WASTE DISPOSAL - FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Residents that use the City of Carlsbad Water District can set up trash and recycling services at the same time by calling (760) 602-2420. Other residential and commercial customers should contact Waste Management at (760) 929-9400. See Water and Sewer District Maps to see if you fall within the City of Carlsbad Water District.

No, not for residential service. Your receptacle shall not exceed a capacity of 30 gallons or 40 pounds. Commercial customers are provided a bin as part of the monthly fee.

Residential customers can set out up to ten cans each week.

Yes, they will actually send three trucks; one for trash, the second for recycling and a third truck for yard waste.

Yard waste is collected on the normally scheduled pick-up day for trash and recyclables.

Residents provide their own container. There are biodegradable yard bags available at local hardware stores; however, yard waste will not be accepted in plastic bags. Trash cans are fine, but cannot exceed 30 gallons or 40 pounds.

No, not with yard waste. Sod has dirt attached which is unable to pass through the mulchers. Sod can be placed in trash receptacles as long as the can weighs less than 40 pounds.

Bundle branches in 4-foot lengths with an 18-20 inch diameter. Put the bundles next to the recyclable containers.

These are the drains, typically at the curb of your street, that allow rainwater to escape and prevent flooding. This water is not treated at plants before being piped to a local body of water. The Carlsbad storm water conveyance system carries rainwater from our streets, rooftops, driveways, parking lots, and other impervious surfaces and carries this water directly to our lagoons, streams, and ocean.

Don't sweep yard waste into the street. Bury or flush pet waste. Don't over-fertilize your yard, and keep fertilizer on the lawn and not on hard surfaces. Also, don't over-water your lawn, creating runoff. Do not clean oil spills or other chemical spills on your driveway by hosing or power-washing them into the gutter.

Soap, metal, oil, engine and wheel cleaners, and other products of car washing do not belong in storm drains. If possible, please take your car to a washing bay or commercial car wash.

Please call the Storm Water Hotline at (760) 602 - 2799

Glass: All colors of beverage and food bottles.
Aluminum and Tin Cans: Aluminum beverage cans and tin cans such as vegetable and soup cans.
Plastic: Containers with recycling symbols 1-7 (For example, water, milk, soda, tea and juices), bottles containing household cleaners with recycling symbols 1 and 2 (For example, shampoo, laundry detergent and window cleaners).
All Paper: Including newspaper and advertising inserts.
Corrugated Cardboard: Flatten and break down into 3-foot long bundles. Place at the curb beside the newspaper container.

Residents billed by the City of Carlsbad for water service can set up trash and recycling service at the same time. Other residents should contact Waste Management at (760) 929-9400.

Commercial customers need to set up recycling accounts directly with Waste Management at (760) 929-9400.

Universal Waste is Household Hazardous Waste, waste produced through common household activities that is dangerous to people, pets and the environment. This waste CANNOT be thrown into your trash.

• Common Batteries - AA, AAA, C cells, D cells and button batteries (e.g., hearing aid batteries).
• Fluorescent tubes and bulbs and other mercury-containing lamps - fluorescent light tubes and bulbs, high intensity discharge (HID), metal halide, sodium and neon bulbs.
• Thermostats - old-style with the sealed glass "tilt switch," which contains mercury (the newer electronic kind are not included).
• Electronic devices - televisions and computer monitors (which were already prohibited from household trash), computers, printers, VCRs, cell phones, telephones, radios and microwave ovens.

The following universal waste items have already been banned from household disposal for some time:

• Mercury gauges - some gauges, such as barometers, manometers, blood pressure and vacuum gauges, contain mercury.
• Novelties - examples include greeting cards that play music when opened, athletic shoes (made before 1997) with flashing lights in soles and mercury maze games.
• Mercury thermometers - mercury thermometers typically contain about a half-gram of mercury. Many health clinics, pharmacies and doctor's offices have thermometer exchange programs that will give you a new mercury-free fever thermometer in exchange for your old one.
• Non-empty aerosol cans that contain hazardous materials - many products in aerosol cans are toxic and many aerosol cans contain flammables, like butane, as propellants for products like paint. If your aerosol can is labeled with words like TOXIC or FLAMMABLE, don't put it in the trash unless it is completely empty.

These items cannot be disposed of in household garbage; they are dangerous to living things. These items are considered household hazardous waste (HHW) and require special collection, handling and disposal.

Residents of Carlsbad can dispose of their Universal Waste in two ways - either transporting it to a permanent household hazardous waste collection facility OR by calling (800) 444-4244 and booking an appointment for Clean Harbors to come collect it using the City's Door-to-Door HHW collection service.

The cost for a resident to transport it is free. Though depending on the type of waste and the rules of the permanent facility (located in Oceanside, Vista or Poway) there might be a small fee to dump it. That fee covers the disposal associated with the item.

If you choose to call for Door-to-Door collection, the cost will be $10 to you and $80 paid by the City. You can leave a $10 co-payment check made out to Clean Harbors, Inc with your HHW items on your collection date. You must have an appointment to use this service. Appointments are typically a week from when a resident would call, but waits may vary.

Disposing of Universal Waste in the garbage is illegal and dangerous. Doing so will cause lasting damage to our environment.

Simply call the City's Environmental Programs Hotline number, (760) 602-4646, or Clean Harbors, (800) 444-4244. Someone at these numbers should be able to help you determine if your item is Universal Waste and what the appropriate action is.

The City's Environmental Programs Department recommends that you gather Universal Waste - like batteries and other smaller items - in a safe place in your home until there is enough of them to justify the $10 co-payment. Its important to remember that not only is it illegal to throw these items in the trash, that you hurt the environment by ignoring this law.