Household Hazardous Waste Pick-Up Program

Recology San Francisco now offers a free pick-up service for household hazardous waste.

In 1996 this service was established for disabled and elderly residents who don't drive. Now this program is available to all San Francisco residents to provide a more convenient option for having household hazardous waste removed from their homes.

To request an appointment, please call 415-330-1405 between 8 am and 4:30 pm, Monday through Friday. When you call, please be prepared to describe the types and amounts of the household hazardous waste you want picked up.

You can request an appointment for the next available Wednesday, Thursday, Friday or Saturday morning. The waiting period may vary from a few days to a few weeks, depending on demand.

Please Note The Following:
If your hazardous waste can be easily taken to a drop-off site in your neighborhood or you have a small amount of waste, we might advise you to take your waste to the drop-off site. For example, we will not send a truck to pick up a handful of alkaline batteries because you can take them to any Walgreens Pharmacy in San Francisco.

We prepare our hazardous waste collection truck based on the information provided to us by our customers when an appointment is scheduled. If our driver arrives at your home and the household hazardous waste is different than what you describe when we schedule your appointment, we may not be able to collect all of your waste.

We are not currently able to pick up unknown or unlabeled wastes. If you have unknown chemicals, please let us know when you call so we can advise you on what to do.

Priority is given to disabled and elderly residents who do not drive.

Please neatly arrange your hazardous waste containers in a location where we can easily retrieve them. Ideally, containers should be located just inside the front door or just inside the garage door of your home.

Collection is between 8:00 a.m. and noon. You must be home between those times. Please do not leave any hazardous waste containers outside on the sidewalk in front of your home.

This pick-up service is not available for commercial customers (including apartment managers or condominium associations). See our Small Business page to find out how businesses can dispose of hazardous waste.

Multiple Unit Buildings
We do not schedule combined hazardous waste pickups from different units in a multiple unit building. Residents in each unit must schedule their own pickup appointments. If more than one unit in the same building requests a pickup, we sometimes schedule them at the same time. Residents must keep their waste separate from the waste from other units in the building.