Your Amazon Boxes Have Somewhere to Go: Inside Orange County’s Upgraded Recycling Hub
An excavator moves mixed recyclable materials at WM’s recycling facility in Orange, where cardboard, paper, plastic and aluminum are sorted using scanners and automated technology.
Photo credit The Vine
WM (formerly Waste Management) hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday, March 6, to mark its Orange County facility’s $20 million upgrade. roughly 35% of the material processed at the facility originates from Irvine, making the city one of the major municipalities contributing to the facility’s operations.
The facility upgrades include nine optical sorting machines, which use sensors and artificial intelligence to identify and separate different materials on the recycling line. The system helps improve recovery rates for materials such as cardboard, paper, plastics, and glass. Formerly much of the work was done through human hands, which sort through 50 items per minute. The modernized operation uses advanced technology equipped with automation and AI to sort through 1,000 items per minute.
As WM continues to add more technology to its operations, area Recycling Director Stephen Moreno said that where possible staff formerly used for manual sorting will be moved to other roles in the organization. These roles might include equipment operators, maintenance technicians, and other administrative positions.
“We’ve already seen improvements in our residue rate,” he said, referring to the portion of material that cannot be recycled and must be disposed of. “That means more materials recovered and less waste overall.”
WM executives and local officials, including Irvine City Councilmember William Go (second from the right), hold the ceremonial ribbon during a reopening celebration for the company’s upgraded recycling facility in Orange.
Photo credit The Vine
The upgrades are part of WM’s broader sustainability strategy. The firm has plans to invest $3 billion nationally toward recycling and renewable energy projects in the future.
“The goal is simple,” said Executive Director of Recycling Operations, Ryan Nordt. “Capture more recyclable material and keep it out of landfills.”
According to Moreno, early results since the system began operating have been encouraging.
“This facility represents more than an upgrade,” said Moreno. “It’s part of a broader transformation to improve efficiency and increase the amount and quality of materials we recover.”
Attendees listen to remarks during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at WM’s recycling facility in Orange. In the foreground are compressed bales of recycled aluminum cans.
Photo credit The Vine
Speakers at the event noted that recycling streams have changed significantly over the past decade, largely due to shifts in consumer behavior.
“Fifteen years ago, newspapers dominated the recycling stream,” Nordt said. “Today it looks very different. Cardboard from online shopping now makes up the largest portion of the materials we process.”
The upgraded system improves recovery of polypropylene plastic cups, which are commonly used for drinks at coffee shops and fast-food restaurants. Glass still represents about 15% of the material stream at the Orange facility. Plastics, including polypropylene products such as yogurt cups and certain food containers, remain another key category. These materials are separated and sent to manufacturers who convert them into packaging, pallets, paint cans, and storage containers.
WM officials emphasized that recycling systems depend on cooperation among residents, businesses, and local governments.
“Recycling works when we all work together,” Nordt said. “Residents placing materials in recycling bins, trucks collecting them, and facilities like this processing them all play a role.”
In Southern California, the company has also expanded its network of facilities that process organic waste. This includes composting and anaerobic digestion operations required by California’s SB 1383 law. The goal of the legislation, to divert organic waste from landfills, is giving WM new opportunities to meet residential and commercial needs.
“Every day residents make decisions about what goes in the recycling bin,” Moreno said. “Those decisions ultimately determine how much material we can recover and reuse.”
Recycling 101: What Goes in the Bin?
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• Bottles and cans
• Plastic cups and containers (including #5 plastic cups made of polypropylene))
• Paper
• Cardboard -
These items contaminate recycling or damage equipment:
• Garden hoses
• Plastic bags and film (mixed plastics)
• Christmas lights
• Bowling balls
• Large plastic or metal objects that aren’t packaging -
When recyclables are properly sorted, about 95% of them can be recovered and turned into new products. Contamination from items that don’t belong in the bin can prevent materials from being recycled.