El Dorado Hills Recycling Center in
El Dorado Hills (CA)

Great to have this helpful community resource!

I have been coming to the El Dorado Hills recycling center for well over a decade, and after today’s experience I will not be returning, even if it means spending more time and gas to go somewhere else. The employee working today, Christian, was the most rude, hostile, aggressive, and unnecessarily difficult worker I have ever dealt with in any customer-facing situation. I arrived, parked in an open spot next to the other two cars there, and politely asked which cans to use to fill up my recyclables. Instead of giving a clear, professional answer, he immediately responded with attitude and an aggressive, raised tone, telling me not to touch “his cans” and to stand behind a “green line” that did not visibly exist. There were green cans nearby, but he made no effort to clarify what he meant. When I tried to comply based on what I reasonably believed he was referring to, he then raised his voice and began aggressively issuing more orders. He told me not to bring cans near my vehicle, which was four feet from the green cans, and to unload everything in a very specific way that had never been explained in the first place or done during prior visits over the last 10+ years. The entire interaction felt unnecessarily confrontational and controlling rather than helpful or service-oriented, as if he was more focused on being aggressively controlling and confrontational than actually helping customers complete a routine recycling visit. After filling several cans and needing more, I politely asked whether he wanted me to use the empty orange or blue cans nearby so we could continue efficiently. Again, he snapped loudly and aggressively, telling me not to touch anything and that he would give me a can “when he was ready,” forcing us to stand around waiting for several minutes while he worked on something else and did not help other customers (at this point we were the only customer there and everyone else was gone). Shortly afterward, he handed us the exact same empty cans we had already offered to use after he finished whatever he chose to work on. To make matters worse, he then instructed us to carry all of our filled cans over ourselves to be weighed, which is something that has never once been required during my countless previous visits over the years. His tone remained rude, aggressive, impatient, and antagonistic the entire time. On top of the poor treatment and disorganization, the payout we received was noticeably lower than what we have typically received for a similar volume of recyclables (around 50% of what we normally get). I cannot say definitively why that happened, but combined with the disorganization, lack of transparency, and overall treatment, it left a very bad impression, and the process did not feel trustworthy. If this is the level of staffing and customer treatment this recycling center is now willing to tolerate, I urge others to go elsewhere. I would strongly recommend management address how Christian interacts with the public, because experiences like this absolutely drive people away, and I will never come back again.

Christian is the associate we work with when we take our recycling to the Latrobe location. Christian is very professional, helpful, and kind. Thank you for making our recycling an easy task Christian!