Marborg Industries

A recent promotion afforded me the unique ability to experience the Marborg Recycling Center. As a noob, I had no clue how the process worked so I asked the nearest dude. Turns out that wasn’t a good idea… bad info. I was, in good faith, sorting things into different bins with his input. The attendant just combined everything once I reached the front of the line.
Having been experienced at this stage, I am writing to help out the next fellow noob…
1. Plastic and aluminum are your best return. No one is bringing glass… it’s too heavy and worth next to nothing based on weight. For instance a wine bottle weighs a pound and you’ll get 5 or 10 cents. A pound of aluminum is worth a minimum $ 1.57 and plastic bottles $ 1.00 per pound.
2. Park in their parking lot and grab a couple baskets from behind the cashier’s cage. They have large baskets on wheels and also smaller ones you can carry. Use what is appropriate for the amount of recycling you have.
3. Make sure there are only aluminum cans in the basket if that is what you are recycling. The guys weighing it are really good at picking out the sneaks. See my photo… the guy in front was trying to put in a couple full soda cans to up the poundage… they find them and subtract the weight.
4. For the plastic bottles, you need to look at the number on the bottle… if that number is from 1 – 7 you are good to go. Combine all of them into one basket. If it is a large water jug, then it is probably HDPE (high density polyethylene) and needs to go in a separate basket. You get less money for those too btw…$ 0.57 a pound minimum.
5. Get in line and have your items weighed. The attendant gives you a slip of paper and you take that to the cashier. After a signature you are off and away with some cash and a receipt of your transaction.
So where does this money come from that they are doleing out? It’s money that you already paid when you bought the items at the store (+CRV, or California Redemption Value). Think of it like those carts at the airport… if you return them you get some money back. Not a good example? See «The Terminal» with Tom Hanks.
One more thing… they have a 24 hour drop off. You can bring cardboard, newspaper, cans, glass, plastic, magazines, tin cans, scrap metal and office paper at any time of the day or night.
Ok, one more thing… really. They also have a separate station to drop off eWaste, batteries, antifreeze, oil, light bulbs… stuff like that.
Not sure what you can bring? Visit
Happy Recycling!

These guys pick up my trash from my trash cans every week. They are the trash man… Not that crazy. But they show up and have never run over my family, pets or stuff. That said, I just found out you can drop off recycling here 24 hours a day. Talk about a game changer! I have a young family and we are ALWAYS buying stuff so I am always trying to figure out how/​where to get rid of boxes, packing materials, etc that won’t go in our recycle can.
This is a nice touch Marborg. Well played.

Marborg Industries will not deliver a small rollable dumpster to clean out my Relative’s home because the house is at the very flat bottom of the slope of Ontare Rd. — it might roll away. There is a parking cut out where it would be ‘secure’ but there are high wires they can’t ‘avoid’. Then there is a extra flat service road to the side of the house where it could go. BUT their truck is ‘too big and tall’ for this road. They can NOT (of course not!) off load and roll the dumpster a few feet. It took 3 phone calls to learn this information and in the end they blamed it on the City!
I have dealt with Waste Management in 3 others cities. I have seen them put dumpsters in some incredible places, service them and help you with a smile.
So now we just pile the trash along side the street until there is enough to hire someone else to haul it away. What is wrong with this picture? Monopolies don’t always work on behalf of the customers!

Marborg is a great company and the guys who pick up my trash, recycle, and yard waste… well, I cannot say enough good things about them. They have one of the most difficult and dangerous jobs in the city and do it efficiently and well. They have watched out for me when I am driving into the street from my driveway because the city put an island almost in front of my house which has forced the neighbors to park in front of my house making it difficult for me to see oncoming traffic.
I don’t know who that woman was who complained about talking to Olga and then commenting about her name, but she needs her attitude adjusted. I’ve always had good customer service when I call. Try smiling and saying hello to these guys sometime, lady. It goes a long way.
And as far as the rental property complaint from the woman in San Francisco. You can’t have it both ways. Try hauling 50 lb. or more of garbage down a driveway and back 200 times a morning. These guys are not machines, they are people. Some cities do not offer the driveway service so stop your complaining.
Stop and think about what this job entails. Dealing with people like you does not make it any easier for them.

As a residential customer for over 30 years, I have nothing to say but good things about my trash service. The guys who come every week are very considerate… always putting the lids back on the cans. Every time I have called with a question about where to haul big loads, the customer reps are nice as can be. I don’t know why anyone would have a complaint. We are a very lucky town to have the Borgatellos expanding their company and hiring good people.

They collect the trash and recycling from the property on which I reside. We have three neighbors as there are three houses on the property.
This review is SOLELY for their customer service. I have been in retail, customer service and service management and have spoken to Olga on three occasions (how can one forget a name like that?) and found her to be irritable (as did the previous reviewer, it seems) and rude. I don’t work at Marborg, so naturally, I am going to be inquisitive when trying to understand a situation, policy or procedure. Her attitude is unnecessary and unwarranted.

Marborg is awful. This company unfortunately does trash and recycling service for my rental property in Isla Vista.
A few months ago I was forced into backyard service because of Santa Barbara’s strict trash can placement laws. The new local law states that all trash and recycling cans need to be moved from the curb within 12 hours of pick up. They have to be moved a certain distance away from the curb so as to preserve the aesthetics of the neighborhood. This is strictly enforced and property owners are subject to heavy fines if their trash cans continue to be close to the curb after several warnings. Unfortunately, since I am dealing with a rental property, it is very difficult for me to ensure that my tenants are always moving the cans in a timely manner. The city official enforcing this issue drives around inspecting properties the morning after trash pick up, trying to catch people as soon as possible so they are subject to fines.
In order to halt this ongoing headache I decided to pay extra for Marborg’s backyard trash and recycling service. However, for the backyard service you are required to downgrade your trash cans to small, lightweight cans with removable lids (as opposed to large bins with attached lids). This was another huge headache for me, as I heard from many sources that these lightweight cans provide easy access for raccoons and other animals to get into your trash and make a huge mess. I spoke with a Marborg representative to confirmed that many customers complain about these bins and yet they are doing nothing about this problem. There is no way to pay extra to keep the more heavy duty bin that I had used for curbside service.
Great — I had to decide between being subject to fines from the city or being subject to animals spreading trash all over my backyard. Sometimes it feels like Marborg and the city are in cahoots to make residents as miserable as possible.
I decided that I’d rather deal with animals than city fines, so in the end I paid several hundred dollars to have a trash enclosure built for these new, crappy backyard service cans.
I then assumed my problems were done. However, Marborg has been flaky with backyard service (both trash and recycling). They have been blatantly missing some pick ups. On top of that, customer service is rude and defensive, denying that they could have possibly missed a pick up and providing no apology. They are not willing to schedule an emergency pick up even if it is to make up for their own missed service. Rather, I have to wait until the next scheduled trash/​recycling day.
Also, when I called twice in one day about this issue (the second call was to clarify that it was both trash and recycling, not just trash, that they hadn’t collected) the representative showed irritation that I had already called.
This company is the worst.