Solid Waste & Recycling

As of January 1, 2020, Dana Point residents can place food scraps and food-soiled paper in their green waste carts (now referred to as the organics cart). Instead of going to the landfill, your food scraps and food-soiled paper, along with your yard waste, will be taken to a facility to be processed into compost!

• SB1383 State Organic Waste Regulations

Acceptable items for your organics cart include:

Yard Trimmings

• Grass
• Leaves
• Non-Hazardous Wood Waste
• Tree Limbs (Less Than 5 Feet Long)
• Weeds

Food Scraps

• Bread/Pasta
• Meat/Bones
• Cheese
• Egg Shells
• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Shellfish

Food-Soiled Paper

• Coffee Filters
• Greasy Pizza Boxes
• Napkins
• Paper Towels
• Tea Bags

Compostable Packaging

• Paper/Cardboard Takeout Boxes
• Compostable Packaging

Tips for keeping your outdoor cart clean:

• Line it: Place a sheet of cardboard or green waste at the bottom of your cart to prevent food scraps from sticking to the bottom.    
• Layer it: Layer food scraps with green waste so the green waste can absorb moisture and potential odors.    
• Close it: Keep the lid closed to reduce odors and pests.    
• Take it out: Place your cart out to the curb each week for pick-up, even if it’s not full.    
• Exchange it: CR&R will exchange your organics cart for a fresh and sparkly clean cart *free of charge* once per year. 

Assembly Bill 1826 (AB 1826)  was signed  by California Governor, Jerry Brown, on September 28, 2014. This bill will require businesses, including multi-family buildings with five or more units, that generate a specific amount of organic waste per week (yard trimmings, food scraps and food-soiled paper) to arrange for organics recycling and diversion services according to a tiered implementation schedule.  These organic materials account for nearly one-third of the approximately 30 million tons of waste destined for California’s landfills each year which could be used for soil amendments which as compost and mulch.

What is Organic Waste?

• Food Scraps including all solid, semi solid and liquid food such as fruit, vegetables, cheese, meat, bones, poultry, seafood, bread, rice, pasta, tea bags, coffee filters and oils.

• Food-Soiled Paper is uncoated paper that is soiled by food waste such as napkins, paper towels, paper cups, fast food wrappers and take out boxes, egg cartons, used pizza boxes, wax-coated cardboard and other paper and compostable food packaging.

• Yard Trimmings include grass clippings, leaves, flowers, hedge clippings and weeds.  Non-hazardous wood waste includes tree branches, tree trunks and untreated lumber.

Who is Required to Have Mandatory Commercial Organics Recycling Services?

Effective January 1, 2016, AB1826 (Mandatory Commercial Organics Recycling) places requirements on businesses, multi-family residences and jurisdictions to divert organics, which consists of food waste, green waste and non-hazardous wood waste, out of the landfills.  Obligations for commercial organics recycling will begin on April 1, 2016 and will ramp up over the next  4 years as summarized in the table below:

*”Businesses” includes multi-family residences with 5 units or more; however, multi-family premises are not required to recycle food waste.

**On September 15, 2020, CalRecycle made the determination that the statewide disposal of organic waste has not been reduced to 50% of the 2014 disposal level and the AB1826 threshold is lowered to regulated businesses that generate two or more cubic yards per week of solid waste, recyclables and organics. CalRecycle will work with each affected jurisdiction to determine a plan for implementing the lowered threshold by December 31, 2020. Please visit the CalRecycle website to find the more details related to this finding. The City of Dana Point and CR&R will be reaching out to the affected businesses with information to obtain compliance with the updated State mandate.

To summarize the table above, businesses with 8 cubic yards (CY) of organic waste must have an organics diversion program in place by April 1, 2016.  These identified businesses will have to source separate organic waste from non-organic waste and participate in a waste recycling service that includes collection and recycling of organic waste.    Businesses also have the option to self-haul its organic waste off site for processing and recycling.

The businesses with 4 CY of organic waste would be expected to start organics recycling on or after January 1, 2017 and so forth.

CR&R began offering food waste recycling services for Dana Point food establishments in early 2010 as part of a OC Waste and Recycling grant funded pilot commercial food waste recycling program from April 2010-October 2011.  Dana Point was chosen among eight other Orange County cities to participate in the food waste composting program.  The Dana Point food businesses that participated in this pilot program included Salt Creek Grille, The St. Regis Monarch Beach and the Ritz Carlton.  The total food waste tonnage diverted from these 3 businesses totaled 394.67 tons.

The City’s hauler, CR&R, Inc., has been performing outreach, education and monitoring of the businesses affected by AB1826 and can assist with right-sizing waste services with implementation of the organics program.

View CR&R's Commercial Food Waste Recycling Program handout (PDF, 363KB)or call CR&R (877) 728-0446 for program details.

California Recycling Laws:

Assembly Bill 341 requires all businesses in California that generate four cubic yards or more of waste per week or a multifamily residential dwelling with five units or more to recycle.

Assembly Bill 1826 requires businesses to separate their organics (Organics is defined as wood, green, and food waste) for recycling. This law consists of a tiered system starting April 1, 2016 with businesses generating 8 cubic yards of organic waste per week and decreasing to 4 cubic yards of organic waste per week January 1, 2017. Effective January 1, 2019, the mandate will include ALL businesses that generate a minimum of 4 cubic yard of solid waste. On September 15, 2020, CalRecycle made the determination that the statewide disposal of organics waste has not been reduced to 50% of the 2014 disposal level. As a result, the AB1826 threshold is lowered to regulated businesses that generate two or more cubic yards per week of solid waste, recyclables and organics. 

Participating in a CR&R recycling program will assist your business in meeting these recycling requirements. Additional information is available from the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery

For information regarding Commercial Recycling Programs, please contact CR&R at (877) 728-0446 or visit CR&R's Business Services webpage.

• Business Recycling Programs -   CalRecycle offers this information as an outline of how waste-concious businesses manage their offices. 
• Junk Mail Reduction - Reducing unsolicited mail to your business:  This page explains how to reduce unsolicited mail to your business and home.  Getting rid of the junk mail will decrease your solid waste stream and costs your business less money in disposal fees.
• CalMAX - a free service designed to help businesses find markets for nonhazardous materials they have traditionally discarded.  CalMAX helps businesses, industries, and institutions save resources and money.

Visit CR&R's Business Services webpage for more information regarding recycling at your business or call CR&R at (877) 728-0446.

Holiday Pick-Up Schedule

Trash pickup is always delayed one day after a major holiday that falls on a week day. For example, if Christmas falls on Tuesday, the normal trash schedule applies to Monday, but trash service is delayed one day for Christmas day and for the rest of the week. The following holidays are recognized by the City’s trash hauler: New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day. For more information about your holiday pickup schedule, view CR&R's Holiday Schedule or call CR&R at (877) 728-0446.

On February 21, 2012, the Dana Point City Council voted to ban the distribution of Single-Use Plastic Carry-Out Bags at the point of sale at local retail establishments (DMPC 12-04).  The Single-Use Plastic Carry-Out Ban Ordinance is intended to significantly reduce the environmental impacts related to single-use plastic bags and to promote a major shift towards the utilization of reusable bags for the purpose of carrying away goods.  The thin, light duty single-use plastic bags were intended for one-time use and designed to be disposable as opposed to reusable.  Though these plastic bags are recyclable, very few (less than 5%) of the estimated 19 billion bags used in California are actually recycled due to the logistics of sorting, high contamination rates and the lack of suitable markets for the recycled resin of the low-quality plastic used to make the bags.

A Single-Use Plastic Carry-Out Bag is defined as any bag that is less than 2.25 mil thick and is made predominately of plastic (including compostable and biodegradable) derived from petroleum and bags made from bio-based sources such as corn or other plant sources.

Dana Point Retail Establishments affected by the Ordinance include all grocery stores, convenience stores, mini-marts, liquor stores, drug stores, pharmacies, retail stores, vendors and non-profit vendors selling clothing and/or personal items.

The Ordinance does NOT prohibit the distribution of plastic product bags used for produce, unprepared meat and fish, bulk food, newspapers, dry-cleaning or animal pet waste.  Restaurants and other providers of prepared take-out foods and liquids are also exempt from the Ordinance.

In our community, the impact to the marine environment is the primary concern that motivated the City's consideration of a policy to limit the distribution of single-use plastic bags.  The City will continue to be guided by our goals and our commitment towards reducing and eliminating negative impacts in order to preserve our pristine coastline.

For more information on the Single-Use Plastic Carry-Out Bag Ban Ordinance, please click on the links below:

• Single-Use Plastic Carry-Out Bag Ban Frequently Asked Questions (PDF, 508KB)
• Single-Used Plastic Carry-Out Bag Ban Second Reading City Council Agenda Report(PDF, 182KB) (PDF, 182KB)
• City of Dana Point Single-Use Plastic Carry-Out Bag Ban Adopted Ordinance(PDF, 358KB) 

On February 21, 2012, the Dana Point City Council voted to ban the use of Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) disposable food service ware within Dana Point (DPMC 12-03).  EPS products, more commonly known as Styrofoam™, are designed to be disposable and, therefore, have a useful life of only minutes or hours.  Yet, it takes several decades to hundreds of years for EPS to deteriorate in the environment or landfill.  Instead, it merely breaks down into smaller pieces that litter the City's streets, parks, open spaces, beaches and ocean waters and endanger birds and sea life that mistake the EPS for pieces of food.  Ingestion of EPS can result in reduced appetite and nutrient absorption and death by starvation in the animals that consume the debris.

While EPS is technically, "recyclable", there is, to date, no meaningful recycling of EPS due to high food contamination rates and a very weak market to clean, handle and process the material.  Alternative products, which are biodegradable, reusable and/or recyclable are readily available at a reasonable cost.

EPS waste that is introduced to waterbodies from both direct and indirect sources negatively impacts the overall quality of our beaches and ocean waters.  EPS waste is a major component in the overall make up of beach and marine debris and is visible form of pollution.  Birds and marine animals often perish as a result of ingesting polystyrene products mistaken as food.  Deterioration in the quality of the City's streets, beaches and ocean waters threatens the public's health, safety and welfare and negatively affects tourism and the local economy.

The City of Dana Point has a duty to protect the natural environment for present and future generations and joins nearly 50 other California cities in banning the use of EPS single-use food service ware at food businesses within the City.  The EPS ban and Ordinance reflects Dana Point's proactive approach to coastal stewardship by implementing policies that maintain our legacy as the most beautiful, desirable and safest coastal community in which to live, work, visit, play or conduct business.

For more information on the EPS Food Service Ware Ban, please click on the links below:

• EPS Food Service Ware Ban FAQ's(PDF, 222KB) (PDF, 222KB)
• Environmentally Sustainable Food Service Ware Resources(PDF, 264KB) (PDF, 264KB)
• Signed EPS Ban Ordinance (DMPC 12-03)(PDF, 517KB) (PDF, 517KB)
• EPS Food Service Ware Ban Staff Report (PDF, 4MB)(2nd Reading and Adoption) 

The City of Dana Point is very serious about recycling construction and demolition waste. The City’s Construction and Demolition Waste Ordinance (No.03-17) requires contractors and other construction related persons to obtain a permit and haul at least 75% of their construction waste to a recycling facility certified by the City. The City of Dana Point requires a construction and demolition deposit in the amount of $1.00 per sq. foot/per floor of the work area of the project in order to encourage compliance with the ordinance.

Please note that universal waste (such as batteries, e-waste, lamps, cathode ray tubes/glass and aerosol cans) from non-residential additions of 1,000ft2 or greater and/or building alterations with a permit valuation of $200,000 or above require verification that materials are disposed of properly and diverted from landfills (CALGreen Section 301.3). In order to comply with this requirement, a listing of universal waste materials that will be diverted from the landfill from applicable projects should be identified, and disposal location identified, within the C&D Waste Plan.

CR&R hauls 100% of all construction waste to a Materials Recycling Facility where the recyclable items are removed for processing. Please call CR&R at (877) 728-0446 to order a construction and demolition waste bin for your construction project. For more information about the Construction and Demolition Ordinance and how to comply please see below.

• C&D Deposit Program(PDF, 7MB)
• Commercial/Business U-Waste Disposal Reference Guide(PDF, 1MB)
• Statement of Compliance(PDF, 12KB)

Please note that effective September 21, 2019, the Prima Materials Recycle Facility (Prima MRF) located within the Prima Landfill property has ceased operation.  When disposing of construction and demolition waste, please refer to the links below for facilities that accept C&D waste.  Please note that if C&D waste s disposed of within the Prima Landfill (and not a recycling facility), the C&D deposit for your project may be forfeited if the 75% diversion requirement is not met.  

Please reference the City's C&D Deposit Program brochure linked above.

Prima Closure Letter and Alternative Options

Certified Facility List (August2023)

The City of Dana Point, in an effort to encourage Dana Point residents to recycle, sponsors three Bulky Item Disposal and Recycling Events per year. This event will include onsite document shredding at South Shores Church.  Goodwill will also be onsite at both locations. Dana Point Residents are encouraged to take advantage of this Free event by bringing items, that cannot be picked up on regular collection days, to one of the convenient locations listed below.   

SATURDAY, MAY 11, 2024 | 7:30AM to 2:30PM
City residents only!  Event subject to cancellation during inclement weather.

*****NEW LOCATION*****