Milpitas, CA Trash & Recycling: Recycling Rules (2026)

Section V-200-4.40 of the Solid Waste Management chapter draws a hard line against landfilling recoverable material: no authorized contractor may permit the landfilling of recyclable materials or organic materials, and the only exception is where the City's own contract with that hauler does not prohibit it, meaning the default rule is a ban and any carve-out has to come from the franchise agreement itself. The chapter's definitions section backs this up by describing recyclable materials as discarded material that generators set out in recycling containers specifically so the authorized contractor can process it for recycling, deliberately excluding it from the ordinary solid-waste stream that goes to a landfill; organic materials get the same separate-stream treatment under the City's SB 1383 program.

Because title to solid waste, recyclables, organic materials and construction and demolition debris passes to the authorized contractor once it is set out for collection, the landfilling ban falls on the contractor rather than the resident who sorted the material correctly, and the City can cancel or decline to renew a hauler's contract or permit for violating this or any other provision of the Chapter. The rule reinforces the ordinance's stated purpose of reducing the amount of waste disposed of in landfills, one of the five goals listed in the chapter's opening declaration of policy.