Recology San Francisco

Wow this place rocks! There is a system & routine to everything & it's all geared towards making it easy to love the environment.

Our building got replacement fire extinguishers & I offered to take the old ones over for recycling ( yeah, I'm awesome like that )

Drive into the recycle center. There are signs directing people to the appropriate area for them.....me hazardous waste

We stay in the car, fill out a simple residency form & voila! Free hazardous waste recycling

Oh and by the way, they also take used, dead batteries- I'm loving this place!!

I wanted to e-waste electronics the right way by dropping it off over here instead of just throwing it in the trash. It's free so I figured why not. It's pretty straightforward. I just told them I had a few computer parts to drop off. No charge for e-waste.

I like how one of the employees knew what watch I was wearing (that's pretty rare to run into another person who's into watches). In other words, great customer service too.

I liked their service. They were nice and helpful when I called and made it an
easy process. They picked up the items as promised.

This a good place to get rid of some old electronics from your place. That is where I'll be reviewing from. When first arriving there it's a bit confusing of where to enter. When you do it once, you get the hang of it. They were patient and instructed me on where to go. I was able to get rid of my junk. Could not have been easier.

Moved into a new apartment.

Took 2-3 weeks to get any form of garbage, recycle, and compost. I had to go back and forth with them to update when the start-date of our bill would be because they just kept never delivering the bins (and we had garbage piling up) - super stressful.

We wanted to increase our garbage size from 16g to 32g. It's been 2 weeks since the request, going on week 3. They just emailed me "your bin was exchanged yesterday" but I'm literally staring at it right now, and it hasn't been changed.

Seems so unorganized. The number of times I had to wait 30-45m on the phone to talk to anyone (in between working 9am-5pm)... And they just say "Ok we'll try to get someone there. No we can't share any other phone number or put you in touch with the delivery person." And then nothing ever happens. True incompetence...

This review is for one horribly rude attendant as we were trying to find the exit after dropping items. We missed the exit because there were no signs, then he started yelling and made rude and insulting remarks that we should have known. We tried to be polite but he kept on going. Awful experience!

Every employee I interacted with here was patient, pleasant, friendly and efficient. As a San Francisco resident, my consumer grade haz mats were processed at no charge. I was encouraged to use Recology's pickup feature in the future but these people were so nice I will almost miss the trip!

I dropped off old cleaning supplies recently with the help of a friend (who was driving), and one of the staff members there was completely inappropriate and hostile, yelling at me and my friend, saying I should be driving if I'm dropping off my stuff. When I pushed back and said to stop yelling at us, he yelled back, saying that's how he talks. The entire process was unprofessional and horrible and I believe there was implicit bias.

I left a voicemail subsequently with Recology to escalate feedback and no one has called back, so now it's being posted publicly.

Recology's hiring methods needs major changes. This is a union and some of their workers are completely unprofessional. Look at how they work.

They don't come when scheduled therefore more trash is added and they don't even clean it up

Employee owned company that has run totally amuck, comparable to PG&E, and EDD.

Out-of-control employee deliberately broke our garage door 7 times, cost us over $150.00 in damage and repair costs, and kept causing damage which necessitated repairs after every time he came into garage - all because he was nicely reminded that we have outside only green bin pickup. That is in, and has been in, our customer record for years.

After he SLAMMED our new wooden door down we were left without security or the ability to lock the door three times because the door wouldn't close all the way, the metal track was damaged, the cord the door traverses on went limp, and a key bolt came out of the retaining washer. On subsequent trips he pulled the bold out of the washer 6 more days, making it very difficult to close the door.

Then that same driver started sneaking in on days we'd never had pickups on. Like Sundays. I asked him why he was making a Sunday pickup, he said because of complaints of excessive garbage in the area (meaning from all the visitors in the area due to Upper Great Highway being closed for months.) But those trash cans are always overflowing and a total mess. Plus he didn't pick up from any of the other apartment buildings - just ours. That continued for two weeks, with him and and the blue bin driver coming inside on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Our pickup days are still Monday and Friday inside for the blue and black bin, and Monday outside for the green bin, though we have tried to change to once a week. If the damage continues it will be once a week, outside pickup only.

We need less pickups a week, not more, because only 6 apartments are occupied in the building, so the bins only get half full. I contacted their Customer Service department online multiple times as nobody answered their Telephone. Every complaint was immediately closed with no corrective action, but a query asking how they'd done.

So I contacted 'Dispatch' which seemed to get someone's attention as Sunday pickups stopped. Note: The current male supervisor for the Outer Sunset hung up on me, and the building owner/landlady when we contacted him to try to resolve the matter. Clearly he and the man picking up our black bin who had been twice reminded not to make indoor pickup of the green bin have major problems with women.

The company refuses to reimburse us for the damage they caused, and it appears drivers will continue to make intermittent unscheduled pickups inside during the week - possibly to be able to charge more on bills. But again, we need less pickups, not more. And that has been communicated several times to and through multiple company stipulated methods.

Everyone says Sunset Scavengers are untouchable - employee owned, no competition. That isn't accurate. A complaint can be filed through 311 with Environmental Health, under the Department of Public Health - Solid Waste Program. Or people can telephone them directly at (415) 252-3872, Monday through Friday, 8:30 to 11:45, and 1:00 to 4:30. (Call as early in the day as possible because with Covid people leave early and generally are less available.)

For larger loads, I've rented a uHaul, dumped boxes and boxes of old stuff for a total of ~$100 including the truck rental fee (compared to $400 estimates from junk hauling companies). The line goes quickly and they have a great system going where it's easy to find where to dump whatever items are needed.

It has been a little rough lately getting an appointment for junk pickup and if you only have a few larger items it's not worth coming all the way here, so I wish they had other options for small-hauling, but I guess that is why there are so many junk hauling companies in town. Having the hauling process be so strict has made me buy less and become more eco-friendly though, which is in itself a good thing. Overall.. great system in place and friendly workers who are happy to help!