Monterey Park, CA Trash & Recycling: Recycling Rules (2026)

Monterey Park Municipal Code Section 6.08.260 protects the recyclables the city's franchised servicer collects from being picked over before the truck arrives. Unless a franchise or permit says otherwise, nobody but an authorized recycling agent, someone a household or business itself has approved to haul its recyclables without being paid for it, may remove paper, glass, cardboard, plastics, aluminum or any other city-designated recyclable from a garbage, rubbish or refuse container, bin, or debris box that a neighbor or business has already set out at its designated collection location. The rule exists because the value of diverted material funds the servicer's obligations under Section 6.08.180, which requires permitted commercial and industrial haulers to hit an annual fifty percent diversion rate; scavenging before pickup undercuts the tonnage the city and its servicer can document.

The city backs the ban with conspicuous warnings. Section 6.08.180(6)(C) requires every recycling container the collector supplies to carry a label in Chinese, Spanish and English stating that removing the contents is a misdemeanor under Sections 6.08.260 and 6.08.270 of the Monterey Park Municipal Code and that individuals caught illegally taking recyclables will be arrested and prosecuted for theft. Section 6.08.270 then makes good on that warning: violating Section 6.08.260 is a misdemeanor, and the code treats every separate receptacle a person scavenges as its own offense rather than one continuing violation, so pulling materials from several bins on one route can multiply the charges. Community and Economic Development code enforcement and the Monterey Park Police Department, which holds Penal Code Section 836.5 arrest authority under Chapter 4.10, enforce the ban.