The IWMA provides free kitchen food scrap pails to SLO County residents! To recieve yours, stop by our office (870 Osos St, San Luis Obispo) from 8-5 M-F, or call your solid waste hauler who can drop one off at your address. 

All of your organic waste can go into your food scrap pail, and once your pail is full, it can be dumped into your green waste bin. 

Please don't use any marketed 'compostable' bags in your green bin.  They breakdown much slower than organic material, and can jam up equipment at our local composting operations. Curious about where your organics end up in San Luis Obispo County? Explore our anerobic digestion facility, the first of its kind in the US. The IWMA's compost pails are dishwasher safe and shouldn't need a lining: you can place food scraps directly into the pail, and then dump directly into your curbside green bin when it gets full. If you do want to line your pail, you can use a piece of newspaper, brown paper bag or a paper towel instead. 

In an effort to reduce any unwanted smells coming from your pail, we suggest rinsing your pail regularly and sprinkling in some baking soda (your coffee grounds will help absorb odors too). Freezing the contents of your pail also helps keep odors at bay! 

To pick yours up, the SLO County IWMA office is located at 870 Osos Street, San Luis Obispo CA 93401 and we are open Monday-Friday from 8am-5pm 

*If you are not able to stop by our office during the week, please give us a call to make arrangements!