Pickup looks like the simplest step in a recycling program, yet vendors handle it very differently. Many providers subcontract collection or rely on third-party carriers like FedEx when a site is outside their immediate reach. Covering a wide area is expensive, and every extra mile adds cost.
At Modern Waste, we never subcontract pickups.
We run our trucks from our Sacramento facility and directly serve nearly all of California and parts of Nevada. Pickup is step three of our six-step program. It's a core part of how we work, and our own trained crews run every one.
Keeping collection in-house gives you:
- Ongoing oversight and training from people who see your containers and storage area in person, which reduces your liability and improves operational efficiency.
- The same service standard on every pickup. A load collected in January follows the same chain of custody as one collected in December.
- Services and equipment bundled together, including the materials other providers don't want to deal with.
- Service that scales and adjusts quickly as your business changes.
- Crews trained to solve problems in the field, while they're at your site.
It also means one point of contact. A business with several California locations can work with one team across all of them, without juggling vendors or dealing with gaps in coverage.
| Option | How it works | Typical fit |
|---|---|---|
| Route-based recurring pickup | Scheduled collection on our regular routes out of Sacramento | Sites that produce e-waste or batteries steadily |
| On-call pickup | Collection coordinated when you request it | Refreshes, cleanouts, moves and irregular volumes |
| Project or bulk pickup | A scheduled collection planned around labor, deinstallation and site access | Server rooms, data center projects and large loads |
| Facility drop-off | You deliver approved material to our Sacramento facility | Businesses near Sacramento with their own transport |
Minimums depend on your route and the material involved. A scheduled route can usually take smaller loads than a special off-route trip. If your ZIP code isn't on a regular route, ask anyway, because large loads, data center projects and scheduled bulk pickups can often be arranged outside our routes.
Pickups and on-site service are for businesses, public agencies, schools and medical facilities. We don't provide residential services. Households can recycle electronics through our sister company, Secure Recycle, at the same Sacramento address, 3921 Pell Circle. If you live farther away, CalRecycle lists drop-off sites across California.
Our crew collects the material in the containers we supplied, with labor and palletizing when the scope includes them. Data-bearing devices can travel in sealed, tracked containers, and the load moves under chain-of-custody documentation. Batteries and other regulated materials are part of our standard routes, so flag the battery chemistry or hazardous item when you book and we'll plan the right containers and handling.
When the load reaches our facility, it's logged with a ticket number in our secure database. That record starts the tracking step and follows the material through processing.
Some work happens at your site. With on-site hard drive shredding, our mobile shredding unit destroys drives at your location while you watch. For data center and UPS decommissioning, our technicians disconnect and remove servers, UPS units, batteries, PDUs, network gear and cabling before anything is transported.
- Sort material into the labeled containers, with battery chemistries kept apart.
- Tell us about damaged items ahead of time, such as swollen batteries or cracked monitors, so we can plan the packing.
- Note access details: stairs, elevators, loading docks and parking.
- Flag data-bearing devices and any drives that must be destroyed.
- Share any audit, lease return, move or shutdown deadline at the start, so the schedule can be planned back from that date.
We serve businesses in the counties below. See our service areas for cities and local pages.
Alameda, Butte, Contra Costa, El Dorado, Fresno, Kern, Madera, Marin, Merced, Monterey, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Shasta, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties.
Churchill, Douglas, Lyon, Storey and Washoe counties.
