The town's fall Clean Up Day is Saturday, October 24, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Foothill College, Lot 6, 12345 El Monte Road. It's open only to Los Altos Hills residents, and you have to bring the original mailed notice. If that GreenWaste postcard is still in a stack on the counter, take it out today.
The postcard is useful for a second reason. Half of it lists what the day won't take, and that half decides whether one Saturday clears the garage or leaves a second pile behind. The stuff that's hardest to get rid of, like old paint, dead batteries, a gas-powered chainsaw or worn tires, never goes to Lot 6. Each of those has its own route out of the house, and one of them is open on October 24 as well.
Getting to Lot 6, which sits past Lot 1
Last October's event was in the same place. It ran on October 25, 2025, at Lot 6, so anyone who went last year already knows the drive. For everyone else, Foothill puts Lot 6 on the west side of campus. You reach it from the El Monte Road entrance by following the one-way perimeter road to the right of Lot 1.
Your vehicle has to meet two rules: no enclosed trailers, and no trailers larger than 4 by 8 feet. Under its Fall 2026 parking rules, Foothill asks visitors to register for a daily digital parking permit. The event listing doesn't say whether that applies to Clean Up Day traffic. It's worth asking when you call GreenWaste to check anything else on your list.
The size limits that get enforced at the curb of the lot
The Town's event page describes accepted materials broadly: furniture, appliances, yard trimmings, electronic waste, scrap metal, and select construction debris. The GreenWaste postcard adds the measurements, and those are what shape the loading:
- Yard trimmings must be in containers or bundled.
- Untreated wood must be under 6 inches in diameter and under 5 feet long.
- Scrap metal pieces must each weigh under 40 pounds and measure under 2 feet in any dimension.
- Rock, dirt, asphalt, concrete and other construction debris are capped at 30 gallons total per event, in containers.
- Appliances such as washers and water heaters are accepted, along with furniture.
- E-waste covers TVs, computers and monitors.
The 30-gallon cap applies to all of your rock, dirt, asphalt and concrete combined, so leftovers from a patio or garden project can reach it quickly. More than 30 gallons of construction debris is listed as unacceptable. The file GreenWaste posted online is marked as a sample. The event page sends questions to GreenWaste Recovery at (650) 947-4994, which is also the number to call about anything the postcard doesn't mention, such as mattresses.
The refusal list, sorted by where each item actually goes
The postcard turns away household hazardous waste, plus treated wood, liquids, tires, fuel cans and engine parts with oil, grease or gasoline in them, oil or gas space heaters, large pieces of glass, poison oak or ivy, and recyclables. Its hazardous-waste examples are batteries, motor oil and filters, paint and stains, cleaning products, fertilizers and pesticides, sharps and medication, and fluorescent bulbs.
Most of those have somewhere else to go:
| Refused at Lot 6 | Where it can go instead |
|---|---|
| Household batteries | On top of your blue cart in a sealed plastic bag, on your regular service day |
| Motor oil and filters | Next to the blue cart: oil in a plastic container with a screw-on lid, filters in a sealed bag |
| Paint, stains, cleaning products, fertilizers, pesticides, fluorescent bulbs | Santa Clara County Household Hazardous Waste Program, by appointment |
| Medication | Local pharmacy drop-off or mail-back through the County's program |
| Sharps | Approved sharps container, through MED-Project or the County program |
| Fuel cans, gas-powered engine parts | Call the County HHW line the postcard lists, (408) 299-7300 |
| Recyclables | Your blue cart |
The first two rows don't take a trip anywhere. GreenWaste's Los Altos Hills service page says batteries, motor oil and filters set out that way are collected at no additional cost on your standard service day. That moves the battery drawer and the oil from the last mower change off the Saturday list completely.
For medication, the County's disposal page reports more than 100 MED-Project medication kiosks, plus mail-back supplies and additional kiosks run through a second provider. MED-Project Santa Clara says its drop-off and mail-back options are free. It also asks people to confirm a location's hours and what it accepts before going. For sharps, the County requires an approved container, and MED-Project offers up to three free containers at a time.
For tires, the County's drop-off locations page links to a list of tire and automotive-battery recyclers.
The same Saturday, a County drop-off opens in Santa Clara
The timing works in residents' favor this year. The County's hazardous waste operating schedule shows a temporary drop-off event in Santa Clara on Saturday, October 24, the same day as Clean Up Day. Los Altos Hills residents can use it. The County says all county residents except Palo Alto residents can book an appointment for any event in any city.
Two conditions matter. You need an appointment, and the County gives the drop-off address only after you book. So you can't plan the paint run by driving around Santa Clara looking for the site. If you book a time on October 24, the Clean Up Day load and the hazardous-waste load can both happen in one morning.
If the 24th fills up or doesn't suit your schedule, the next dates are at the permanent San Jose facility:
- October 29, 30 and 31
- November 5, 6 and 7
- November 12, 13 and 14
- November 19, 20 and 21
The schedule lists no event for November 26 through 28, Thanksgiving week. The County also runs temporary events at other times of year in Los Altos, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Milpitas and Santa Clara.
If the weekend gets away from you
Clean Up Day isn't the only way to get rid of bulky items. GreenWaste gives Los Altos Hills residents up to two on-call clean-ups a year at no additional charge. Each one picks up either two bulky items or three cans of yard trimmings, set out at the curb, and you schedule it by calling at least 48 hours ahead. Bulky items beyond that allowance can be picked up for a fee, with the same 48-hour notice.
Choosing between the two comes down to volume. Two bulky items per pickup covers a sofa and a broken dryer, while a full load of furniture, e-waste and bundled branches is what the Lot 6 drop-off is built for. The town has also scheduled more than one of these days in a year before, with a July 26, 2025 clean-up at the same Lot 6.
Mattresses take some planning, since the postcard doesn't mention them. If you're buying a new one, California's Bye Bye Mattress program says retailers delivering a new mattress must offer to take the old one back at no additional cost. Delivery or setup charges can still apply. If you're not buying, Goodwill of Silicon Valley takes mattresses and box springs free at its Recycling and Sustainability Center, 1080 North 7th Street in San Jose. Drop-off is at the north end of the parking lot on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. These program rules can change, so treat this as general information and check the current details with each provider before you load the car.
If this fall's clean-out is part of getting a house ready to sell, or clearing space before a downsize, Hebe Li can help you work out which projects are worth finishing and which can stay in the garage. Let's Connect.
