled material had to be refrigerated. It got to be so complicated we just started throwing everything into the trash.
The recycling process is expensive and it can’t be reused for the same purpose. The best approach now is to compact it and use it for a lightweight material that can be faced with laminates to be a counter on an airline, for example. A Canadian Company named Styro-Go used to take styrofoam from Lowe’s but their website is not active currently. Marborg will take it if you transport it over to their Nopalitos or Goleta facility. In order to buy one of the compactors for SB they need about 15000 lbs of it a month, which is a really large volume. At that point maybe they would allow you to put it in your recycling bin?
Possible contamination issues from food can make it hard to recycle. They avoid that by not accepting it. Not everyone cleans their recyclables as well as you do.
I’d give anything to have the spare time in my life to concern myself over what recyclables go in what bins. If it’s yard waste – green bin, trash – brown bin, bottles/cans/cardboard – blue bin. Easy.
Was the process really so disruptive that landfilling everything was the only solution? Were Candians willing to do it because it was normal to them? I remember hearing they took away our 3 bins because they thought we were too lazy to recycle unless they made it one-bin easy. Probably are right.
I’m confused; why are yogurt containers unacceptable?
They should really be washing my recyclables.
Okay. Here’s the info: Marborg says it’s “a pilot program” for styrofoam right now. You may take your *clean* styrofoam to 132 Nopalitos St. (ABOP=Antifreeze batteries oil paint) facility and drop it off. The same location where alumninum cans, bottles, small electronics, newspaper, cardboard are all recycled. ——Clean those meat trays (I recommend baking soda), and take them and your styrofoam trays used to package veggies and your styrofoam used in packaging—recycle it there. We should all work to keep styrofoam out of landfills.>>> Unfortunately, this program does not include recycling of styrofoam cups or packaging peanuts/foam packaging pieces.
Under “Unacceptable” it shouldn’t read “peanut butter jar.” Peanut butter “plastic container” would be accurate. All glass jars are recyclable when washed. At our house we have a nice rectangular bucket in one side of our two-sided sink. All the rinse water (no soap) goes in there. When we wash glass jars (jam, peanut butter, mustard, etc) we use that water. Rinsing veggies, water goes in the bucket. Then the water gets dumped into the garden.
Reading that just gave me a headache
City–you ask about contradictions and present the proof in two posts. “All pizza boxes” should be placed in the trash? The release says that greasy pizza boxes can be put in the yellow bin. In the last post you say they should all be placed in the trash. Another place says that cardboard is recyclable in general. True or not? You now add that the issue is not the recyclability of the product but the buyers attitudes. Second there is confusion about why relatively unsophisticated users should decide what goes where in the trash. The idea that all trash is going to be hand sorted by trained people undercuts the issue and encourages removal from the recycle stream of items that are ambiguous in their nature. This is better left to smarter people. Similarly the onus to clean glass and steal is odd. Will these material not be smelted into sanitary conditions in the very process of recycling? Etc.
Did you pound your chest when you said this?
As the list of Unacceptable items states, peanut butter jars and other plastic food containers should be placed in the trash and not the recycling (no matter how clean). There is no market for these types of plastics and they are usually food contaminated and contaminate the paper product. Liquid plastic bottles (beverage, detergent, soap, etc) should be empty but you should replace the cap to prevent any residual liquid from escaping while in your blue bin.
@CITYTRASHANDREC… When is Santa Barbara going to institute a kitchen scraps recycling program?
You mean to tell me you’re supposed to wash off a little throw away meat tray AND deliver it to Marborg? That’s nuts.
Issue 42, Summer 2019 of “Edible Santa Barbara” magazine has a very good article, that could be kept around and used for reference, on “Wishful Recycling: And Why We All Need to Use Less Plastic.” Parts: “Not all plastic is recyclable; but here’s what you CAN put in your curbside recycling”; “What did Grandma Do?”; diagram on “Recycle Plastic Bags and Film Packaging”‘; and “Alternatives to Single-Use Plastic: Take a Plastic Challenge.” There’s an Edible SB “Share your challenge and progress on social media” opportunity at the end of the article.
Why should they have to wash your recyclables? Can you imagine the cost of having to wash all of the dirty stuff coming into their facility, not to mention that waste of water. Much more efficient for you to do it. If you add to their cost, that just makes the economics of recycling worse. If more stuff goes to the landfill, wait until you see your trash bill once Tajiguas finally closes. Skyhigh comes to mind.
Also their Goleta facility will take it.
Should be an award for people like you!
Too many contradictions in this list. Did anyone proof read it? What is the bottom line about pizza boxes, for example? And since this stuff is taken to Ventura to be hand sorted there isn’t what is being done here by us just a preliminary screening? If so should we err on the side of inclusion in the recycling stream and let them sort it out?
The facts of the matter are that there is NO MARKET for the majority of our recycled goods. Items that used to flow to Asia are no longer being accepted and instead are going into the landfill. Reduce what you buy, reuse what you can and do as much as you as an individual can do to help stem the consumption of all packages. We are fortunate to have Marborg, who are by every measure the best in the business, but its still up to you as a person to control what you buy, use and destroy. “Leave no trace” is by far the best example of being a good citizen and human.
There is no question these “new rules” will reduce the amount of recycling in the city and increase trash going to the landfill. Also, now I have to waste water to clean out the food containers. Other cities and other countries (look at Denmark and Sweden) have much better, more comprehensive recycling programs. Santa Barbara and California are just willing to accept this backwards slide? What a waste–pun intended.
It is our personal responsibility to reduce use and amount of landfill trash; not the government’s job. It is the government’s job to give us a place to dump it. We alone choose how much we generate.
Denmark has a very thorough recycling program, requiring individually recycling each section. At least where we stayed (relative’s house), there were separate bins for cardboard, plastic, metal, glass, and compostables. A fair bit of the recycling is actually incinerated in other countries, not necessarily recycled. The fact that you can no longer recycle produce boxes (like for berries) is a true bummer. I am not certain that most people care enough to have separate bins to do what they do in other countries. The reason why we are falling behind – first, China doesn’t want it. Second, California doesn’t have their major recycling centers either.
Achoo–exactly a point to be concerned about. Even when items are clean and recyclable the commercial recycling operations won’t make the effort to get them out of the waste stream as it is not convenient for them. As a society we should fund this thing as a public utility. Maybe offer work to unemployed folks. If we lose a bit on the recycling we will gain in the health of the planet.
It does say peanut butter jar under “Unacceptable”.
City–not all peanut butter jars are plastic. Aren’t glass jars recyclable without regard to content or is peanut butter so contaminating that it ruins glass? You need to get a better handle on the real world before you write stuff like this.