Our Planet Recycling

YES, THEY ARE STILL VERY MUCH OPEN FOR BUSINESS.

If you have noticed people rooting through your recycling bin when you put it out on trash day, this is where they all come with their bounty -- and they are walking away with cash!

Unfortunately, this is cash that supports our curbside recycling program, so when those scavengers take it out of your bin, your curbside service bill will go up.

I got there around 7:30 a.m., and despite this being the posted opening time, things were already in full swing, with long lines of people: 90% Cantonese and 10% Homeless Folks -- die leidenden von alle vergessen -- and although there were four lines, there was only one worker going from line to line, because the rest of the workers were trying to fix an electrical issue. So, things were incredibly slow, and it took me a little over an hour to get through the line.

At one point a fight almost broke out between the homeless man in front of me and a Chinese man who tried to cut in line, moving aside the homeless mans bins. Now, I didn't come here expecting to hear: "Don't touch my bins! I WILL f*ck*ng kill you!" and "Come on man, go ahead and kill me, m*th*rF*ck*r!" at 7:30 in the morning, but it wakes you up faster than a cup of coffee, I tell you what!

I think if all the lines were operating at once, like they probably ordinarily do, I would have been done in about 15 minutes, FYI.

Anyway, they have a tiny parking lot. Most of what people bring in are empty beer and soda bottles, so everything is sticky and grimy. So, basically you bring everything here, and they have some big green trash cans you can use to fill with your recyclables if you want, but you can use your own bags or containers too. The green bins -- and pretty much everything here -- have a coating of resin, the accumulation of multiple layers of spilled beer and dirt. Everyone else here was wearing gloves, so if you come here, make a mental note of that.

It smells like the worst dive bar you've ever been to at the end of an all-night frat party, and they are constantly dumping the cans and bottles. Then the cans and plastic get dumped into this giant pneumatic tube system that literally shoots everything into these giant caged containers at Mach speed. So, it is super loud. Just imagine the sound of the trash man dumping your bin into the truck. Only you are right next to it, and it just keeps going forever. And on top of this, somehow they have a stereo blasting music through loudspeakers loud enough to be heard over the din. So, if you are sensitive to that sort of thing, maybe bring some earplugs.

So, you stand in any line you want, and hand over your recyclables. Make sure everything is completely sorted into separate containers before you get to the front of the line. They hand you a ticket, and you walk over to the trailer where the cashier will give you your money. I got $4 for a half a garbage bin full of CRV glass bottles.

Overall, A+, considering there are no other recycling centers of which I am aware, I give them five stars for still being open.

Thanks for the memories!

They are taking all drink bottles!!
You will learn how to separate.
You feel better when you correct bottles make a changes.

This place is great for recycling cans, glass and bottles with a decent payout. Park in the lot, sort your recycles in their cans, then get in line to have them weighed. A receipt will be printed which you will take to the cashier. The receipt will say to have change ready to round up the amount due to you. If you don't have the change, a voucher will be issued for the coins since they pay in bills only. Wear gloves. Their cans are very dirty.

During the pandemic, Recology's Buy Back program has been suspended so I found Our Planet Recycling via a Google search. Very organized and straightforward process. You grab as many green bins as you need and decant your recycling into them. You queue up and when it's your turn you dump your stuff into a trough where it's weighed. Once you've gone through all of your empties (glass, plastic and aluminium) they give you a ticket with a breakdown and how much you will receive. Go to the cash window and that's it! Everyone was wearing masks and social distanced.

*TIPS*
Have some change/money with you to round up your ticket otherwise you won't get the cash - only a voucher. Have your recycling sorted into black bags before you
arrive as this makes it much faster! Also, wear gloves or bring wipes to clean your hands with after as they will be very dirty and there is no place to wash them afterwards.

Great place to bring recyclables! A bit hard to find the place since its under a freeway and the entrance was even harder to find but I eventually got in after circling the building 5 times....

Pros:
Long, open hours
Commercial & non-commercial welcomed
Will take bottles with caps on

Cons:
Residual Juice/Soda coated everything
Little parking
Loud operation

We come maybe once a year to try and cash in on our little recycling pile at home. We used to go to a local Safeway, but the operation closed. It also wasn't nearly as efficient as this center.

When you first drive into the lot, there isn't much parking space, so many people just pull over somewhere. Everyone was fairly accommodating even if a car had to block his/her own for a moment in time.

Once you get out, the raw stench of recyclables/garbage will hit you. There's no avoiding it, but you will adapt. Here are some tips:

1. Bring earplugs. As you get closer to the recycling processing area, it is incredibly loud and the sound of crashing metals and glass is jarring.

2. Bring gloves and maybe wipes. Everything, and I do mean EVERYTHING is coated in a million layers residual dried liquids making it all super sticky. When you finish the hand sanitizer they provide will just look like a joke.

3. Sort completely. While you wait, make sure recyclables are fully sorted by crv (aluminum cans, plastics, amber glasses, clear glasses, etc). If not, you'll be asked to pull off to the side at the front. This center will take bottles with caps on. You also don't need to grab the green bins if your bags are hearty enough to hold the weight while being lifted (think heavy duty black bags). Any bag that may spill over should be put into the green bins though.

4. Go with a friend. This is optional, but once we were at the front for processing, I peeled off to the next line to redeem the cash voucher. By the time my dad's recycle weight was processed, I was first in line for voucher redemption. It saved us some time.

After giving everything a good wipe down (hands, shoes, even the car interior for good measure) we were able to continue on our day with little interruption. Some, more enclosed, recycling centers will make you smell like a dumpster diver coming out, but you won't have that ill consequence here. We just spun around the corner to the Alemany farmer market to be honest.

Would come back to this center for future recycling efforts.

Yesterday was my first time going just to learn something new. The place was hard to find at first. Then, I parked under a freeway and walked to there. I had taken a bag of plastic bottles I was told to get rid of at work, and a mixed bag I'd been keeping in my yard.
I like that there are 5 lines, everything is organized. Never hurts to learn something new.

Stopped into this place on Saturday last week - I called first actually didn't get through as it's a recording. but I checked online and it seem pretty good . What the heck, I've been looking for a recycling center in San Francisco for months. I went ahead and I headed over and spoke to some people that were unloading their cars w bags of cans and plastic and I asked how the procedure went there.
They were very nice people and said all you do is have your cans with the cans or bottles with your bottles and plastic with a plastic and you do not need to crush the cans or water bottles.
You get in line wait your turn. I system was quite fast. Workers are friendly and swift and polite.
it was very easy , parking provided in the premises.
I took in a total of 20 bags -- which I have accumulated through this pandemic (everything was closed). and I came out with $101 which was pretty surprising. I'll be back there as it was better than I expected. By the way, recology on tunnel avenue in San Francisco appears to be closed permanently. This is as of (5-12-2021) I have called weekly and this is what the phone clerk insinuate. Note: GO early , wear gloves, as it's kind of stinky wet place.

Our favorite place to drop off redeemables, we've never had trouble with a long wait. (Maybe because we come midday on Monday?) The system is easy and efficient, and the location is easy to access.

I went there Friday 3/13/2020 at 4:24pm. The cashier Sinthia D. was wearing a mask and didn't say anything. I gave her the weight slip and then she gave me the refund. The whole process she didn't say a word. When I returned home,I realized she gave me $10 less. She would know she had $10 extra in her register at the end of day. When I went back to get back the $10. They denied to do it. And there is a camera ,they didn't even want to check for me. I believe they have done that so many times just to cheat people money. Everyone just be cautious! Stay away from this business.they are not honest.

Great recycling place! They are helpful, fast and easy to deal with. Their payouts are nice too!