Curbside Recycling

Recycling is vital to the health of our planet and helps the Berkeley community in practical ways.

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About the program

The Ecology Center has operated Berkeley’s Curbside Recycling Program since 1973.

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The Ecology Center provides curbside recycling collection for residents and businesses in Berkeley, helping keep valuable materials out of the landfill and in circulation. Each week, paper, cardboard, glass, and metal collected through the program are sorted and processed into new products, conserving natural resources and reducing pollution.

As a mission-driven nonprofit, we hold ourselves to high standards to ensure the materials we collect are truly recycled into their best possible use. Our goal is to close the loop, so a glass bottle becomes a glass bottle again, rather than being downcycled into asphalt or sand. If a material does not have a reliable recycling market, we won’t collect it or claim that it can be recycled.

Education and advocacy are also central to our work. While many early nonprofit recyclers have disappeared, the Ecology Center continues to pair reliable service with community education and policy leadership. Revenue from the program stays local, supporting green-collar jobs and advancing Berkeley’s Zero Waste, climate action, and environmental policy goals.

The Ecology Center has operated Berkeley’s Curbside Recycling Program since 1973, when it began as a small demonstration project collecting newspapers. Launched during the early years of the modern environmental movement, the program was one of the first community-based recycling initiatives in the United States. What started as a grassroots effort quickly proved that local recycling systems could work, and it became a model for thousands of municipal recycling programs that followed.

Over time, the program expanded into the weekly curbside collection Berkeley residents rely on today, gathering cans, bottles, newsprint, mixed paper, and cardboard under a contract with the City of Berkeley. Along the way, the Ecology Center helped advance the broader recycling movement through demonstration projects, industry leadership, and policy innovation, including helping launch the first statewide recycling conference in the 1980s, which led to the creation of the California Resource Recovery Association.

The Ecology Center has also worked alongside the City of Berkeley to develop policies that reduce waste at its source, including convening the task force that helped create Berkeley’s pioneering Styrofoam ban in 1988, an ordinance that became a model for communities across the country. Today, the curbside recycling program remains a cornerstone of Berkeley’s environmental leadership and a long-standing partnership between the Ecology Center, the City, and residents working together to conserve resources and build a more sustainable local economy.

Frequently Asked Questions

Place recyclables in your split-cart throughout the week. When full, roll it to the curb by 7 AM on your collection day, and put carts out in the morning to help prevent theft and litter.

Blue Bin/Side: glass bottles and jars; steel, tin, and aluminum cans; clean, rigid plastic containers; aluminum foil and pie plates. Please NO: plastic bags, straws, Styrofoam, window glass, ceramics, Pyrex, or crystal. Remove food and rinse containers before recycling. Flatten plastic. Caps and lids are allowed if attached to containers.

Brown Bin/Side: newspapers and inserts; office paper; small cardboard pieces; paperback books and phonebooks; mail, magazines, and catalogs; paperboards like cereal boxes or egg cartons. Please NO: food-soiled paper or wax cartons, tissue or paper towels, soy milk or juice boxes, or plastic or foil-coated paper or cardboard.

Do not wedge large cardboard boxes in your cart. Cut to fit in cart, or flatten into a 3’x2’x1′ bundle and place next to your cart for pick up.

If someone is currently taking recyclables from your block, call the Berkeley Police non-emergency line at 510-981-5900 and ask for the beat officer. Provide your location, a description of the vehicle or person, and the direction they were traveling.

If the incident already happened, call the Ecology Center Hotline at 510-527-5555 and leave a message. Your report helps us track repeat offenders and build cases.

When reporting, include as much information as possible: date and time, location, vehicle description, license plate (even partial), what you observed, and your contact information if you’re willing to be contacted.

Berkeley is gradually replacing older residential recycling carts through a neighborhood-by-neighborhood program funded by the City of Berkeley’s Zero Waste Division. If your cart is scheduled for replacement, you will receive a notice in the mail and a new cart will be delivered before your collection day. Please place your old cart at the curb on your next pickup day so it can be removed and recycled.

For questions about cart replacement, call the Ecology Center Recycling Hotline at (510) 527-5555, Monday–Friday, 8:30 AM–4:30 PM.