Welcome to the City of Milpitas
Residential Recycling Services

Reusable News & beyond
The Utility Engineering Section works with you to help the City of Milpitas achieve disposal reduction goals and monitor solid waste services. Please call us at 408-586-3352 (TDD 262-3081) if you have any questions about your recycling and garbage services.

Get Involved
The Recycling & Source Reduction Advisory Commission advises the Milpitas City Council on recycling and solid waste issues and recommends programs designed to reduce solid waste. Committee members are appointed to three-year terms by the City Council.

Public comments and participation welcome! The Commission meets the fourth Tuesday of January, April, July, and October at 7 p.m. in the Committee Conference Room, Milpitas City Hall. Special meetings by announcement.

Residential Recycling Works
Thanks to you! Your individual efforts add up to a big achievement for Milpitas -- a 54% disposal reduction of landfilled materials since 1991! That's great news for our city as we try to offset rising disposal costs.

And there's more to reducing waste than just recycling. It's simple: waste less, save more. Read here for information about preventing waste first! By the way, has anyone told you how proud you can be of Milpitas? We've made leaps and bounds towards our 54% disposal reduction goal by recycling more and wasting less.

For weekly curbside collection, place flattened cardboard, used motor oil jugs, and your 32-gallon garbage cans at the curb, not in the street.  Place the optional rented 96-gallon Allied Waste Garbage cart, your Single Stream Recycling cart, and your yard trimmings cart in the street against the curb, in front of your home by 6 a.m. on collection day. Please remember to keep your recycling set out away from the sidewalk.

Look at the grey lid of your blue recycling cart for a list of accepted recyclables. Call Allied Waste Services at 408-432-0444 (TDD 1-877-463-1066) if you need a new or replacement recycling cart, yard trimmings cart, extra yard trimmings stickers, and additional recycling set-out tips. Please read the information about used motor oil recycling.

Yard Trimmings: Place the green cart on the street, wheels against the curb, four feet from parked cars and mail boxes. No palm fronds, fruits & vegetables, pet waste, sod & dirt, rocks & concrete.

Use your green yard trimmings recycling cart to keep these materials out of the landfill! Get an extra yard trimmings sticker at the Milpitas Library, or call Allied Waste Services at 408-432-0444 (TDD 1-877-463-1066). Place the sticker on a clean, 32-gallon "garbage" can. Use this can when you have more yard trims than will fit into the green cart. Please place the can at the curb, not on the street, with the sticker facing the street. Your green cart must be set out with the labeled can. Please place the green cart on the street, wheels against the curb, four feet from parked cars and mail boxes. Also, branches tied with twine in four foot lengths are collected at the curb.

Used Motor Oil: Use only free jugs at Milpitas fire stations. Please don't mix other auto fluids or water with used motor oil.

Mixed Paper: Envelopes ("windows" okay), paper bags, paperboard (cereal boxes), shredded paper, paper egg cartons, white & colored paper, magazines & catalogs. No pizza boxes or milk & juice cartons.

Containers: Plastic containers stamped 1 through 7; glass containers & jars; aluminum & metal food/beverage cans. No molded Styrofoam & packaging peanuts, "clam shell" molded Styrofoam containers, black plastic, plate glass, aluminum foil & scrap metals. Please, no black-color plastic (microwave & catering food trays, etc.).

Newspaper: Recycle newspaper with inserts, advertisements and comics. It's okay to use brown paper grocery bags to store and set-out newspapers.

Corrugated cardboard: Flatten and place cardboard and paperboard (cereal / shoe boxes, etc.) into the cart.  If your single stream cart is already full, then fold cardboard & paperboard to cart size and stack next to the cart.

Garbage can or cart: Set 32-gallon garbage cans at the curb. If you rent Allied Waste Services's blue garbage cart, place this cart on the street, wheels against the curb, four feet from parked cars, mail boxes and the green cart.

Containers: Plastic containers stamped 1 through 7; glass containers & jars; aluminum & metal cans. No packaging peanuts, "clam shell" molded Styrofoam containers, black plastic, plate glass, aluminum foil & scrap metals. Please, no black-color plastic (microwave & catering food trays, etc.).

Corrugated cardboard: Flatten and place cardboard and paperboard (cereal / shoe boxes, etc.) into the cart.  If your cart is already full, then fold cardboard & paperboard to cart size and stack next to the cart.

Mixed Paper: Envelopes ("windows" okay), paper bags, paperboard (cereal boxes), shredded paper, paper egg cartons, white & colored paper, magazines & catalogs. No pizza boxes or milk & juice cartons.

Newspaper: Recycle newspaper with inserts, advertisements and comics.

Recycling Tip: "Presort" recyclables before going to the carts. Store newspaper and mixed paper in separate brown paper grocery bags. Recycle grocery bags or reuse them. Use a garbage pail or plastic crate for food and beverage containers. Then, empty one recycling bag, pail or crate with each trip to the recycling carts and garbage bin.

Used Motor Oil Recycling
At the Curb -- If you have curbside recycling collection, use only one-gallon jugs available at Milpitas Fire Stations. Place jugs next to your recycling bins. Please do not mix other auto fluids or water with used motor oil.