Santa Cruz County, CA Property Maintenance: Trash Bin Storage (2026)

In unincorporated Santa Cruz County, residential waste containers are governed by County Code Chapter 7.20 (Solid Waste), updated by Ordinance 5383 (2021). The County rule on container set-out provides that discarded-materials containers shall not be placed at the curbside or adjacent to streets or roadways to facilitate collection more than 24 hours prior to pick-up time, and they must be removed from the pick-up site within 24 hours after being emptied. This limits how long carts may sit in public view at the street. The County's franchised hauler, GreenWaste Recovery, provides gray (garbage), blue (recycling), and green (organics) carts and asks that all materials be ready for collection no later than 5 AM on the customer's normal collection day. Carts should be placed at the curb so the lid closes and the container is accessible to the collection vehicle. The County Code does not publish a detailed residential screening or enclosure standard for single-family cart storage between collection days; for new commercial and multifamily development, trash-enclosure and screening requirements are addressed through the zoning and site-design review process under Chapter 13.10. Day-to-day, residents simply need to keep set-out within the 24-hour-before / 24-hour-after window and otherwise store carts on their own property. Containers left at the curb beyond the allowed window can be addressed as a nuisance under the County Code.