Yorba Linda, CA Trash & Recycling: Recycling Requirements (2026)

Yorba Linda doesn't run its own recycling trucks; instead, § 8.20.020(A) lets the City Council award one or more exclusive franchises for solid waste handling, and § 8.20.020(B) obligates every franchisee to comply with all State recycling and organic-waste diversion laws and to extend those programs to every customer. That state mandate flows down to residents and businesses through § 8.20.070: subsection (C) makes it an unlawful public nuisance for a subscriber to fail to participate in the franchisee's recycling and organic waste programs at all, and subsection (D) separately penalizes a subscriber who participates but contaminates the stream, for instance by placing waste in a container of the wrong type.

Subsections (F) and (G) extend the same duty to organic waste specifically, tracking the state's mandatory commercial and residential organics law at 14 CCR, Division 7, Chapter 12, with the City Manager authorized to grant waivers where state law allows one. Enforcement for the organic-waste piece runs through § 8.20.121(C), which routes violations through the City's administrative citation process in Chapter 1.13, but modifies it: the City Manager must first issue a written notice of violation giving the resident or business 60 days to come into compliance, and only after that window closes do fines attach, at $50.00 for a first violation, $100.00 for a second, and $250.00 for a third or subsequent violation.

Any violation is also deemed a public nuisance abatable under the City's general nuisance-abatement procedures, and the City may separately recover its attorneys' fees and prosecution costs from a violator.