To dispose of old license plates in California, you have five business days from the day your replacement plates arrive to either surrender the old ones to the DMV or destroy them yourself so they can’t be read or reused.1Legal Information Institute. California Code of Regulations 13-206.08 – Surrender or Destruction of License Plates Tossing intact plates in the trash is a bad idea. Someone can pull them out and mount them on another car, and the tickets, tolls, and worse come back to you.
The Five-Day Rule
California’s disposal requirement lives in Title 13 of the California Code of Regulations, Section 206.08. Once new plates are assigned to your vehicle and delivered, the old plates must be surrendered to the DMV or destroyed within five business days.1Legal Information Institute. California Code of Regulations 13-206.08 – Surrender or Destruction of License Plates If you apply for new plates in person, hand the old ones over at the counter during that visit.2Legal Information Institute. California Code of Regulations 13-205.10 – Surrender of Current License Plates
Don’t have the old plates in hand when you apply? You’ll fill out a Statement of Facts (Form REG 256), acknowledging the old plates are no longer valid and agreeing to destroy them within five business days if they turn up later.1Legal Information Institute. California Code of Regulations 13-206.08 – Surrender or Destruction of License Plates Under the regulation, a plate counts as destroyed when it’s “mutilated in a manner which renders them useless.”
Handing the Plates Back to the DMV
The easiest path is to walk into any California DMV field office and give the plates to a technician. No appointment is needed just to drop them off, and the DMV recycles them.
If a field office isn’t convenient, you can mail plates in. Special or occupational plates go to the DMV Occupational Licensing Section, P.O. Box 932342, MS L224, Sacramento, CA 94232-3420, along with a completed Form OL 247.3California Department of Motor Vehicles. OL 247 – Report or Replace Lost, Stolen, or Surrendered Special Plates For standard plates, call the DMV to confirm the current mailing address before you send anything.
Destroying Plates Yourself
The regulation only requires that the plate be mutilated so it’s useless. The practical goal: make the number unreadable and the plate impossible to bolt onto another vehicle. A few methods work:
- Bend and fold. Wear gloves, fold the plate in half until it creases or snaps, then fold it again in the other direction. A vise, or a firm step, helps.
- Grind off the numbers. A metal file, coarse sandpaper, or an angle grinder will scrape the embossed characters and any registration stickers down to nothing legible.
- Cut it apart. Tin snips or metal shears slice aluminum plates well. Cut through the numbers first, then quarter the plate. Safety glasses on, and dispose of the pieces separately.
Once the plate is mangled, the scrap can go in a metal recycling bin. Remove any mounting bolts or frames first. Peel off stickers if you can; if they won’t come off, scratching through the numbers with a screwdriver before recycling is enough.
Why It’s Worth the Two Minutes
Intact plates in the trash are a resource for fraud. License plate cloning, where someone copies your plate number onto a similar vehicle, lets bad actors dodge tolls, run red-light cameras, and disguise stolen cars. You find out when unfamiliar tickets and toll bills arrive, when your insurance premium jumps for violations you didn’t commit, or when law enforcement pulls you over for someone else’s crime. Destroying the plate before it leaves your hands closes that door.
There’s a paperwork angle too. If old plates stay linked to your name in DMV records, you can end up with renewal notices for vehicles you no longer own and other cleanup work. Mangling the plate is cheap insurance.
When You’re Selling the Car
Standard California plates stay with the vehicle when you sell it, so you don’t remove them. Personalized or special interest plates are yours, not the car’s, and should come off before the buyer drives away. Within five calendar days of the sale, file a Notice of Transfer and Release of Liability (Form REG 138) with the DMV, online or by mail.4California Legislative Information. California Vehicle Code VEH 59005California Department of Motor Vehicles. Notice of Transfer and Release of Liability
Junked, Totaled, or Salvaged Vehicles
If the car is being junked or you’re applying for a salvage certificate, the plates must be surrendered to the DMV or destroyed at the time of application.6California Department of Motor Vehicles. Vehicle Industry Registration Procedures Manual – Salvage Certificate If an insurer totals the car and takes possession, ask them directly whether they surrendered the plates or whether it falls to you.
Special Plates Follow Different Rules
Personalized (vanity) plates and special interest plates belong to you and can move to another vehicle registered in your name.7California DMV. Vehicle Industry Registration Procedures Manual – Reassignment of Special License Plates If you want to keep the configuration without a car to put it on, you can pay an annual retention fee, ranging from $0 for some collegiate and specialty plates to $83 for plates like the California Coastal Commission (Whale Tail) or California Memorial plates, with most other types at $43 per year.8California Department of Motor Vehicles. Vehicle Industry Registration Procedures Manual – Appendix 1F Fees Stop paying without surrendering the plates and the configuration is lost.
Disabled person plates are stricter. After the plate holder dies, the plates must be returned to the DMV within 60 days of the death or by the time the vehicle registration expires, whichever comes first.9Legal Information Institute. California Code of Regulations 13-182.04 – Surrender of Disabled Person License Plates and/or Permanent Disabled Person Placards upon Death They cannot be transferred to anyone else, including a co-owner of the vehicle.10California Department of Motor Vehicles. Vehicle Industry Registration Procedures Manual – Disabled Person License Plates
If Plates Are Lost or Stolen Instead of Replaced
When plates are stolen, lost, or have become too damaged to read, California law requires you to apply for replacements promptly.11California Legislative Information. California Vehicle Code VEH 4457 Report stolen plates to law enforcement first, then apply at the DMV with a completed REG 156. The DMV may issue duplicates with the same number or assign a new one depending on the circumstances, and getting the replacement on record quickly protects you if the missing plates show up on another vehicle.