In Your Home

We're All In It Together!

The San Francisco Bay is part of your daily life. Every drop of water we use at home and work drains into San Francisco Bay. Wastewater travels from kitchens and bathrooms to wastewater treatment plants before it's discharged to the Bay. Treatment can remove many pollutants, but some complex chemicals may resist degradation and pass through to the Bay. Stormwater from roads, sidewalks and gardens flows into storm drains and directly into creeks and the Bay without treatment. (Except in San Francisco, where stormwater is treated at wastewater treatment plants.)

Stormwater carries all sorts of things straight to our creeks and the Bay: herbicides and pesticides from lawns and gardens, litter, pet waste, detergent from car washing, and everything else that doesn’t get disposed of properly in trash cans.

Because wastewater and stormwater can carry pollutants from everyday activities like cooking, gardening, maintaining your car, and even spring-cleaning your garage and medicine cabinet, it's important to prevent pollution at the source.

Tour Our Eco-Home

Our Eco-Home guides you, room-by-room, bringing you tips that will make your home and San Francisco Bay healthier.






Clean It Guide

Clean It Guide
Download these safe house-cleaning methods that really work!
(PDF 600KB)

How to Dispose Of...

Fat, Cooking Oil & Grease (FOG)

When grease is poured down sinks it can solidify and cause sewer backups into houses or onto streets. The result is a greasy, smelly mess of pollutants entering storm drains, creeks, and the Bay. It harms wildlife both on land and in water and is expensive to clean up! Kitchen Grease

  • Never pour fats, oil, or grease down drains, even if you have a garbage disposal.
  • Pour cooking oil and grease into a sealable container with an absorbent such as paper garbage and discard with your other garbage.
  • Recycle large amounts of grease or cooking oil (including from deep fryers) at Bay Area grease recycling locations.
  • Use food strainers in kitchen sinks to catch food particles and scrape leftover food waste into the garbage or compost container instead of the garbage disposal.
  • Sewer backups require fast attention due to potential exposure to harmful bacteria. To report sewer problems in your neighborhood, call your local non-emergency police department hotline.

Items with Mercury

Use our recycling location search engine to find nearby locations to dispose of mercury-containing products, specifically fluorescent lights, thermostats, and thermometers.

Unwanted Medicine

It's easier than ever to dispose of unwanted pharmaceuticals properly, keeping them out of our environment and out of reach of children and pets.

  • Pills Spilling

    Never put medicines down sinks or toilets
  • Bring unwanted or expired medications to one of the disposal locations in the Bay Area.
  • Use our recycling location search engine to find nearby locations to dispose of unwanted medication.
  • Most disposal locations ask that you pour pills and tablets into a ziplock bag and recycle vials at home. That way, your privacy is protected and our disposal bins don't fill up with almost-empty bottles. Please keep liquids in original bottles with labels removed or marked out. Check your local disposal site information for more details.
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