Santa Cruz County DPW Solid Waste
Locations
Landfill & Transfer
Rates
FY 2022
Landfill
Sorting Guide
Haulers
Drop Box
Haulers
Franchise
HHW
Household Hazardous
Recycle
Info Pages
Dumping
Illegal Dumping
Green
Business
Green
Schools
Zero
Waste Plan
Service
Service Info
Send a mail to Santa Cruz County DPW
Composting
It’s Good for the Soil!
Composting is the controlled decomposition of organic materials. It's a rewarding way to recycle your yard and kitchen wastes into a valuable, nutrient rich, sweet-smelling soil amendment. There are probably as many ways to compost as there are creative people composting! The County of Santa Cruz offers many resources to start and maintain successful composting systems. We hope the information on this web site will help Santa Cruz County households, schools, and businesses achieve their unique composting goals.
Why Compost?
• Composting saves you money by lowering garbage bills and replacing the need for commercial soil amendments and fertilizers.
• Composting benefits your garden and container plants by improving the fertility and health of your soil. Plants grown in healthy soil are more resistant to pests and diseases. As a mulch, compost suppresses weeds and reduces the need for pest controls and sprays.
• Composting saves water by helping the soil hold moisture, reducing evaporation and water runoff. Using compost as mulch will also benefit plants by keeping roots cooler.
• Composting helps the environment by recycling valuable organic resources and extending the lifetime of our landfills.
Treated Wood Waste
On August 31, 2021, Governor Newsom signed Assembly Bill 332 and the bill takes effect immediately. AB332 adopts new Alternative Management Standards (AMS) for treated wood waste that are codified in Health and Safety Code section 25230. As a result of the chaptering of the bill, all treated wood waste variances issued by DTSC since March 2021 are now inoperative and have no further effect. The variances are no longer necessary because they have been replaced by the AMS. The new AMS are similar to the rules that applied under the variance program, except that no variance is required.
DTSC is in the process of updating its website to reflect the changes due to the passage of AB332.
Treated Wood Waste (TWW) can only be accepted from addresses within Santa Cruz County including: Unincorporated Santa Cruz County, and the Cities of Capitola, Scotts Valley, Santa Cruz, and Watsonville.
Treated Wood Waste Handler Notification: All treated Wood Waste (TWW) handlers that generate more than 10,000 pounds in any calendar year shall obtain an identification Number and submit the notification within 30 days of exceeding the 10,000 pound limit. To obtain an identification Number, please call 1-800-618-6942. If you are directed to submit a form for a Permanent Identification Number, click below for the form.
All deliveries by generators, handlers, and transporters must be accompanied by a completed WASTE MANIFEST FORM.
All generators, handlers, are transporter are required to deliver TWW to the Buena Vista Landfill Tuesday through Thursday and must hand unload TWW into a bin. TWW must be separated from all other waste or the load may rejected.
Residents may be required to provide name, address, and phone number. Residents must hand unload TWW into a bin at both the Buena Vista Landfill (no weight limit at the Buena Vista Landfill) and Ben Lomond Transfer Station (up to 500 pounds for Ben Lomond Transfer Station per day) Monday through Saturday. TWW must be separated from all other waste or the load may rejected. CLICK HERE FOR TWW POLICY.
For additional information related to TWW, please visit: Department of Toxic Substances Control."
TWW acceptance is subject to change at any time.