Unofficial San Jose Recycling Guidelines

Lessons learned trying to get an SJ City Recycling contractor (California Waste Solutions) to actually do their job.

The Official Word

San Jose has more-or-less official guidelines for dealing with extra recycling on their website. In a nutshell, it states:

Recyclable materials can be thrown in the container more-or-less randomly (as long as they are in one of the categories of recyclable stuff, like cans/cartons, paper/carboard, scrap metal, glass, recyclable plastics, and textiles (the last of which surprised me a bit, but whatevs). Stuff that doesn't fit in the container can be left on the curb in:

  • Paper bags,
  • Clear plastic bags, or
  • Loose cardboard in no more than 4x4-foot pieces leaned against the side of the cart.

Various other rules exist for e.g. motor oil and whatnot, but this is pretty much the story for recyclables.

Note that I am in the region of San Jose served by California Waste Solutions. I've no idea what (if any) of the following applies to the other vendor.

The SJ Guide

The Unofficial Word

In the eight years I've lived under this regime, I've noted a few problems with the official rules:

  • Clear plastic bags that the workers are happy with are basically impossible to source within the city of San Jose. Home Depot used to carry 50gal 1.1mil bags that more-or-less worked, but they no longer do AFAICT.
  • Update: Costco now carries clear recycling bags in their Kirkland brand that should work as of 2018-05-01.
  • The workers are spectacularly picky about structural integrity on the bags. If it's not completely obvious that they aren't horribly overbuilt, they will silently leave the bags behind and leave the homeowner wondering what could possibly be wrong.
  • Unlike every other common carrier out there, California Waste Solutions has an unpublished weight limit of 40 lbs/bag and 33 gallon bags. In comparison, every common carrier in the industry puts one-person-lift limits at 70 lbs, including USPS, UPS, FedEx, and basically everyone else (this is why a 71 lb package costs roughly double to ship compared to a 69 lb one). Note those folks do one-person-lifts without the help of hydraulic lifts the garbage folks get.

I've had my extra recycling rejected about once every six months (about 1/3 of the time I have extra recycling) with no indication as to why. I finally went ridiculously overboard and used the 55 gal bags from Home Depot (the ones I can no longer source), double-bagged, and capped at 50 lbs. AND LABELLED WITH WEIGHT AND BAG RATINGS. My hope was to eliminate the possiblity that they'd be rejected. See the pic...

...and, despite the meticulous packaging and labelling, they were rejected. No note, no reason why. So I called the city, who sent me to California Waste Solutions. From that conversation, I came up with the following unofficial specification:

Not Good Enough, Apparently

The Unofficial Specification

  • 33 gallon clear Polyethylene plastic bags with a 100+ lb weight rating.
  • Loaded to no more than 40 lbs (and actually, I cap at 35 lbs for our precious little buttercups that can't hack what UPS guys do on the daily).
  • Labelled as such with the label inside the bag facing the street to prevent possible rejection based on the fact that something is on the outside (basically, slip the label inside just before sealing).
  • Zip-tied shut to (hopefully) prevent opening by e.g. the wandering homeless and recycling dumpster-divers.

I've found bags that meet this spec over at PlasticPlace for about 40 cents/bag. They're LDPE (so safe burn and recyclable), 2mil plastic.

These bags are ludicrously tough; I'm pretty sure I could bag up 40 lbs of glass shards with no worries.

I've created a PDF template of the label I'll be using for public consumption. Feel free to download the PDF version to print or the OpenDocument version to edit it first. A preview of what it looks like is on the right.

This Is Too Much Work!

Damn right it is, but if you don't do it you run the risk of being stuck with recycling that nobody (including landfills) will take. I've tried the landfills (they turn you away if you only have recyclables) and private recyclers (they turn you away if you have mixed recycling in less than 1-ton quantities). So good luck getting rid of your 50lbs of mixed recyclables any other way in San Jose responsibly.

Bag from PlasticPlace

The Bag Label

Next Steps

Once I double-check this specification with California Waste Solutions, I'll see if I can get San Jose to update their guide. In the meantime, I'll leave this page up for others to ponder. Please send me feedback at bj@wjblack.com. Hopefully this little semi-rant helped you out!