FREE Kitchen Pails & Tips for your Green Cart!

Starting in July, residents of the Santa Maria and Lompoc Valleys began adding food scraps and food-soiled paper along with yard waste, to their green cart. Everything in the green cart is composted at a commercial composting facility and then used in local agriculture.

FREE kitchen pails provided by the County are now available to all residents of the unincorporated Santa Maria and Lompoc Valleys. Kitchen pails are an easy way to collect organic waste at home without running to the green cart after every meal. Kitchen pails are available for pick-up from the Santa Barbara County Public Works Office at 620 West Foster Road during regular business hours (Monday-Friday, 8am-12pm and 1pm-5pm). You can reach us at (805) 803-8750.

 Tips and Tricks

• Wrap wet food scraps in newspaper or use paper bags to deposit food scraps into your green cart.
• Store food scraps in your fridge/freezer during the week and take out closer to collection day.
• Cover food scraps with yard waste inside your green cart.
• Clean your kitchen pail and green cart regularly. Kitchen pails are dishwasher safe!
• Use newspaper to wipe out the remains of the food waste from the kitchen pail into the green bin to completely empty food waste and prevent residue in your kitchen sink.
• Post signage in your kitchen so you and your housemates know which waste goes into which bin (FREE signage is provided with FREE kitchen pail!)

More Important Details

• Waterproof plastic or wax-lined paper products go into the trash.
• Unlined paper products that are soiled and wet go into the green cart.
• Clean paper and cardboard should still go into your blue recycling cart.
• Meats and bones are accepted because the material goes to a commercial composting facility (which is much different and gets much hotter than a backyard composting bin).

Directions to North County Public Works Department Office 

Step 1 – Heading north on Orcutt Road or Orcutt Expressway CA-135, turn LEFT onto West Foster Road

 Step 2 – In 0.3 miles, merge into the left turning lane to turn LEFT

 Step 3 – In 174 ft, make the first RIGHT turn where you will see a green sign pointing you in the direction to the Public Works Solid Waste & Utilities offices

 Step 4 – In 0.1 miles, make the first LEFT turn where you will see a green sign pointing you in the direction to the Public Works Solid Waste & Utilities offices

 Step 5 – In 374 ft, turn RIGHT into the parking lot, and the Public Works office will be on your left, 620 W Foster Road