RESIDENTIAL RECYCLING & HAZARDOUS WASTE
Always check with your local municipality if you are unsure where and/or how to dispose of things.
- San Francisco Department of the Environment’s RecycleWhere search function
- Recology (information for communities served in northern California)
- Alameda County Waste Management Authority
- Contra Costa Waste Reduction and Recycling
- San Mateo County RecycleWorks
- Marin Hazardous and Solid Waste
- Waste to Waves is a unique resource for coastal Californians for recycling styrofoam blocks. (This one resource had to be singled out because it’s so incredibly awesome and local municipalities don’t seem to know much about it!)
Professional organizers are full of resources to help their clients dispose of unwanted items. In addition to second-hand stores and libraries, here are a few of my favorite donation venues in the San Francisco Bay Area:
- Goodwill Industries of San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin Counties may surprise you when you learn what what they do with things like books and textiles.
- Prisoners Literature Project is a Berkeley-based destination for paperback books including dictionaries (all languages!), history, how-to, fiction, and more.
- Accessorize with Toys wants your tiny plastic toys and boardgames
- SCRAP (Scroungers Center for Reusable Art Parts) - San Francisco-based and their name says it all!
- East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse – the East Bay’s version of SCRAP
