Marin Sanitary Tours

Educational Tours for Schools & Community Groups

We invite you to schedule tours for your school, community, or business group of our San Rafael facility where you’ll see first-hand what happens to your garbage, recycling and compostables after we pick it up from your house.

Whether you are interested in finding out how recyclables are sorted, what happens to garbage before it is transferred to the landfill, or simply want to visit our famous peacocks and pigs, we are happy to show you around!

Virtual Tours

We have launched a virtual version of our facility tour so that you can continue to learn about how we process your recycling, compost, and garbage while you shelter at home! We have a pre-tour lesson (choose either the elementary school-level lesson or the high school-level lesson to watch the video), self-guided tour document, virtual tour, and post-tour survey. See the resources below:

Elementary and Middle School Pre-Tour Lesson (video)
High School/Adult Pre-Tour Lesson (video)
Self-Guided Tour Document (English) (PDF)
Self-Guided Tour Document (Spanish) (PDF)
We want your feedback! Please take our Post-Tour Survey

Marin Recycling Center Tour

We also offer this recorded walk-through of our Recycling Center virtual tour.

Marin Sanitary Service Virtual Pre-tour Lesson – High School

Marin Sanitary Service Virtual Pre-tour Lesson – Elementary School

On-Site Tours

UPDATE: Onsite tours are not available during this shelter-in-place order. See above for our virtual tour option.

Casey Fritz, our Schools & Community Recycling Coordinator will work with your school or community group to schedule a tour.

We offer tours for schools Monday-Friday. The best times to see the action are between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., however, we can be flexible with our times.

Please see below for tour details.

If you cannot make it during the week, please consider coming to one of our regularly-scheduled weekend Community Tours.

We do not schedule individual private tours, but we invite you to Community Tours.

All of our tours are absolutely free!

Where is it?

We will meet outside of the Marin Recycling Center, located at 535 Jacoby Street in San Rafael. Please make sure to use this specific address, as typing “Marin Sanitary Service” into your phone/computer will take you to the incorrect location for the tour. Our tour coordinator will be waiting outside of the Marin Recycling Center in a bright orange vest to help you with parking. Parking is extremely limited, please see our General Tour Guidelines.

How long is the tour?

A typical tour lasts one and half hours including time in the classroom and walking around the facilities.

What’s included?

Your tour starts in our Educational Classroom where you’ll learn about the 4R’s (reduce, reuse, recycle and rot) and have the opportunity to ask all of your recycling/composting questions!

Then we’ll visit the Marin Recycling Center where you can see how your paper, plastic, glass and aluminum are sorted and baled for recycling. We’ll take you step-by-step through the recovery process and highlight the machinery that makes it happen.

At the Transfer Station you’ll see where the garbage trucks roll in and learn what happens to your garbage before it is sent to the landfill.

And finally, we’ll visit the famous Flying Can Ranch where you’ll meet our pigs, chickens and peacocks and learn how they contribute to our commitment to sustainability.

What does it cost?

All our tours are free!

Are there any restrictions?

Our tours are for all ages. For safety purposes, we require that all tour participants come wearing closed-toed shoes. Additionally, due to the fact that the majority of the tour is located outside, please come wearing weather-appropriate attire. In the event that heavy rain is expected on the morning of the tour, we can do a “virtual” tour in the classroom or watch a recycling video of our facility. If these options do not work, your group would have the option to reschedule.

For a full overview of our tour guidelines, please see our MSS General Tour Guidelines.

Coming with young children? Check out our MSS Preschool Tour Policy. Children under the age of four and their chaperones are welcome to visit and learn more about recycling; however, the tour will be limited to the classroom.