County of San Diego Recycling

10/28/2026

Healthy soils start with year-round care! Get your garden ready for the rainy season with FREE compost and mulch. Stop by the Spring Valley County Library November 7-15, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (while supplies last), and stock up for the season ahead.

🍂This is a self-loading event, so don’t forget to bring your own tools, tarps, and containers.🍂

836 Kempton St, Spring Valley, CA 91977

10/25/2026

Join us virtually on Wednesday, Oct 28th, 2026, from 6pm - 7pm with Solana Center’s knowledgeable speakers! They will present practical solutions for reducing food waste in your home and discuss how incorporating these practices into your daily life can be a great way to help the environment and save money. You have the power to reduce food waste by making small changes to your daily life and habits!

Register today:
https://www.solanacenter.org/events/preventing-food-waste-at-home-webinar

10/21/2026

Join Solana Center on Saturday, Oct 24, 2026, from 10am - 12pm at Sweetwater Community Garden (5354 Sweetwater Rd) for this 2-hour workshop where you will learn the basics of traditional backyard composting. Perfect for beginners!

All pre-registered attendees who are residents of unincorporated San Diego County can receive a free kitchen scraps container.

Register with the link below:
https://www.solanacenter.org/events/backyard-composting-basics

10/15/2026

Smash your pumpkins, grab free compost, and drop off costumes! Join us the day after Halloween for a fun, sustainable community festival! 🎃🔨

Join I Love A Clean San Diego for our first Pumpkin Smash Festival: a free, family-friendly community event at the Lakeside Community Center!

Bring your Jack-O’-Lanterns and pre-loved pumpkins to smash into our organic waste collection area, pick up free compost for your garden, drop off pre-loved Halloween costumes, plant seeds to take home, and explore educational booths focused on organic waste recycling and sustainability.

After your pumpkins have been smashed, we’ll ensure they are composted or given to hungry farm animals.*

Learn how food scraps and other organic materials can be recycled, discover simple ways to reduce waste at home, and enjoy a fun day of sustainability with the Lakeside community.

Stay 'till the end for the chance to participate in an opportunity drawing for a prize!

✅Reminders:

📝 Bring your jack-o-lantern or pre-loved pumpkins for composting or animal feed*!
📝 Donate costumes that are gently used and free of rips, stains, or odors!
📝 Picking up Compost? Participants should be prepared to self-load their compost. - Bring: a shovel, gloves, containers for transporting compost, and tarps & bungees for truck beds. All truck beds must be covered.
📝 All participants are required to sign waivers upon entering the event.

🎃 RSVP today! https://www.eventbrite.com/e/pumpkin-smash-event-tickets-2002244295587

* Are you interested in accepting pumpkin scraps for composting or farm use? 🧑‍🌾♻️

We’re looking for farmers and composters who may be able to accept pumpkin scraps collected from the event. Please contact Joely at [email protected] or (619) 342-9918.

🤝Event is made possible by the County of San Diego and facilitated by I Love A Clean San Diego.

Smash your pumpkins, grab free compost, and drop off costumes! Join us the day after Halloween for a fun, sustainable community festival!

10/13/2026

Join us at the Park Horse Project in Lakeside (14971 El Monte Road, Lakeside) to learn and tour their manure composting system on Saturday, October 17, 2026, from 10:30 AM to 12:00 PM.

Farmers, ranchers, and livestock owners have reduced their waste-hauling expenses by composting their own organic wastes and manure, thanks to the updated San Diego County zoning ordinance. This update offers increased flexibility and simplifies on-site composting for composting operations in unincorporated San Diego County.

This workshop does not address how to manage manure compost and focuses on the zoning and regulation requirements for mid-scale compost operations in unincorporated San Diego County.

Register here:
https://www.solanacenter.org/events/zoning-guidelines-for-rural-composting-seminar

10/06/2026

Come join the Solana Center for an in-ground composting workshop with worms on October 13, 2026, located at the Julian Library (1850 CA-78, Julian, CA 92036)!

Composting with worms has benefits for everyone, whether you want to divert kitchen scraps from the landfill, compost in small spaces, or create a natural fertilizer for your plants. In-ground worm composting is especially suited to San Diego County’s climate and is more resilient to the temperature extremes we face, especially during dry, hot months.

Join us at the Julian Library to learn how to start and maintain a happy home for red wiggler worms.

All pre-registered attendees who are residents of unincorporated San Diego County can receive a free kitchen scraps container.

Register today with the link below:
https://tinyurl.com/In-GroundComposting

10/02/2026

♻️🌽 It’s ! 🎃♻️

How much edible food did our Food Recovery Organizations (FROs) recover in 2025? 🤔

In the unincorporated parts of San Diego County, we recovered over 2.3 million pounds of food – that’s over 2 million meals! 🤯

Prevent wasted food - buy and serve only what you need. Save the rest as leftovers, put it in your green bin, or compost it!

For commercial businesses: donate surplus edible food. Contact a local Food Recovery Organization to implement a food recovery program tailored to your business' needs.

10/02/2026

Join Solana Center virtually on October 7, 2026, from 6pm to 7pm and learn how you can save money and reduce pests by composting your livestock manure! Horses, chickens, goats, sheep, and more! Composting manure helps protect your local watershed, prevents pollution in waterways, and produces a fantastic soil amendment. Composting is easy and inexpensive and can help reduce flies, odors, and waterway contamination. Using composted manure on your garden and landscaping will also help enrich your soil and conserve water.

Register here: https://tinyurl.com/ManureComposting

09/29/2026

➡️Join us in Ramona on Saturday, October 24, 2026, for the Unincorporated San Diego Residential Cleanup Event at Ramona High School (1401 Hanson Ln, Ramona, CA 92065) from 8am – 12pm or until capacity is reached. The event will have FREE mulch available and paper shredding services. This event is open to Unincorporated San Diego County residents only.

✅The following items will be accepted:
- Bulky items (furniture, broken appliances, etc.)
- Recyclable materials (cardboard, aluminum, hard plastic, glass)
- Green waste
- Mattresses and box springs
- Scrap metal

❌The following items will NOT be accepted:
- Household Hazardous Waste (batteries, paint, chemicals, lightbulbs, car oil/antifreeze, household cleaners, etc.)
- Construction Materials
- Business Waste
- Tires

📝**Restrictions apply** Check out tinyurl.com/CountySDEvents for more information.

Find us in your community! The County has many environmental outreach events, recycling events, cleanups, and public meetings around San Diego County.

09/25/2026

Growtober Giveaways is coming to Rancho Santa Fe and Pine Valley! Come by the two parks to pick up FREE compost and mulch, supporting healthy soils and healthy plants! Please note the giveaway events are self-serve & self-loading so please bring your own shovels, rakes, containers, and tarps to cover truck beds. While supplies last.

🍂October 1-8, 10am-4:30pm
San Dieguito County Park
15936 El Camino Real, Rancho Santa Fe, CA 92067

🍂October 2-12, 9am-5pm
Pine Valley County Park
28810 Old Hwy 80, Pine Valley, CA 91962