Multi-Family Recycling

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State law requires that multi-family communities with 5 or more units must recycle, including organics recycling. This includes apartment, town home, condominium, and mixed-use complexes. This means that communities must provide recycling and organics carts/dumpsters for their residents to deposit waste.

Athens Services provides waste collection service for all multi-family and mixed-use complexes in Thousand Oaks. For more information and assistance with multi-family recycling service, contact Athens at (805) 852-5264 or visit their Commercial Services webpage.

Multi-Family Service Options

Multi-family and mixed-use communities in Thousand Oaks are served by one of three types of solid waste and recycling service. The service received depends on the unique space and capacity characteristics of each community:

Multi-Family Dwelling with Centralized Bin Service (MFD-C) - utilizing centrally-located shared dumpsters where community residents deposit trash, recyclables, and organic waste.
Mixed-Use Dwelling with Centralized Bin Service (MXD-C) - utilizing centrally-located shared dumpsters where community residents and businesses deposit trash, recyclables, and organic waste.
Multi-Family Dwelling with Individual Cart Service (MFD-I) - each residence uses individual carts for trash, recycle, organics waste collection (not a shared service).

Commercial Dumpsters (MFD-C, MXD-C)

Required for multi-family and mixed-use complexes with centrally-located shared trash and recycling collection areas where community residents deposit trash, recyclables, and organics. Recycling signs for posting in enclosure areas are available for purchase from the Public Works Department. Contact (805) 449-7283, gogreen@toaks.org, or visit the Public Works counter at City Hall.

Individual Cart Service (MFD-I)

Residents receive a 64-gallon cart for trash, 64-gallon cart recycling, and one 32-gallon cart for organic waste. Service guidelines are the same as those for residential curbside service.

Residential curbside service guide

Mandatory Multi-Family Organic Waste Recycling

California’s Mandatory Commercial Organics Recycling Laws (Assembly Bill 1826 & Senate Bill 1383) require that multi-family complexes of 5 units or more recycle their organic waste, which includes food waste, grass clippings, leaves, branches, flower trimmings, hedge trimmings, etc., and non-hazardous wood waste.*

The law also requires multi-family complexes that contract for landscape services to stipulate in the landscaping contract that the landscaper will recycle the green waste they collect from the complex.

*Important Note: Organics recycling requirements are different for other types of commercial entities. Visit our organics recycling webpage for information about how the law applies to other businesses.

How to Comply

There are a few options available for multi-family and mixed-use complexes to recycle organic waste and comply with the law:

Property managers can require landscapers (by contract) to haul landscape waste from the complex to an organics recycling facility.
Property managers can self-haul organic waste from the complex to an organics processing facility.
Complexes can have dedicated organics containers and collection service provided by Athens Services on site to collect landscape and food waste from the property.

The best option will depend on the unique circumstances of each complex. Free waste assessments are available to help property owners and managers determine how best to comply with the law. To schedule a waste assessment, contact Athens Services at (805) 852-5264 or City Sustainability Division at gogreen@toaks.org or (805) 449-7283.

For More Information

Visit our organics recycling webpage for background information on the law, the city’s role in enforcement and links to more information.