Orange County Recycling Stars Program

The Orange County Solid Waste Department is launching a new Recycling Stars Program. The program goal is to improve the overall quality and quantity of recyclables collected from households around the County. Residents recycling properly will be rewarded with star stickers and raffle entries. Residents that need some additional information on recycling properly will receive ‘oops’ tags, personalized contamination letters, and other educational materials. Any recycling cart with contamination will be marked with an oops tag and will not be collected during that collection period.

Star sticker pictured below:

star snip

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Interested in being an Orange County recycling star? 

First, make sure you recycle right! Visit the 'What Goes In My Blue Recycle Cart? page for more information. Second, if your household receives two star stickers in a row, you will be entered in a raffle for a chance to win a $50 gift certificate to a local farmer’s market, $50 Visa gift card or an Earth Machine Composter! In addition, yard signs will be offered to households that receive at least two orange star stickers (while supplies last).

The Stars program will help create awareness of the need to recycle right and ultimately reduce the contamination rate in the County’s single-family curbside recycling. Based on the 2019 recycling composition study, the overall contamination in the recycling stream was about 15%. 

New Recycling Cart Stickers

As a part of the IMG_3103recycling stars program, over the next several months Solid Waste employees will be applying updated stickers with current 'Recycle Right' information on residents' recycling carts.

IMPORTANT: Until you have received a new cart sticker, please leave your cart out until the afternoon to allow staff to update the cart stickers.