Recycling For Businesses And Multi-Family Properties

The City’s trash hauler, Waste Management (WM), provides recycling and food waste diversion programs for businesses and multi-family properties at half the price of trash as part of its franchise agreement with the City. To understand more about what services are available and required, please refer to:

• Commercial/Multi-family Service Guide
• Residential/Multi-family Recycling Video
• Recycling Training for Businesses Video
• Business Recycling Testimonials
• Mission Viejo's Rate Schedule - 2025

Senate Bill 138 (SB 1383) is built on Assembly Bill 1826 (AB 1826) and required that the City adopt a mandatory recycling ordinance (Mission Viejo Section 6.10.510 for commercial businesses and multi-family properties. SB 1383 and MVMC 6.10.510 require that all businesses and multi-family properties subscribe to and participate in the City’s three-container collection services, unless they are self-hauling materials to be recycled at a third-party facility. Businesses and multi-family must place source-separated recyclable materials in the recycle container (blue lid), source-separated organic waste (food waste) in the organics container (brown or green lid), and landfill waste in the trash container (black/grey lid).

How do I properly sort materials?

Recyclable material goes in the container with the blue lid and includes the following.

• Paper including newspaper, cardboard, paper envelopes, junk mail, magazines, and paper bags.
• Metal including aluminum cans, empty aerosol cans, tin cans, and steel cans.
• Glass including bottles and food jars.
• Plastics including bottles, jugs, jars, and containers/tubs.

Organic waste goes in the container with the green or brown lid and includes the following.  

• Food scraps including all solid, semi-solid and liquid food such as fruit, vegetables, cheese, meat, bones, poultry, seafood, bread, rice, pasta, coffee grounds, and oils.

Landfill waste (trash) goes in the container with the black lid and includes items that cannot be placed in the recycle or organics containers. Examples are included below.

• Polystyrene foam, plastic liners/film, plastic utensils, soiled paper cups, wax-coated paper cups, pet waste, diapers/bathroom waste, garden hoses, and non-donatable clothing, bedding, and textiles.

Please note that these lists of materials are not exhaustive. The City’s waste hauler, WM, can be contacted with questions about where certain materials should be placed. 

The City’s hauler, WM, also allows provides a service where landscaping waste and food waste can be collected together. For more details, please contact Waste Management by phone at 949-642-1191, by email at wmservice@wm.com, or by visiting Waste Management's website.

How do businesses and multi-family properties comply?

1. Recycle your organics and recyclable material.

• Subscribe to regular organics collection service from Waste Management 

  OR

• Self-haul organics and/or recyclable material to a permitted facility. For example, organics could be self-hauled to a composting or anaerobic digestion facility. A record must be kept showing the amount and type of organic and/or recyclable material delivered to each facility.
   

2. Provide organics and recycling service and education to employees, contractors, tenants, and customers.

• Collection service must be arranged so that access to an adequate number, size, and location of containers is available.
• For all outdoor and indoor containers, the container bodies or lids shall conform to the following color scheme: gray/black for trash, blue for recycling, and green for organics. In addition, containers shall have labels with graphic images to indicate primary materials accepted and prohibited.
• Annually provide educational information about the legal requirements to compost and recycle. In addition, education must be provided on how to properly sort the three waste streams into correct containers. Please note, for new tenants, this information must be provided before or within 14 days of move-in.
• Periodically inspect recycling, organics, and landfill containers and inform employees if contamination is found.

Which businesses are required to donate food?

Large food generating businesses will be required to donate food.  For more information on businesses subject to this part of SB 1383, please visit the Edible Food Recovery information page. Residents and multi-family properties are not required by SB 1383 to participate in a food donation program. Of course, anyone can donate edible food and is encouraged to participate in these programs if they are interested and able to.

Reference: SB 1383 Regulations §§ 18984.7, 18984.8, 18984.9, 18984.10, 18986.1, 18986.2, 18988.3, 18991.3, 18991.4, https://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/organics/slcp/collection

Effective July 1, 2020, Assembly Bill 827 (AB 827) mandates fast-casual food service establishments to provide customers with disposal containers for three types of materials – food scraps, recyclables, and trash – generated from products purchased and consumed onsite. Please note that, as of January 1, 2022, this requirement is now part of SB 1383 and Mission Viejo Municipal Code 6.10.510 requirements for commercial businesses. Multi-family properties are not required to provide customer-facing containers.

California’s Assembly Bill 341 requires all commercial businesses and multi-family properties to recycle. The legislation became effective July 1, 2012, and was designed to help meet California's recycle goal of 75% by the year 2020.

• Contact Waste Management’s customer service department for specific information on the Business Recycling Programs listed below:
  • Mixed (Commingled) Recycling
  • Glass Recycling
  • Bulky Good Collection Service
  • Electronic Waste (i.e., computers, TVs, monitors) Collection Service
  • White Goods (i.e., refrigerators) Collection Service
  • Clean Your Files Day
  • Temporary/Source Separated Recycling Services
  • Business Recycling Plans

Visit our construction and demolition (C&D) resource page for more information.

Visit our Hazardous Waste webpage to learn how to dispose of universal and hazardous waste.

Contact Waste Management for additional service needs.