North County Only: Free Kitchen Pail Pick Up!

FREE Kitchen Pails & Tips for your Green Cart!

Come by the Santa Barbara County Public Works Foster Road location to pick up a kitchen pail for you, your family and your neighbors! The Resource Recovery Waste Management Division has purchased tons (75,000 to be exact) of kitchen pails for distribution to simplify separating food scraps in your kitchen.

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 now 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 pickup from the Santa Barbara County Public Works Office at 620 West Foster Road during regular business hours (Monday-Friday; 8am-12pm & 1pm-5pm). Residents can take up to 5 pails.

 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!

Directions to North County Santa Barbara County Public Works Department Office 

Step 1 – Heading north on Orcutt Road or Orcutt Expy 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