San Luis Obispo County, CA Trash & Recycling: Recycling Rules (2026)

98, Mandatory Recycling, was added to the County Code by Ordinance No. 3461 in 2021. 020(a) requires occupants of a single-family home served by a franchised hauler to separate recyclable materials from garbage headed to the landfill, using the curbside recycling container the franchisee supplies or any other legal recycling method. 020(b) puts more work on multi-family properties: the 'responsible person,' typically the property owner or manager, must provide on-site recycling service, and must distribute information on what materials are accepted, where the containers sit, and the occupants' duty to recycle at least once a year, plus separately to every new occupant when they move in and whenever the recycling service itself changes.

030 imposes the identical separation, on-site service and annual-education duties on commercial properties. ' A written warning goes out first, the county can resample within six months, and a second substantiated finding of noncompliance makes the responsible person or occupant liable under the chapter's penalty provisions. 040 extends a parallel recycling-receptacle duty to permitted special events, requiring at least as many recycling receptacles as garbage receptacles, placed side by side. 05, the county's administrative fines process, rather than straight misdemeanor prosecution.