Blue Bin (Trash)
All household garbage must fit completely loose within the blue container with the lid closed flat. Overflow items stacked next to the bin are subject to extra collection handling fees.
Accepted Items
- ✓Unrecyclable plastic snack wraps and chip bags
- ✓Flimsy plastic grocery sacks and film wrap layers
- ✓Diapers, personal facial wipes, and sanitary items
- ✓Broken window glass panes, mirrors, and house ceramics
- ✓Waxed cardboard takeout containers and multi-material trash
- ✓Pet waste and kitty litter wrapped securely
Brown Bin (Recycling)
All dry recyclables must be placed into the brown container loose, empty, dry, and entirely unbagged. Enclosing clean materials inside plastic grocery sacks causes the whole bag to be rejected.
Accepted Items
- ✓Clean aluminum beverage cans and steel soup cans
- ✓Glass bottles and jars (clear or tinted variations)
- ✓Rigid plastic bottles, jugs, and tubs labeled #1 through #7
- ✓Flattened dry cardboard boxes and clean paperboard boxes
- ✓Newspapers, magazines, junk mail flyers, and office paper
Do NOT Include
- ✕Loose plastic grocery sacks or stretch wrap films
- ✕Polystyrene (Styrofoam) foam blocks or packaging cups
- ✕Household electronics or consumer batteries
- ✕Food-contaminated pizza boxes or greasy wax sheets
- ✕Loose shredded paper fragments
Yard Waste Bin
Organic yard debris and food scrap remnants must be mixed loose directly in the green cart. Do not bundle trimmings using wire or synthetic rope, as they destroy commercial shredders.
Accepted Items
- ✓Fresh lawn clippings, grass thatch, and garden weeds
- ✓Dry autumn leaves, shrub prunings, and flowers
- ✓Tree limbs under 3 inches in diameter and 3 feet in length
- ✓Household food leftovers, vegetable stems, and coffee grounds
- ✓Meat fragments, poultry bones, dairy scraps, and bread crusts
- ✓Food-soiled paper towels, napkins, and greasy pizza boxes
Bulky Item Pickup
Frequency
2 cleanups and 2 bulky item pickups per year + 3 recycling cleanups
Placement
Items must be positioned neatly at the street curb edge by 5:30 AM or 6:00 AM on the day of your confirmed appointment. Ensure materials do not block pedestrian rights-of-way, active roadways, or standard carts.
Accepted
- ✓ Major household appliances (refrigerators, washers, dryers, stoves)
- ✓ Large furniture items (couches, sofas, mattresses, box springs)
- ✓ Consumer electronics (television sets, computers, monitors)
- ✓ Passenger car tires with or without metal rims
- ✓ Up to two cubic yards of bagged extra trash (approx. fourteen 32-gal bags)
Not Accepted
- ✕ Household hazardous waste (paints, pesticides, industrial solvents)
- ✕ Loose unbundled building renovation debris (concrete, bricks, dirt blocks)
- ✕ Engines, transmissions, or auto parts exceeding 50 lbs
- ✕ Heavy tree trunks, palm fronds, or large wood stumps
Once your complimentary yearly allocations are exhausted, extra bulk collections or over-capacity pickups can be arranged through Republic Services for an additional fee.
Holiday Schedule
General Rule
Republic Services only alters residential collection operations for two main calendar events: Christmas Day and New Year's Day. If your regular weekly pickup day falls directly on or after these holidays during a holiday week, service shifts back exactly one day. Normal Friday collections are completed on Saturday.
Yard Waste Exception
Green organic waste and recycling collection schedules follow the identical one-day delay structure implemented for regular trash during holiday service adjustments.
Standard service routines remain completely unaffected during all other holiday weeks, such as Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving; routes run entirely on schedule.
Observed Holidays
!Contamination Tips
Utilize Curbside Battery and CFL Bags
Never throw household batteries or compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) into standard bins. Instead, seal single-use AA, AAA, C, D, or 9V batteries inside a clear quart-size Ziploc bag and place it on top of or next to your brown recycling cart lid. Use a separate sealed baggie for CFL bulbs.
Keep Plastic Sacks out of the Brown Cart
Flimsy shopping sacks, air pillows, and bubble wrap turn into major tanglers on automated sorting conveyor screens at the recovery plant. Keep your brown bin components loose and discard flimsy plastic films straight into your blue trash bin.
Filter Stringy Botanicals from Composting
Pleasant Hill strictly bans palm fronds from the green cart. Their stringy, fibrous strands do not decompose at standard commercial rates and jam processing equipment; allocate palm fronds to the blue trash cart.
Seasonal Information
Post-Holiday Tree Recycling
JanuaryNatural Christmas trees are collected curbside following the holidays. Residents must strip away all tinsel, metallic stands, lights, and ornaments. Cut unflocked trees into small pieces to fit entirely inside the green organics cart with the lid shut. Flocked trees cannot be mulched and must go in the trash.
Annual Citywide Spring Cleanup
JunePleasant Hill hosts a specialized citywide Spring Cleanup event every June. Households receive an advance notice statement prior to the event, enabling them to place extra junk and yard cleanout debris curbside for structured collection.
Summer Heat Organics Management
June to SeptemberHigh summer temperatures speed up raw food scrap breakdown, generating strong odors in green bins. To minimize flies and pests, consider layering kitchen scraps beneath dry yard trimmings or wrapping raw waste in clean, unlined paper bags.
About Pleasant Hill Waste Management
Pleasant Hill's Progressive Municipal Waste Framework
The City of Pleasant Hill coordinates its residential trash extraction, dry recycling loops, and regional organics recovery under a comprehensive franchise agreement with Republic Services. Engineered to satisfy California's strict zero-waste climate milestones, the curbside program focuses heavily on maximizing resource diversion. Single-family billing tiers are directly scaled based on the volume and size of the primary garbage cart, whereas standard recycling and organics services are bundled into baseline rates at no additional cost to incentivize sustainable sorting.
Standardized Curbside Carts and Volume Options
Every standard household account in Pleasant Hill is outfitted with a color-coded three-container automated setup. The blue rolling container handles traditional non-hazardous landfill garbage, the brown cart collects loose household recyclables, and the green container is dedicated to yard waste and compostable organic matter. Garbage carts are available in a variety of sizes (20, 32, 64, or 96 gallons) to encourage conservation, while recycling and organics carts default to high-volume footprints to support massive waste diversion.
Automated Placement Regulations and Cart Safety
To ensure reliable weekly loops by automated mechanical trucks, residents must place their containers at the street curb line by 6:00 AM on scheduled collection mornings or the evening prior. Bins must face forward with primary lid openings pointed toward the street and wheels pushed tightly against the gutter. Maintaining a strict spacing layout—including at least two feet of clearance between individual bins and five feet of clearance from parked cars, low tree branches, and mailboxes—is mandatory.
Integrated Organic Recycling and California Mandates
In strict compliance with California State Law SB 1383, proper source separation of organic waste is legally required for all residential households in Pleasant Hill. The green organics cart processes residential landscape prunings alongside household food waste, such as cooked meat scraps, poultry bones, dairy cast-offs, and fruit cores. By diverting these biological fractions away from regional landfills, Pleasant Hill active limits local greenhouse gas generation and converts kitchen scraps into agricultural compost.
Drop-off Facilities
Central Contra Costa Sanitary District HHW Facility
4797 Imhoff Pl, Contra Costa County, CA 94553
Materials Accepted
Republic Services Customer Office & Transfer Link
441 North Buchanan Circle, Pacheco, CA 94553
Materials Accepted
Frequently Asked Questions
How do Pleasant Hill residents schedule a free bulky waste or extra trash pickup?
Pleasant Hill homeowners can schedule their free on-call cleanups and bulky item collections by calling Republic Services customer care directly at 925-685-4711 or submitting a service request online through the hauler's digital portal.
Where can I safely discard home hazardous waste like wet paint and engine oil?
Hazardous household products are strictly barred from all regular curbside carts. Pleasant Hill residents have free, unlimited drop-off access to the Central Contra Costa Sanitary District HHW Facility located at 4797 Imhoff Place in neighboring Martinez.
What is the proper way to recycle small single-use batteries and light bulbs?
Do not throw these items into your trash or standard recycling bin. Place single-use batteries (AA, AAA, C, D, 9V) into a clear quart-size Ziploc bag, seal it, and place it directly next to your brown recycling cart. Follow the same rule using a separate clear Ziploc bag for compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs).
Can I obtain extra recycling or green yard waste containers if my bins are full?
Yes. According to the city's structural franchise agreement, there is no additional monthly service charge for residential customers who request additional brown recycling carts or green yard waste containers to expand their property's diversion capacity.