Recology San Francisco: reviews, rating and service info

Recology serves San Francisco at rates set by the city’s Refuse Rate Board. Recology Sunset Scavenger and Recology Golden Gate collect the gray or black landfill, blue recycling and green compost carts weekly, and Recology San Francisco runs the Tunnel Avenue transfer station and the household hazardous waste facility. Every account must carry all three services. Find your day with Recology’s calendar tool or at 415-330-1300.

Serves: San Francisco, California.

What they collect and how often

Each cart is collected weekly, all three on the same day for curbside service. A house’s default service is a 16-gallon landfill cart (black, being replaced by gray), a 64-gallon blue cart and a 32-gallon green cart, billed quarterly. Rates rose 7.15% on October 1, 2026: the base charge is now $21.16 per dwelling unit a month, plus $8.84 for each 16 gallons of trash and each 32 gallons of recycling or compost, so the default service for a one-unit building costs $56.52 a month. Low-income households can qualify for a 25% discount. Blue takes glass, paper, cardboard, metal and most rigid plastics, caps on. Green takes food scraps and yard trimmings, never plastic bags.

Find your collection day

Use the calendar tool on Recology’s site, or call customer service at 415-330-1300 to confirm the regular day. Recology can change a collection day with 14 days’ notice. Recology posts holiday changes on its site and in its customer newsletter.

Set-out rules

Carts go on the sidewalk as close to the curb as possible, unobstructed, lids closed; overfilled or overweight carts can be billed at the next cart size. Public Works Code Section 170 bars carts from the sidewalk before 6 p.m. the day before collection, and residents must take them in within 24 hours. Homes are generally served between 5 a.m. and 5 p.m., but some areas are served at night, so Recology asks for carts out the night before. Extra recycling goes beside the blue cart in paper bags or boxes no bigger than 2 feet a side, and extra yard trimmings in paper bags or bundles; extras cost more, up to 10 per stream.

Holidays

Drivers work every holiday except Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. Indigenous Peoples’ Day (Monday, October 12, 2026), Veterans Day (Wednesday, November 11) and Thanksgiving (Thursday, November 26) run as normal; the hazardous waste facility closes November 26 and 27. Christmas Day, Friday, December 25, 2026, has no collection, and Recology lists the new schedule as TBD; the transfer station closes that day and the hazardous waste facility December 25 and 26. When both holidays fell on Thursdays last season, Thursday customers were served Friday and Friday customers Saturday.

Bulk, brush and special items

Buildings of five units or fewer get two free Bulky Item Collection pickups a calendar year, and each unit in a larger building one, for active Recology accounts; unused pickups do not carry over. Book at least two weeks ahead on Recology’s Request Bulky Item Collection form, by email at customerservice@recologysf.com or at 415-330-1300, for up to 10 items. Put items at the curb in front of the home between 6 p.m. the night before and 6 a.m., not blocking the sidewalk, with a paper sign reading RECOLOGY. Bagged textiles qualify; garbage and cart recyclables do not.

Hazardous waste, electronics and drop-off

The Household Hazardous Waste Facility at 501 Tunnel Avenue (enter on Recycle Road) opens Thursday to Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. for San Francisco residents with a license or utility bill, up to 15 gallons. It closes on New Year’s Day, July 4, Thanksgiving and the day after, and December 25 and 26. For a free home pickup, email hhw@recology.com or call 415-330-1405; someone must be home. The transfer station takes TVs, monitors and small electronics free.

Missed pickup and contacts

First check that the carts were at the curb in time, lids closed, with nothing blocking them. Then use Recology’s Report Missed Collection form or email customerservice@recologysf.com, naming each cart missed. Recology’s service agreement with the city requires it to return within 24 hours of a reported miss; a late set-out can be collected again for a fee. Recology Sunset Scavenger: 415-330-1300. Recology Golden Gate: 415-626-4000. Transfer station: 415-330-1400.

What this is not

Recology runs other companies in California, Oregon and Washington with their own schedules; this listing covers San Francisco accounts. Furniture someone dumped in front of your home goes through an abandoned waste request, not your bulky allowance.

On Trashbagging

• San Francisco trash pickup and recycling rules and California trash and recycling rules.
• Guides: household hazardous waste, paint, lithium-ion batteries, mattresses.

Context photo: San Francisco skyline viewed from Coit Tower. Supercarwaar, 2015-07-18. CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source. Resized for web.