Dispose of All Household Hazardous Wastes, Including Paint, E-Waste, Batteries and More

Funded by your local city government and administered by the County of Santa Clara. Alternative drop-off locations available throughout the year. Visit HHW.org for more details and to make an appointment.

Accepted Items

• Asbestos
• Balloon tanks
• Batteries (household batteries may also be recycled through curbside program)
• Electronic Waste
• Fire extinguishers
• Road Flares (No marine or aerial flares)
• Fluorescent tubes and compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs
• Gas cylinders (MAPP) used in jewelry making and plumbing (usually yellow container, 10-12" tall, 14-16 oz)
• Musical greeting cards and similar advertising materials that use sounds
• Paint
• Pesticides
• Pool chemicals
• Prescription drugs and medicines
• Propane tanks for BBQs or camp stoves
• Oil
• Sharps (hypodermic needles)
• Smoke detectors
• Solvents
• Thermometers and thermostats

You may now take paint back to participating retailers. Paint includes latex, oil, coatings, primer, stain, and varnish.

California law requires a "paint care recovery fee" to be charged on paint purchases effective October 19, 2012. Retailers may also volunteer to be paint collection sites for residents and certain businesses in their community. This means that residents will be able to conveniently take back used paint directly to retailers participating in the program rather than be limited to making appointments for the countywide household hazardous waste program to properly dispose of paint.

See list below for retailers that take back paint (please call ahead if you have more than 5 gallons). For a list of all take-back locations in the county and a list of all paint products accepted, visit HHW.org.

Dunn-Edwards
1949 El Camino Real
Mountain View, CA 94040
(650) 964-4526

Kelly Moore
180 El Camino Real E
Mountain View, CA 94040
(650) 964-5220

Kelly Moore
411 Fairchild Drive
Mountain View, CA 94043
(650) 961-0750

Residents subscribed to curbside service (individual carts) may be able to recycle these items at the curbside. You may also drop them off at the locations listed below. Residents living in apartment and multi-family complexes subscribed to shared trash and recycling may contact their property manager to coordinate household battery collection through Recology.

Holiday String Lights

Fluorescent lamps are compact bulbs, straight, circular, spiral and u-bent tubes. Household batteries (from small watch batteries to flashlight lantern batteries) can be taken to the following retail locations free of charge. Please note that they do not accept automotive batteries.

Bruce Bauer Lumber and Supply
134 San Antonio Circle
Mountain View, CA 94040
650-948-1089
Leave with employee at register.

Stanford Electric
126 San Antonio Circle
Mountain View, CA 94040
650-323-4139

Blossom True Value Hardware
1297 W El Camino Real
Mountain View, CA 94040
650-964-7871
Leave with employee at register.

SMaRT Station
301 Carl Road
Sunnyvale, CA 94089
408-752-8530
Free drop off for Mountain View, Sunnyvale and Palo Alto residents

Residents subscribed to curbside service (individual carts) may be able to recycle these items at the curbside. You may also drop them off at the locations listed below (call first). Residents living in apartments or multi-family complexes may ask their property manager to arrange for recycling through Recology.

Best Buy
2460 E. Charleston Road
Palo Alto, CA 94303
650-903-0591

Target
555 Showers Drive
Mountain View, CA 94040
650-965-7764

Green Citizen
1576 Rollins Road
Burlingame, CA 94010
650-493-8700

Medication

To prevent harm to our environment, never flush medicines down the toilet or the sink. Medicines are considered hazardous waste, and water treatment facilities are unable to remove these substances from waste water. As a result, medicines still present in the effluent returned to the Bay may harm aquatic organisms and eventually fish and wildlife along the food chain.

You can minimize potential problems by safely disposing of unused medicines at the following locations:

Mountain View Police & Fire Administration Lobby Drop-off Box
1000 Villa Street
Mountain View, CA 94041

MED-Project Collection Kiosks
Find a drop-off location near you

Sharps

State law prohibits a person from placing home-generated sharps in their trash or recycling containers. Home-generated sharps are defined as disposable hypodermic needles, syringes, lancets, and other medical devices used for self-injection or blood test. To safely dispose of your used home-generated sharps, place them in a biohazard sharps container. Contact your doctor or pharmacist to ask if they have a take-back program for your used sharps. Many online vendors offer pre-addressed, prepaid mail back boxes to safely return used sharps. The Countywide Household Hazardous Waste Program has more information about safe sharps disposal, including links to receive free sharps collection containers. Used sharps may also be safely disposed at the following locations:

• MED-Project Sharps Disposal Locations throughout Santa Clara County
• SMaRT Station, 301 Carl Road, Sunnyvale, at the Drop Off Center (red metal dumpster). Residents only.
• Mountain View Fire/Police Department Sharps Box, in the lobby at the Police & Fire Administration Building, 1000 Villa Street, Mountain View.
• Countywide Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) Program list of drop-off locations for sharps.

Any Certified Used Oil Collection Center
Visit HHW.org for list of centers.

Residents subscribed to curbside service (individual carts) may be able to recycle these items at the curbside. These services are not provided to residents in apartments and multi-family properties because of property management restrictions.

Refuel Your Fun! Small Refillable Propane Cylinders

Did you know that propane cylinders are household hazardous waste, and prohibited in trash or recycling because of the potential for fire and explosion? Don't waste money and time on a hard-to-dispose of propane cylinder. Next time, buy or refill a refillable cylinder at one of the stores below.

U-Haul Mountain View
62 W. El Camino Real
Mountain View
650-965-3151

George’s Fuel & Auto Repair
996 East Evelyn Avenue
Sunnyvale
408-733-2221

Hassett Hardware Palo Alto
(sells refillables but does not refill on site)
875 Alma Street, Palo Alto
650-327-7222

For more information or locations in other cities, visit www.refuelyourfun.org.