Frequently Asked Questions

Please contact us to arrange delivery of a new container.

Welcome to the City of San Ramon! A form is required in order to start/stop service.

Service is mandatory in San Ramon, but if you’re moving out, we are happy to close your account. Click here to fill out the necessary form.

Please click here for our Residential Service Guidelines
Please click here for our Multi-Family Service Guidelines

Yes. ACI offers on-premise (backyard or side yard) service for single-family residents for a fee. The fee can be waived for a resident with a documented disability (a form is required). Contact us for details.
Multi-family and commercial customers will receive bin push service up to 25 feet and back at no additional charge.

Please leave cart/carts out at the curb. If your neighbors’ carts were all emptied or it’s after 7pm, then it’s likely we accidentally missed your cart. Contact us immediately and we will send a truck back around as soon as possible.

Yes. Please contact us or login to your account to request an exchange. We offer 20, 32, 64 and 96-gallon carts. Exchanges are done within a few weeks of request on your regular service day.
Click here for cart sizes.

Every 12 months, we do one exchange for no charge.

Click here for cart sizes.

Proper sorting makes a difference! Garbage belongs in the gray, recyclables in the blue, and organics (yard trimmings, food scraps and food-soiled paper) in the green.

Please click here for our Residential Service Guidelines.

Please click here for our Multi-Family Service Guidelines.

Click here for a searchable alphabetized list of what belongs in each container, scan the QR code on your container label.

Use the Handy Kitchen Pail to reduce waste! Click here for helpful information, links and a video. 

Yes. ACI provides three neighborhood clean-up days per year. Neighborhood clean-up days are available to all residential customers with individual, curbside, garbage service. Click here to look up the dates of your three neighborhood clean-up days.

In addition, you can now set out up to two large bulky items (60-200 lbs. each) on each clean-up day. We will also salvage materials such as clothing, books, sports equipment and toys for reuse through their partnership with St. Vincent DePaul.

Large, bulky items set out on your neighborhood clean-up day are collected at no additional charge. You can also have bulky items picked up at any time, for a fee, by contacting ACI. Click here for more information about neighborhood clean-up days and bulky item collection.

You have several options. Assuming the unwanted item is still in reasonable shape, you can do the following:

List it for free on freecycle.org.

Sell it on Craigslist.org or a similar site.

Donate it to a local charity.

If you just need it taken away, wait for your next Neighborhood Clean-up (find your next day here or contact us to schedule an individual clean-up – fees apply.

By properly sorting Recyclables and Organics, including food-scraps and food-soiled paper, customers may be able to decrease the amount of garbage service needed. If you regularly have extra room in your garbage cart, you can switch to a smaller garbage cart to decrease your rate. If you need to increase your Recyclables and/or Organics service in order to decrease your garbage service, most residents can do so at no additional cost. Residents may have up to two 96-gallon recycling carts plus up to two 96-gallon Organics carts at no additional charge.

If you have a 20-gallon garbage cart, you are already paying the lowest garbage rate available. The City of San Ramon does not offer a senior discount, a low-income discount, or discount for residents who do not put their carts out every week.

The City of San Ramon does not offer a senior discount, a low-income discount, or discount for residents who do not put their carts out every week.

Absolutely. Please contact us at your convenience. We want you to understand how our invoicing works; and we want to correct any mistakes as quickly as possible.

You can pay your bill online by using an online account.

To sign up for autopay and/or paperless billing, please click on the red “Account Login” button in the upper right-hand corner to set up an online account. You will need your ACI account number to set up your online account. Your account number is on your bill. You may also contact us to obtain your account number.

PLEASE NOTE:

If you had paperless billing with Waste Management, that should have continued automatically with ACI.

If you had autopay with Waste Management, that cannot transfer automatically, and you will have to sign up for autopay with ACI.

The list of new or enhanced services is as follows:

Organics recycling (including food scrap and food soiled paper) for all condos, townhomes, apartments and other multi-family dwellings.

New kitchen food scrap pails for all residents.

New color-coded labeled containers.

All three types of carts (green, blue, gray) available in four sizes (20, 35, 64, 96 gallons).

Up to two 96-gallon Recycling carts at no additional charge.

Up to two 96-gallon Organics carts at no additional charge.

Paper bags to collect extra yard trimmings (fee applies)

Unlimited curbside recycling (set out extra recyclables next to your Recycle cart in paper bags or cardboard boxes. Stack extra cardboard flattened and cut down pieces not larger than 3 ft. x 2 ft.)

Used cooking oil recycling

Two large bulky items (60-200 lbs. each) now accepted on neighborhood clean-up days

Reusable items salvaged on neighborhood clean-up days

Two compost giveaway events per year

One recycling drop-off event per year

Recycling tote bags (multi-family residents only)

Multi-family and commercial customers will receive bin push service up to 25 feet and back at no additional charge.

Multi-family dwellings with shared garbage service receive unlimited Recycling and Organics service at no additional charge.

Commercial customers receive:

Up to 96-gallons per week of Organics service at no additional charge

Higher levels of Organics and Recycling service at half the cost of garbage service.

Yes. Extra trash service tags do not expire. ACI will honor San Ramon extra trash service tags that say “Waste Management” on them if they were purchased from Waste Management or the City before ACI began service on October 1, 2019.

Put occasional extra garbage in your own garbage bag (up to 32-gallons), tie shut, put an extra trash service tag on it, and ACI will collect it from the curb. ACI now also offers paper bags for extra yard trimmings. Extra yard trimmings collected in these bags will be composted instead of landfilled.

The current cost of extra trash service tags and extra yard trimmings bags cost can be found here under “Miscellaneous Services”. This covers the cost of collection and disposal of the material. The tags and bags are available through the mail by calling ACI and over the counter at City Hall (7000 Bollinger Canyon Rd.) and the Permit Center (2401 Crow Canyon Rd.) during normal business hours. Please note: tags and bags will only be available through mail from ACI during the shelter in place order.

Click here for information on proper disposal of hazardous waste, sharps and medicines.

Visit www.stopjunkmail.org. To cut back on unsolicited catalogs, visit www.catalogchoice.org.

Passing your things back into circulation helps other people AND keeps your landfill from overflowing. You can wait for your next Neighborhood Clean Up Day and set it aside for reuse. For more information click here, or you can contact:

www.satruck.org
www.EastBayGoodwill.org
www.freecycle.org
A local consignment store

Good for you. There’s too much need to throw away food. Contact the Contra Costa and Solano County Food Bank to pass on your bounty.

Sure! Check out our “Aim For Zero Waste” page or visit:

www.calrecycle.ca.gov
www.epa.gov/americarecycles
www.savethefood.com

They can be placed in your blue recycling cart (along with other bottles, cans, jars, paper products, and miscellaneous recyclables) for convenient curbside collection; ACI of San Ramon will make sure they’re recycled. Or, you can take them to a buy-back center where your deposit will be returned to you. For a list of locations and more information, contact the California State Department of Conservation, call 1-800-RECYCLE, or visit www.bottleandcanrecycling.com.

Yes! Visit www.greenbusinessca.org

Make sure to place fireplace, stove and barbecue ashes in a metal container with a tight fitting lid. Put the container outside, 10 ft. or more away from your home and combustibles. Wet the ashes down. Once cold, ashes must be contained (so they do not blow away during collection) and then placed in your gray Garbage cart. For more information and additional fire safety tips, visit these websites: Cal Fire, www.usfa.fema.gov, and www.nfpa.org