Residential Recycling
Homes and Townhouses

Recycling Containers:
The Los Altos Garbage Company provides residents with the following recycling containers:

Recycling "Set-out": Place your two recycling bins, wheeled yardwaste cart, paper bag of newspapers, and any gallon jugs of used oil next to your trash can-either in your driveway near the street, or in the park strip (the planted area between the street and the sidewalk).

Missing or Damaged Recycling Containers:
If recycling containers are missing or damaged, contact the garbage company for help: 408-725-4020.


Collection Schedule:
Recycling is picked up every other week, on your regular garbage pickup day, at no charge.

Missed Pickups:
Should be reported immediately to the Los Altos Garbage Co.: 408-725-4020.

What We Can Recycle-and How:
  • Mixed containers
  • Paper
  • Newspaper
  • Corrugated Cardboard
  • Used motor oil
  • Oil filters
  • Yardwaste

    • Los Altos Garbage Company recycling homepage

    Top ^

    Mixed Containers:

    Please place these types of containers in one of your recycling bins.

    There is no limit to the amount of recyclable containers that can be recycled at the curb. Extra recyclables should be collected in cardboard boxes, and placed next to your normal recycling bin.

    We accept:

  • Cans (food and beverage cans-aluminum, steel and bi-metal)
  • Glass bottles and jars (Remove lids and put into the bin separately.)
  • Plastics: containers with a 1 through 7 indicated on the bottom of the container-within a triangle of chasing arrows. Clear, opaque or colored is OK.
  • Styrofoam packing blocks (tied inside a clear plastic bag)
  • Milk cartons and juice boxes
  • Plastic bags (bundled inside a tied plastic bag). Any color.
  • Scrap metal (foil, metal pots and pans, metal objects that fit in the recycling bin)

    • We don't accept these for recycling:

  • Unmarked plastics (without a "1" - "7" code)
  • Styrofoam packing peanuts (Donate to mailing houses.)
  • Bubble wrap
  • Plastic wrap
  • Plastic utensils
  • Garden hoses
  • Plastic toys
  • Plastic pipe
  • Light bulbs
  • Window glass, mirrors, plate glass
  • Ceramics
  • Dishware
  • Clothes hangers
  • Wire
  • Rope
  • Auto parts
  • Fuel tanks*
  • Syringes and other medical waste * Click here for more info.
  • Hazardous waste *

    * These types of waste can't be recycled or disposed of as garbage at curbside. Contact the County Household Hazardous Waste Program, at 408-299-7300 for an appointment for free disposal.

    Top ^

    Paper:

    Please place your clean paper in the other recycling bin.

    There is no limit to the amount of paper that can be recycled at the curb. Extra recyclable paper can be collected in cardboard boxes, and placed next to your normal paper-recycling bin.

    We accept:

  • Junk mai
  • Magazines
  • White paper
  • Colored paper
  • Catalogs
  • Computer paper
  • Envelopes (plastic windows are OK)
  • Writing pad backings
  • Paper egg cartons
  • Phone books
  • Paper grocery bags
  • Paper towel rolls
  • Wrapping paper (no foil)
  • Adhesive notes
  • Carbonless (NCR) paper
  • Paperback books
  • Cartons made of paperboard (such as cereal boxes, cracker boxes, shoes boxes)
  • Pieces of cardboard

    • We don't accept:

  • Food-contaminated paper (coffee cups, pizza boxes, paper plates and utensils)
  • Used paper towels, napkins, and facial tissues
  • Blueprint paper
  • Hardback books
  • Carbon paper
  • Plastic-coated paper
  • Cereal box liners
  • Newspaper (Recycle separately in a paper bag.)
  • Milk cartons (Should be recycled with your cans and bottles.)

    • Top ^

    Newspapers:
    Newspapers (including any inserts) should be put into paper shopping bags, or bundled and tied with string, and placed next to your recycle bins.

    Corrugated cardboard:
    Corrugated cardboard is recycled at the curb.

  • Boxes should be flattened and placed in a separate pile (no wider than 3 ft. X 3 ft.) next to your recycle bins.
  • It is not necessary to tie the cardboard, although it may be more convenient to maneuver-both for the resident and for the recycling driver.
  • Remember that corrugated cardboard has a wavy line running through it. Paperboard, like cereal boxes and shoe boxes, should be recycled in your Paper bin, not with the corrugated cardboard.

    • Used motor oil:
    Place used motor oil next to your recycling bins in one-gallon plastic containers with tight-fitting screw-top lids. Milk and water jugs with pop-on lids are acceptable. Pop-on lids must be taped securely. Limit of 2 gallons per recycling day.

    Oil filters:
    Put filters (fully drained) in sealed, leak-proof plastic bags ("zip-lock" bags are ideal) and place curbside next to your recycling bins. New plastic, oil-recycling bags, to hold the next used filter, will be left at the curb at homes where used oil has been collected

    Top ^

    Yardwaste:

  • Yardwaste is collected every other week from your wheeled yardwaste cart, on recycling day.
  • Put leaves, small branches (cut into 3 ft. lengths or less) and grass clippings in the yardwaste cart. The cart is provided to residents by the Los Altos Garbage Co.
  • Extra Yardwaste: For info on how to recycle extra yardwaste that doesn't fit in your recycling cart. [Link to document "Extra Yardwaste for web"]
  • Yardwaste restrictions: No palm fronds, stumps, ice plant, poison oak, cactus, fruit, vegetables or bug-infested materials.
  • Place your yardwaste cart (horizontal bar facing the street) either in your driveway near the street, or in the park strip (between the street and the sidewalk).
  • If a townhouse resident, without yardwaste service, wishes to start service, please call the Los Altos Garbage Co. at 408-725-4020.

    Compost Giveaway Program: Free Compost is available to residents of Cupertino.


    Backyard Compost Workshops: Residents can compost yardwaste and foodwaste themselves in their own yards, if they wish to. Free backyard compost workshops are provided on the first Saturdays of the month, from 10-noon, in the Spring and the Fall, at McClellan Ranch, in Cupertino. Call 408-918-4640 to register. Click for more info

    • Top ^