San Luis Obispo County Integrated Waste Management Authority

03/12/2025

Kompogas's annual spring compost giveaway is scheduled for Saturday, March 29th from 10 AM - 2 PM. Come and get your free, organic certified compost! All of the compost from their facility used to be food and yard waste in our communities: by using your green bin, we help them make quality compost and continue this full-circle, local system 🌱

Check out their post for more details!

March 29th 2025
SPRING 2025
Compost Give Away Community Event - Dates Announced!!!!

Where?
KOMPOGAS - SLO; 4300 Old Santa Fe Road, SLO

Make a note in your calendar!!! Our free compost give-away event to the community for the Spring will be held on Saturday, March 29th between 10 AM and 2 PM.

As always, we will have two ways of getting our organic certified compost! One way is to come with your pick-up truck or small trailer and get laded by our front-end loader and the other way is to shovel your own.
Please, this is for the local community and not meant for commercial business or re-sale. This is a free event and meant to give back and help our community with their spring gardening needs.
If coming with pick-up or trailer, make sure to bring a tarp to cover up the load when leaving our premises. It is the law and we do not want you to have to turn around once you have waited in line for a while.
See you all on the 29th of March!

02/28/2025

Fruit stickers belong in the TRASH! Please remember to remove them before you put your rinds, skins and peels in the green bin. Fruit stickers are made of plastic, and they're really difficult to deal with when they end up at our compost facilities. You might have heard the idea that they are edible and biodegradable, but that's a myth! These are made of plastic, and are harmful to our compost and to our bodies.

Thank you for composting SLO County!

02/13/2025

Happy Valentine's Day from the IWMA! Send these valentines to the special recycler in your life

02/07/2025

🍕 Your daily reminder that greasy pizza boxes are compostable! If a pizza box looks like this, the clean top half can go in the recycle, and the greasy bottom half should go in the green bin ♻️

Cardboard like this is too dirty to be recycled with other types of cardboard 📦

01/10/2025

We know, dog p**p isn’t what you want to see on your social media feed. But trust us, we don’t want to see it in the green waste either! Your reminder that dog p**p, kitty litter, etc. is TRASH. Animal waste contains pathogens that can spread diseases if put into the compost. Those same harmful pathogens can contaminate our water supply if dog p**p is left on the sidewalk. Thank you for being a good neighbor by picking up after your pets and throwing it in the trash 💩

01/07/2025

2025 comes with a slew of resolutions! This new year, we're working on being intentional about reuse, to keep materials out of the landfill. Read our Reuse Resolutions, small and easy actions we're taking to reduce waste in our daily lives, on our website:

These are the five actions that we hope to prioritize in the New Year, to work on reusing materials and keeping them out of the landfill.

12/18/2024

Wondering about how to recycle during this holiday season? We got you! Find our holiday recycling guide here: https://www.iwma.com/holiday-recycling-guide

Any more questions? Feel free to ask us in the comments!

Download and share this printable Holiday Recycling Guide, to help your community members recycle right this holiday season! It also features our '…

12/12/2024

♻️🥫Recycling tip ♻️🥫When opening a tin can, like this can of tomato sauce, don’t remove the lid entirely! If you leave it attached to the can so that it can hinge open, then you can rinse and recycle the whole can with the lid attached. If you completely remove the lid, then the lid should go in the trash because it is too small to be recycled.

12/06/2024

Reminder: we have so many FREE food scrap pails for residents! Pick one up and chuck your food scraps in it! You can put apple cores, mushy bananas, steak gristle, moldy cheese, tea bags, a ham sandwich, avocado pits, toothpicks, wilty lettuce, coffee filters, limp fries, and more in your pail. When you dump it in your curbside green bin, it’s brought to a facility that turns it into local, organic compost! That’s a huge win for our environment!
 
Come by and grab a pail from our office, 870 Osos St in SLO (we recommend calling ahead to make sure we’re here), or call your trash hauler who can drop one off at your door. Grab one for your friend, family, neighbor, babysitter, dentist or anyone who still throws their food scraps in the trash can. Questions about your green bin? Ask us!!!

12/02/2024

🎁 Bring your gifts to the library to wrap them sustainably and creatively (and away from prying eyes) with SLO Climate Coalition - Create a Carbon Free SLO . Then, get even more Green points for shopping used books at the Friends of the SLO Library​ book sale!

✅ Saturday, December 7, 11:00 - 4:00.

11/28/2024

Today we're grateful for our circular economy 🧡 All of the food scraps that you put in the green bin are made into compost that is used to grow food locally! Thank you for diverting food from the landfill!

11/28/2024

🦃Are you deep frying a turkey tomorrow? Make sure to dispose of your used cooking oil responsibly! Up to 15 gallons of oil can be taken to any HHW facility in the county.

1. Wait for the oil to cool completely (and save for reuse if possible!)
2. Carefully pour into a sealable container, like the one you bought it in!
3. Bring to any HHW facility. Please note that your container will not be returned.

Reminder that all HHW facilities are closed this upcoming weekend (11/29 - 12/01), and will reopen the following weekend!

11/15/2024

Happy America Recycles Day! Today (and every day) we want to promote recycling for the good of our community! Recycling helps the environment by conserving natural resources and keeping materials out of our landfills. It also helps our economy, by creating jobs and encouraging innovation. Today, take a minute to reflect on why YOU recycle, and the impact that your small actions can have for our community. And encourage recycling with those around you. Together we can be the difference!

Pictured here is loads of mixed recyclables dropped off at the SLO Materials Recovery Facility (MRF).

11/14/2024

Let’s talk brown paper bags! If it’s clean, it should go in your blue recycle bin. If it’s greasy, like from fries or a pastry, it should go in your green organics bin!

And the best option is always to refuse when possible. Ask for your food for-here to avoid the bag, switch to a reusable lunch sack, and bring your own bags when shopping!

11/06/2024

Have you ever wondered what cardboard looks like when it’s ready to be recycled? This is OCC (old corrugated cardboard) at Buckeye processing in San Miguel. This is cardboard that was recycled by SLO County residents, and is now baled ready to be sold to recyclers, who will purchase these bales and turn it into new cardboard. As you can see, small amounts of tape and labels are a-okay! The recyclers are able to remove those in the pulping process.

10/31/2024

Happy Halloween! The scariest thing for us this Halloween— film plastics! Reminder that any soft plastics, including this packing material, are NOT recyclable in your blue bin. Ignore the chasing arrows ♻️ symbol on materials like this: that’s the resin code, that states the type of plastic it is. It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s recyclable! In SLO County, all hard plastics can go in the blue bin, and all soft plastics should go in the trash.

10/22/2024

Paper is compostable--food-soiled paper should go in your green bin! There's a few reasons why we specify food-soiled paper:

1. It's better to recycle clean paper than compost it. Paper products that can be recycled include newspaper, office paper, magazines, paper bags, cardboard and more. These products can be made into new paper if recycled in your blue bin! But once food comes into contact with them, they can no longer be recycled, and should go in the green bin instead.

2. The food in the paper adds nutrients to the compost. It provides valuable nitrogen, which our facilities need to create healthy, organic compost.

3. Too much paper would damage the compost. Paper adds carbon to compost, which is an important ingredient, but too much carbon slows down the decomposition process. If all the paper in SLO County was composted, it would overwhelm our facilities with a ratio of too much carbon.

Thank you for putting your food-soiled paper in the green bin! Questions? We're here to help!