RePlanet Recycling

When I come here it feels like this is the only spot in Irvine for people to do recycling. I know there are a few recycling centers in this city, but thinking that people may not know its location hidden behind a Ralph’s grocery, is no secret to Irvine residents.
My experience coming here in the morning on weekdays the lines are long and most of the time it does test your patience when waiting until its your turn. You do have two options to process your cans, glass and plastic bottles, through one of the self feeding machines or having them weighted by an attendant. On waiting for the feeders if someone is up there with loads of stuff it can take awhile. Most of the time I happen to get to the machines first versus getting to the attendant who sometimes can take forever.
I did learn from another customer that you get more from your recyclables feeding the machines than having them weighed-​in. I see its .05 cents per small bottle/​can when it goes through the feeders. On larger containers that may not fit the machines you would need to have them weighed in but, best of luck on that line though.
Customer service here is okay. The guy that works here just does his job, but when it comes to lunch time, don’t try to bother him, he’s out! At times, I feel not wanting to come to this location because I feel the entire city of Irvine is here. I encourage people who are in front of the lines to work faster processing your stuff and get an arm workout out of it not only that, be courteous for others behind you.

2.5 stars for the facility. It’s kind of dirty but the two recycle machines worked. Round up to 3 because the ‘one and only staff’ was very nice.
We got tons of recycles at home and was too lazy to sort it. So what you going to do? We went and found a recycle machine to feed in our cans and bottles. The location is behind Ralph’s on culver, so you need to go to the parking area behind Ralph’s.
There were a few people in front of us. Some took a minute and some took forever. Hubby and I fed about 100 pieces in, about 20 got rejected by the recycle machine. ‘One at a time’ ‘bottom in first’ were what we constantly heard from the worker. He sort, he weigh, he restock the receipt paper in the machine. He manage the activities of both of the recycle machines and a third line himself. We handed him the 20 some items that the machine won’t take, and he gave us a voucher to redeem in Ralph’s! This worker is amazing and has tons of patience. Thank you for all that you do!
Now here is my question, what am I going to do with all the empty wine bottles? Hehe…

SERIOUSLY. There should be a time limit for a person can use the machine when someone else is waiting behind the line. Limit it to 5 minutes for one time use or make it 7 – 8 minutes max. You can’t just bring hundreds of bottles and monopolize the machine for like an hour.
SERIOUSLY. Do something about this nonsense! PLEASE!!!

Piece of shit business. Extremely unprofessional workers. If you have closing procedures that you have to do, then change your damn closing time. What’s the point of being open until 4:30 if you’re not going to stay open until 4:30? Is that how you run a business? Ridiculous. Don’t bother coming here unless you want to waste your time and get turned away. Would never recommend.

You can either weigh your recyclables or do the self feed machine. You get more money feeding it, but it is more time consuming.
The guy that works here is very nice. Be warned even though the weighing is faster, if there are people ahead of you it can be quite a wait. I think we were here a hour waiting in line and doing the self feed for half the time.

This recycling center is located behind Ralph’s by the loading dock in Heritage Park Plaza. As there are only 2 self-​feeding machines (for qualified cans, glass, and plastic bottles with CRV), you may have to wait for a bit if you came at a busy time. However, you also have the option to weigh in the recyclables, but it’s a lower value price per pound compared to the self-​feeding machine. For example, aluminum can is $ 1.59/lb compared to $ 0.05 per small container or $ 0.10 for large container. If you don’t have a lot of containers and don’t want to wait, weighing in is faster and not much difference in redemption.
Compared to the Tustin location, the self-​feeding machines here in Irvine is not as picky on how you feed it in. Friendly and courteous, the attendant works really hard and is always busy, sometimes delaying his 1:00 — 1:30 lunch break to make sure the customers are served. Kudos for him making redeeming the CRV a breeze. When you’re done, take the voucher to cash in at Ralph’s.
Parking: not many marked parking spots, but people usually park by the tree if they need to wait in line.

This by far my favorite one to go to. Sure, it’s out of my way, but there’s hardly anyone who comes to this one and it’s located behind the Ralph’s. Personally, I prefer the fact that it’s hidden. I don’t have to worry about how haggard I look, and get my recycling done quickly.

Guy is never back on time from his lunch. Sign says Lunch break 1:00 pm– 1:30 pm. Then be back at 1:30. While he has us waiting in this heat he was working on his car in the back parking lot. Get real.

The attendant is always polite and friendly here.
Fair pricing and easy process. It does take a bit longer here than at other recycling centers because its popular on the days and times I can make it, and it has one attendant.
There are two automatic can counters, but they drive me bonkers because the containers have to be just so, to be read by the scanner. Thank goodness the attendant is such a pleasant hard working fellow. He keeps the area safe, clean, and the customers in check… Please no cutting in line my green friends.

the best refund compared to the other centers

I’ve used several RePlanet sites and I’d have to say this is one of my worst experiences.
The machines had a difficult time recognizing and processing my containers. So I waited 15 minutes on my lunch break for the attendant (who was 15 minutes late!)
Then I’m told milk containers are not accepted. And a bunch of other containers were also not accepted. I had brought a very similar mix of containers to the Cerritos RePlanet (at Carminita and South) and they accepted them all with no problem. The attendant was also very annoyed that I even wanted to try to recycle to milk jugs.