Ceres has long branded itself the "Gateway to the Valley," and the industrial base behind that slogan is real: the city sits inside one of the densest concentrations of dairy processing, cold storage, and food-packing operations in Stanislaus County. Behind every packing line and refrigerated dock is a rotation of scale-house terminals, inventory scanners, and dispatch computers that eventually needs to be retired — and most general haulers aren't set up to document that turnover the way a food-safety-conscious plant manager or corporate auditor expects. Sitting just south of Modesto along the Highway 99 corridor, Ceres also absorbs overflow logistics traffic from the larger metro, which means its equipment volumes can spike well beyond what a town its size would normally generate, especially during peak processing months.
- Dairy and food-processing plants — scale-house terminals, packing-line controllers, and cold-storage inventory systems retired between production runs.
- Distribution and cold-storage warehouses — pallet-tracking scanners and dispatch terminals replaced during equipment refreshes along the Highway 99 corridor.
- Local small businesses and offices — everyday desktops, laptops, and battery recycling for independent Ceres businesses.
Desktops, laptops, scale-house and packing-line terminals, handheld scanners, monitors, printers, phones, all battery chemistries, and hard drives with certified destruction when a plant's data policy requires it. We also handle networking equipment and legacy point-of-sale systems that accumulate in back offices between refresh cycles, and we can arrange recurring pickups for plants that generate a steady, predictable volume of retired equipment rather than a one-time cleanout.
In short, anything electronic a plant or office has retired qualifies, including copiers, phone systems, TVs, modems, UPS units and battery-embedded devices. Forklift and backup batteries should be listed separately on the quote request so we can bring containers rated for them.
Plant managers tend to ask how the material is controlled once it leaves the dock. Here are the six steps:
- We set out labeled containers so scanners, batteries and computers are separated at the source.
- Our Field Service Managers train line and office staff on what goes in each container.
- Our own crew does the pickup, on a schedule that avoids peak processing weeks.
- The load is tracked by ticket, weight and, if needed, serial number.
- At our Sacramento facility it's processed: data-bearing devices first, then reuse, then recycling.
- You get certificates and a report to file with your audit records.
Every Ceres pickup follows our ISO 9001, 14001, and 45001-certified process, with full chain-of-custody tracking and a certificate of recycling or destruction issued for every load — documentation that holds up under a food-safety or corporate audit.
If the computers belong to a business, book a pickup and we'll collect them from your site, whether it's one desktop or a scale house full of terminals. Each hard drive is wiped or destroyed through our data destruction service before anything is reused. Household computers aren't part of our service, since we work with businesses. Our sister company, Secure Recycle, handles consumer electronics at the same Sacramento location, 3921 Pell Circle, and CalRecycle lists Stanislaus County collection sites.
No. California classifies discarded electronics and most batteries as universal waste, and they can't go into a dumpster, a trash cart or a compactor. A documented recycling pickup keeps the plant on the right side of that rule and gives you the paperwork to prove it.
Request a quote and tell us about your plant's production schedule; we'll build the pickup around it rather than the other way around, and we can coordinate multi-site pickups if your operation spans more than one Ceres location. We also serve neighboring Turlock and Modesto, so a single regional visit can often cover all three.
No obligation. We respond same business day.
Reviews
A little bit off the beaten track in Natomas, but Modern Waste quickly and efficiently helped me recycle my broken Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries at a reasonable $/lb fee (Sac county e-waste will not accept these items). Ramiro and Vincent were very friendly and helpful.
Chris was awesome! He came in and picked up all of the e-waste we had ready for him. He was polite and professional throughout the entire process. He handled the equipment with care, including the site equipment that was already in place. I am very happy with his service and appreciate the great job he did.
Aaron and Vincent were awesome, excellent customer service!
Great guys, excellent customer service, highly recommend!
Polite, quick and easy.
Chris from modern waste was the most outstanding respectful person I ever met my life when he was done he offered to sweep the floors. He offered so much even though he was limited on time he went out of his way and he’s over beyond best guy I ever met thank you so much for your service services Dan ITG.


