Tustin, CA Trash & Recycling: Recycling Requirements (2026)

Section 4361, in Part 6 of Chapter 3, sets Tustin's curbside recycling duties for commercial generators, defined to include multifamily residential buildings. Every covered business must subscribe to hauler service for municipal solid waste, recyclable materials, and organic materials together, and adjust the size or frequency of that service if the City finds the containers inadequate to keep materials properly separated. Beyond subscribing, a business has to supply and give employees, contractors, tenants, and customers access to enough labeled recycling and organics containers, placed anywhere the business already provides a trash container for customers (restrooms are exempted), with container lids or bodies matching the citywide color scheme, or bearing text or graphics showing what belongs and what doesn't, under the state labeling standard in 14 CCR Section 18984.8.

Businesses must periodically inspect their containers for contamination, tell employees when a container is contaminated, and give new tenants sorting information within fourteen days of moving in. A business can seek a physical-space or de minimis-volume waiver from these container requirements from the City under Section 4362, reviewed for continued eligibility every five years, but a business cannot get a waiver from the separate Mandatory Commercial Recycling law, AB 341, that already applies to it. Tier One and Tier Two commercial edible food generators layer an additional food-recovery duty from Section 4363 on top of these container and subscription rules.