I went there to throw away a broken bathroom cabinet. I paid 27 for that. Then I found a I missed a piece and returned there. They want to charge me 27 again for one piece of board. The price and place are ridiculous.
I moved here over 30 years ago to work on the Lockheed campus as a underworked, overpaid Air Force employee so I feel we are fortunate for disposal, recycling, and I now come weekly to get free compost for my sister's yard in Saratoga, My condo HOA does like my 5 gal. buckets. But no one who walked during Covid-19 complained about what I tried to grow.
If you need to recycle almost anything, I would bring it here. I mainly come here for the compost and mulch. A couple of big buckets and I have enough for my yard. I recommend bringing a shovel in case all the donated shovels are being used; otherwise, you will have to use your hands.
That female employee should be fired! This person whose name seems to be Andrea is the worst person I have ever seen in this location. We were in middle of sorting and dumping our bottles into baskets under a gentleman’s instruction and she just came out of nowhere and yelled something ridiculous to turn us away, so she doesn’t need to work. Such an impolite and unethical person to deal with.
Andrea is very rude. She should be fired. There’s no one on the line. She insisted we need to wait for an hour. She said she is busy but she is not. She should not Work here. Very impolite.
Wonderful service the city provides. Items I to recycle are to be sorted via these bjns, marked for plastic, glass, metal, sharps, etc. they also allow one to recycle paint, but the paint has to be liquid, not dried, and the original label needs to be on the paint. They did check my license at the gate to make sure I was a Santa Clara resident. One can also pick up compost for free at the site. There do not recycle hazardous liquids, need to go to a different place, and they also do not take trash.
Having lived in Sunnyvale over 2 decades, one of the most amazing (yet seemingly unappreciated if not outright neglected) services a city offers is this SMaRT Station. If you just compare to the neighboring cities, Mountain View or Santa Clara, their citizens don't have a similar alternative.
What SMaRat Station offers is the convenience for those ( living in Sunnyvale or surrounding municipalities) to recycle their beverage bottles, from plastics to cans to bottles for , rather than going into our local landfills. In addition, you can also drop off used batteries, broken or outdated electronics. The only minor complaint is they require to separate these different recyclables into PROPER bags/boxes, even if you have one that mixed up, you could be asked to come back at another day.
Another benefit is you get these pre-composted soils for planting for FREE ‼‼ How good is that! What other Bay Area cities offer their citizens these invaluable services.
Great recycling center, very well organized, with rules clearly posted. You have to make an appointment to come here, so it's never too crowded. Today took a lot longer than usual: I think this was a new guy attending it. They pay in cash rather than in third party redemption slips.
The new Google art on 1390 Borregas Ave & E Caribean Dr, in front of Smart Station, is so pretty. If you haven’t seen it, I recommend that you do then take a leisure walk on Baylands Trail. Thank you Google for adding beauty to Sunnyvale
Love the SmaRT-Station in Sunnyvale - easy access, moderate tipps, and great direct drive to the huge dumpster hall, where you can have the cathartic experience of getting rid of all your old luggage (i.e. excess trash)! Thanks a lot!
Came 25 minutes before closing with a few boxes of bottles, was met by an attendant that was extremely rude and acting as if it were 1 minute before closing. She was not interested in doing her job at all, and after everything was loaded and weighing, claimed that we couldn't do a "split" so we have to take everything back, preventing us from recycling at all.
I don't know if there are other, more cooperative attendants, but I would not return to this one.
What a wonderful service. They even have free mulch and dirt, you have to shovel it and carry it yourself but it's available. The staff is friendly and helpful. It gets busy on the weekends so maybe consider off hours. They also take larger household items for fee. All the recycling is free and I think you can get money back if you do cans or plastic.
My spouse and I arrived with eight bags of plastic and glass and we had also brought cans. A female employee was there and instead of actually even saying hello she immediately proceeded by trying to turn me away. She kept on saying that we need an appointment and to go to other recycling centers. She said that she had appointments every 15 minutes and that she couldn't take us. My spouse came by after being some of the recycled over and a gentleman came by at that moment and started helping us without any issues. I really don't know what that lady's issue was she was very unpleasant. I almost felt like she had a thing against me.
Not a place to visit for fun, but if you're a local resident you can recycle a lot of stuff here. I appreciate not having to throw everything into the trash can.
I typically come here for * Getting free compost as a local resident * Recycling electronics, scrap metal, batteries * Recycling (or possibly for reuse?) shoes but I'll check online for anything I want to recycle/toss to see if they accept it.
I think they also have a program for taking paint. They also do buy back and have many other types of recycling.
I've never had an issue coming here to recycle things. The most unexpected thing was that once they ran out of compost, so I had to come again after a few days.
I came here around 9 am last Sunday for the happy dumping weekend and was surprised to see how organized things were. Approaching the booth, I got in the line for residency check that moved quickly. Then a brief stop near the dump center. There were about 8 spots for folks to back in and dump, so it was quick. After I dropped off a few items, I went around the facility to leave. There were additional staff on the other side to allow more folks to unload. By the time I approached the booth again, there were no cars waiting. Pretty cool.
Head to this place for getting free compost (applies to residents of Sunnyvale, Mountain View and Palo Alto only). Carry some form of id to show that you are a resident of above cities.
Make sure to carry gloves and soil bag. You will have to check in with an attendant there before picking up compost.
The place also accepts bottles and cardboards for recycling.
By appointment only. It was a smooth and easy experience for me as I only had aluminum cans (though about 8 trash bags). Just emptied my bags of cans into their provided containers when it was my turn. They quickly weighed it, paid my CRV back, and done!
I went to the SMaRT station this afternoon and was turned away. I was told by the operator and her supervisor that I had to have an appointment. The next appointment was in August. Besides myself, there was another person who had recycling and discussed the situation with the supervisor - he reiterated that we had to have an appointment! The 15 minutes that I was there nobody showed up with an appointment, so why couldn't they service us? IF YOU WANT THE PUBLIC TO RECYCLE, MAKE IT CONVENIENT, NOT DIFFICULT. In the time I spent there they could have taken 10 others. Repeat---nobody showed up with an appointment!
Love that we have this free service available to Sunnyvale residents. I use it for recycling large amounts of cardboard, old light bulbs, fluorescent tubes, batteries and getting compost, free dump weekends, old TV's, old computers, etc. Great, great service. I have never been turned away as I read in other reviews. Thank you again for offering this great service.
Not a good place to dump your debris from construction work. Way too expensive than other places. $70+ for a single yard. Besides it's nasty muddy in the site.
Free garden compost for residents of Sunnyvale, pick up once per week in your own containers. There are usually shovels there but bring your own on Saturday and Sunday because crowds come on weekends. Be prepared to show your ID for proof of residence. Also free drop off of large cardboard boxes (flatten them first).
Website
