San Diego’s curbside trash scene is getting a full-on makeover. The city has started trading out decades-old black trash and dark-blue recycling carts for new gray and light-blue versions, and officials say the retired bins are not headed for the landfill. Instead, those worn-out containers are being recycled into new plastic products. The replacement effort covers roughly 225,000 households that use city trash and recycling service and is expected to reprocess more than 750,000 carts in total. At city operations yards, crews are grinding old bins into chips so each truck can haul more shredded plastic per trip, and the material can be cleaned, turned into pellets and made into new products.
How the City Is Recycling Old Carts
When a new cart shows up at the curb, crews collect the old one and haul it to the Environmental Services operations yard in Miramar. There, workers pull off the wheels and metal bars, then feed the empty shells into an industrial chipper. According to the City of San Diego and a City Facebook post yesterday, some of that chipped plastic goes back to the bin manufacturer, where it is cleaned, pelletized and turned into new carts or other reusable transport packaging. The rest head to toll grinders that use the material in durable plastic products.
Scale and Schedule
According to the City of San Diego's March press release, the light-blue recycling carts are rolling out in phases by collection route so crews can deliver new containers and remove old ones on residents’ regular trash day. The release notes that the gray trash-bin rollout has already delivered 231,178 gray cans to 215,610 customers and removed 257,508 old black bins. An Environmental Services Department official is quoted as saying, “By chipping the bins on site, each truck can carry more material, reducing the number of trips required and lowering overall carbon footprint.” The same release states that weekly recycling service is scheduled to begin July 1, 2027.
If Your Bin’s Gone but the New One Hasn’t Arrived
Not every swap has been seamless. NBC 7 reported that homeowners in some neighborhoods said crews emptied their old black carts, then left without dropping off replacements. Local coverage from 10News and others notes that deliveries are scheduled by route and that customers will receive mailed notices and email alerts with timing details. If an old bin is still sitting at the curb more than 48 hours after collection, residents are advised to submit a Container Removal Request through the city’s Get It Done portal or call the Environmental Services Department at 858-694-7000.
Where the Plastic Ends Up
The city says partner company Rehrig Pacific will turn the cleaned plastic regrind into new bins, pallets, totes and other reusable items, keeping the material in a closed loop instead of sending it to a landfill. As KPBS noted, the new cans also carry scannable tags and clearer labels so crews can confirm service and return wandering carts to the right address. City officials say processing the shells at local yards cuts down on transport trips and helps shrink the program’s carbon footprint.
Residents can use the Container Delivery Lookup tool on the city’s website to check when their new carts are scheduled to arrive and can report any problems through Get It Done or by calling ESD at 858-694-7000. For more on the recycling process and full rollout schedule, see the City of San Diego information and the local coverage linked above.
