Recycling benefits you, the Folsom community, and our planet in many ways! Here are a few reasons why it pays to recycle. By Recycling Right, you:

• Help materials get to their next best use. This saves raw materials, time, energy, and money!
• Help keep rates low and maximize the city’s program efficiency by reducing processing cost. Recycling right reduces the risk of contaminated loads that could be rejected by our processor.
• Reduce the use of landfills.
• Reduce the need to harvest natural resources and raw materials.

Recyclables are placed in blue cans. Yard waste and bagged food scraps and food-soiled papers in the green organics bin. Recycling bins are picked up every other week. Green organics bins are picked up every week starting in July 2022.

Learn more in the sections below.

You can view a detailed list of acceptable/unacceptable items to place in your recycling cans below.
You can also look up items using our online Waste Wizard tool or on your mobile device using our Folsom Waste Collection app.

Download the app in Google Play or the App Store:

Blue Bin Approved Items

The items below can be placed in your blue recycling can:

• Plastic bottles and containers (no loose caps or lids; no straws)
• Small plastic toys. Please remove metal and batteries.
• Glass jars and bottles (no loose caps or lids; no straws)
• Tin, steel, and aluminum cans (no loose caps or lids)
• Clean aluminum foil
• Small metal items (no hangers)
• White and colored paper (no shredded paper)
• Junk mail and envelopes
• Newspaper and paper bags
• Phone and paperback books
• Magazines and catalogs
• Food and detergent boxes (no liners)
• Clean cardboard (flattened, no plastic or wax coating)

NOT Blue Bin Approved Items

Do not place the following items in your blue recycling can:

• Plastic bags, plastic wrap or film
• Bubble wrap, poly shipping envelopes
• Styrofoam/expanded polystyrene (bag peanuts)
• Plastic utensils/cutlery
• Food-soiled paper or cardboard (pizza boxes)
• Shredded paper (bag and put in the trash)
• Tissue, paper towels, and plates
• Wax or plastic-coated cartons (milk cartons)
• Aseptic boxes or pouches
• Large scrap metal
• Metal and plastic paint cans (empty)
• Mirrors or windows
• Ceramics, mugs, or dishes
• Shoes and clothing
• Tanglers (chain, cable, hose, wire, or rope)

You can view a detailed list of acceptable/unacceptable items to place in your green waste can below. All items must be less than two feet in length and four inches in diameter. 

Starting July 1, 2022 your existing green waste can is now called your “Green Organics Bin.” You can begin adding bagged food scraps and food-soiled paper to the green organics bin. This bin will be serviced weekly. For more information visit the Organics Recycling Program page.

Green Bin Approved

• Food scraps (must be bagged in a clear plastic or compostable bag)
• Food-soiled paper (must be bagged in a clear plastic or compostable bag)
• Greasy pizza boxes
• Wooden utensils, toothpicks, etc. 
• Grass clippings
• Leaves and shrubs
• Small branches and plant trimmings
• Cut flowers
• Orchard and garden waste 
• Lumber and plywood (no paint or stain)

NOT Green Bin Approved

• Rocks, dirt, brick, tile, or sod
• Textiles or carpet
• Plastic bags or wrap
• Hot coals or ashes
• Human animal, and pet waste
• Diapers (cloth or plastic)
• Manure
• Treated wood waste

You can view a detailed list of acceptable/unacceptable items to place in your gray garbage can below.

Gray Bin Approved

• Diapers
• Pet waste (bagged)
• Plastic bags, plastic wrap or film (tie together)
• Bubble wrap, poly shipping envelopes
• Styrofoam/expanded polystyrene (bag peanuts)
• Plastic utensils/cutlery
• Shredded paper (bagged to prevent litter)
• Tissue
• Wax or plastic-coated cartons
• Aseptic boxes or pouches
• Metal and plastic paint cans (empty)
• Mirrors or windows
• Ceramics, mugs, or dishes
• Tanglers (chain, cable, hose, wire, or rope)
• Caps, lids, and straws

A list of locations to drop off materials for recycling is provided below.

• Please follow these tips to maximize recycling and reduce contamination
• Learn how to properly dispose of household hazardous waste

Folsom residents can take their California Redemption Value (CRV) beverage containers to numerous locations in the region or place them in your blue recycling can. You can use the locator on the state's recycling agency (CalRecycle's) website to find the redemption center nearest you or local supermarkets that will redeem CRV beverage containers in store.

Please note that the RePlanet that was located in the Walmart shopping center on Riley Street is no longer in business. RePlanet was a private company that was operating the only CRV beverage container redemption center in Folsom. The city will continue to accept recyclable materials curbside in the blue recycling can.

Reducing Your Waste

• Folsom residents can reduce the amount of waste they generate by contacting the Direct Marketing Association and requesting to remove their name and address from specific mailing lists.
• Residents can call the city's recycling office at 916-461-6730 to obtain information about in-home waste reduction practices.

Reusing Your Waste

• Residents and businesses can donate reusable household items and clothing to thrift stores.
• Packaging materials such as bubble wrap, Styrofoam, and packing peanuts may be accepted for reuse at some private mailing businesses. A list of local businesses accepting donations can be found under the Recycling Drop Off Locations section above.

Buying Green

The City of Folsom adopted an internal policy to support the purchase of recycled and environmentally preferred products. Consider adopting a similar policy in your workplace.

Our Buying Green Policy

Tips to Buy Environmentally Preferred Products

• The recycling loop isn't complete until materials collected at curbside and drop-off sites are remanufactured into new products and purchased by consumers.
• Look for the word “postconsumer” and/or the postconsumer logo when shopping. Postconsumer means the product is made from materials collected through recycling programs like ours. While watching for this logo helps, not every product made from recycled content is labeled as such.
• You may be buying a recycled product without even knowing it! Many items are made with recycled materials, but don’t advertise it. For example, in California, the average aluminum container is made up of 55% recycled aluminum, and the average glass bottle is made of 30% recycled glass. The average steel can is made of 25% recycled steel.

Examples of Products Made with Recycled Content

Check for postconsumer symbols on the labels of:

• Cereal, cookie, and cracker packages
• Canned foods and beverages
• Detergent and cleaning supplies
• Glass containers
• Household paper products, including paper towels and bathroom tissue
• Writing paper, notepads, greeting cards, and other stationery supplies
• Carpeting
• Plastic flower pots, trash cans, recycling bins, and fencing
• Packing boxes
• Re-refined motor oil
• Insulation in ski jackets
• Gloves and sleeping bags made from recycled PET bottles

Databases of Recycled Content Products

• The California Department of Resources, Recycling and Recovery maintains a database of more than 10,000 materials, products, and businesses. It includes information on manufacturers, distributors, reprocessors, mills, and converters who procure or produce these products and the recycled materials needed to make them.
• Conservatree provides helpful information about totally chlorine-free, tree-free, and recycled content papers.

Extended Producer Responsibility and Product Stewardship

• Product Stewardship is the act of minimizing health, safety, environmental, and social impacts, and maximizing economic benefits of a product and its packaging throughout all lifecycle stages. The producer of the product has the greatest ability to minimize adverse impacts. Other stakeholders, including suppliers, retailers, and consumers also play a role. Stewardship can be either voluntary or required by law.
• Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is a mandatory type of product stewardship that includes, at a minimum, the requirement that the producer’s responsibility for their product extends to post-consumer management of that product and its packaging. There are two related features of EPR policy: (1) shifting financial and management responsibility with government oversight, upstream to the producer and away from the public sector; and (2) providing incentives to producers to incorporate environmental considerations into the design of their products and packaging.