El Cerrito packs a lot of city into a small footprint. Squeezed between Berkeley and Richmond along the BART line, it's a place of walkable retail strips, older apartment buildings, and small single-family lots rather than sprawling office campuses or industrial yards. That means our work here looks different: more multi-unit residential buildings, more small shopfronts on San Pablo Avenue, and pickups that have to work around narrow streets and limited parking.
- Apartment and condo property managers: electronics abandoned by former tenants or left in common areas and storage rooms.
- Small shops and service businesses: POS systems, office computers, and shop electronics along El Cerrito's commercial strips.
Desktops, laptops, monitors, TVs, small appliances, phones, all battery chemistries, and hard drives with certified destruction, collected in whatever volume fits an apartment building or small-retail setting. We also take older stereo equipment, cordless phones, and small kitchen electronics left behind in rental units.
The broader list covers copiers and printers, phone systems, modems and routers, UPS backups, audio and video equipment and anything with a built-in battery. For a shop on San Pablo Avenue, that usually means a point-of-sale computer, a receipt printer and a box of cables.
No. Under California's universal waste rules, TVs, computers, small electronics and batteries can't go in household trash or a building's dumpster. Our pickups are for property managers and businesses, and we don't provide residential services. Residents who want to recycle their own electronics can use our sister company, Secure Recycle, at 3921 Pell Circle in Sacramento, or a closer site from CalRecycle's list.
Six steps: containers that fit a storage room, training for building staff, a pickup by our own crew, tracking under a ticket number, reuse-first processing, and reports and certificates. In computer recycling for El Cerrito buildings, laptops and desktops left behind by tenants are treated as data-bearing, so their drives are destroyed or wiped whether or not anyone expects them to hold anything.
El Cerrito pickups follow our ISO 9001, 14001, and 45001-certified process, so a small apartment building's cleanout gets the same documented handling as a larger commercial job. Property managers who need proof of proper disposal for their own records can request a certificate of recycling or destruction for any job, large or small.
Request a quote — we'll work with your building's access and parking constraints to schedule pickup efficiently, including pickup windows that fit the city's narrow streets and limited parking. We also serve nearby Richmond, Hercules, and Orinda.
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.
