Imperial County, CA Trash & Recycling: Pickup Rules & Schedules (2026)

For decades the unincorporated county provided no household collection service - residents took their own trash to county-operated disposal sites and landfills. To comply with California's SB 1383 organic-waste law, the Board of Supervisors approved a Solid Waste Franchise Zone program that, effective July 1, 2026, transitions unincorporated areas from self-haul to mandatory curbside collection. Two franchised haulers serve designated zones: CR&R Environmental Services and Republic Services, with each address assigned to a hauler shown on the county's GIS lookup map. Residents receive three 96-gallon carts (black trash, blue recycling, green organics). The county-set residential rate is approximately $26.51 per month - about $320 per year - billed annually on the county property tax roll rather than by the hauler. Under the mandate, no residential waivers are permitted; commercial customers may apply for waivers that meet specific state criteria and are billed monthly by the hauler. The rollout is phased, starting with communities closer to incorporated cities and expanding to more remote desert areas. Public Works set the rates through the Proposition 218 majority-protest process; the separate proposed Solid Waste Land Use Fee was put on hold and is not moving forward. Transfer stations in Holtville and Imperial closed in October 2024, which had pushed some residents toward Calexico-area self-haul before the franchise rollout.