Mountain View, CA Trash & Recycling: Mandatory Organics Recycling (2026)

Mountain View adopted Chapter 16, Article VI, Division 1 of its City Code, Ord. No. 21, effective December 14, 2021, to comply with Senate Bill 1383, the state's Short-Lived Climate Pollutant Reduction Act, which sets a target of cutting organic waste sent to landfill by 75 percent by 2025. 102(a) requires every single-family generator to subscribe to the city's organic waste collection services for all organic waste generated, and the city enforcement official can review the number and size of a household's containers and require the household to adjust its service level.

102(b) then spells out the sorting requirement: source-separated green container organic waste, including food waste, goes in the green container; source-separated recyclable materials go in the blue container; and everything else, gray container waste, goes in the gray container. Generators may not put gray-container material into the green or blue cart. 101, "organic waste" reaches beyond food scraps to include green material, landscape and pruning waste, paper products, and other biodegradable material, so the green-cart duty also effectively covers yard trimmings under this same ordinance.

102(c) allows a resident to instead manage waste on-site through backyard or community composting rather than using the city's cart. 109: from 2022 through 2023 the city was directed to educate noncompliant generators, but beginning January 1, 2024, any generator violating Article VI can face administrative citations, fines, or civil penalties, and a notice of violation gives 60 days to come into compliance.