Marin County, CA Trash & Recycling: Recycling Rules (2026)

00's source-separation mandate, added by Ordinance No. 3761 in 2022 to comply with the state's SB 1383 organics law, applies to every household in the unincorporated county. 060(C) tells residents exactly where each material goes: source-separated organic materials, including food waste, go in the organics container; source-separated recyclables go in the recycling container; and everything else goes in the garbage container. The section separately bars putting 'prohibited container contaminants,' such as trash in the recycling cart, into any of the three carts. 060(E) protects a resident's right to instead donate, sell or otherwise give away recyclable materials rather than set them out for the county's hauler, as long as that removal still follows the chapter's rules.

010(A) for any person to steal, take, possess or appropriate recyclables placed at a curbside collection station. That prohibition exempts the authorized collector, the Marin Recycling and Resource Recovery Agency, recycling corporations, public agencies, and nonprofits collecting for fund-raising. 010(B) further makes clear that once solid waste is picked up by the authorized collector, it becomes the property of the county or the collector unless a contract says otherwise, meaning a scavenger who takes materials from a cart or truck is taking county or hauler property.