About Berkeley’s Curbside Recycling

The Ecology Center began recycling 30 years ago because of our desire and belief in saving natural resources. As recycling has grown into its own industry and has become an opportunity for big garbage companies to make more money, we have battled to stay alive and recycle for the right reasons.

Highest Standards

We guarantee that whatever we collect will be recycled. It will not be buried in a landfill because market prices fall below a profitable level. We maintain and insist on the highest standards possible to assure that the materials we collect are actually recycled back into the highest end-use possible. This helps close the loop when a glass bottle becomes a glass bottle again rather than asphalt or sand.

Profits Stay in the Community

The Ecology Center currently holds a contract with the City of Berkeley to provide curbside recycling services. Money earned through this contract does not go to corporate headquarters elsewhere. It stays in the community, providing good green-collar jobs and funding valuable community resources such as our environmental information hotline, library and resource center, the Berkeley Farmers’ Markets, and Terrain Magazine.

Berkeley is lucky to have a model environmental resource center that it can share with neighboring communities. The combination of our recycling program and membership support helps keep that resource alive.

Advocacy

As a nonprofit, we are mission-driven. We participate in advocacy efforts around Zero Waste and Extended Producer Responsibility.