The process is smooth. You sort and organize your recycling materials (plastic, aluminum, and glass). Then you get paid for it for the amount you bring. The exchange rate is moderately fair and equally comparative to its competitors nearby. Also, there is decent amount of parking when you go when there isnt a lot of people. Overall, whenever I needed some few bucks, this place always held it down for me. read more

Nice and clean recycling center. The staff was helpful and fast. In and out in no time, at all.

The actual recycling center is set up nice and clean but the customer service and the whole process was bad. The guy who works there is rude!! Will probably never go back again. read more

Gardena Recycling is a great place to turn in cans, bottles,and plastic. Great customer service.

Only 1 worker and is supper slow only customer here and the guy still took 20 minutes might as well go somewhere else even if there busier

Very rude ! Didn't help just was on his phone , do not come here , I've had better service at different locations

I was completely bummed when Venture Recycling on 182nd shut down because it was the most convenient recycling center to home. When I learned they had a sister location at Lomita, I decided the trek wasn't so bad since we've had a good experience with them for many years. Out of curiosity, I Yelped to see if there are other (closer) options. This place popped up, but before making the drive, I called to ask if they recycle cans and bottles. (I called a few other places and they only did industrial recycling.) They also verified they're open until 4pm. So... why not. I did a random mid-week mid-day run. Great first impression: it's clean and organized. I got lucky because it wasn't crowded, so parking wasn't an issue. I was able to get rid of the bottles and cans pretty quickly. The only thing they do not do is recycle wine bottles (unless they're CRV marked!) No biggie. Good first run! This might just be my new recycling go-to... read more

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Their scales are incorrect and need to be recalibrated. When I argued with them, they gave me my bottles back. DO NOT BRING YOUR RECYCLABLES HERE. They'll rip you off. read more

Beware they do not allow walk-ins or bicycle customers. And they are not nice about it. read more

First time at this place, so I separated all my cans and glass and everything. So I take it to the cashier and he told me I had a few glasses that they can't take, so I said oh ok sorry about that switch ones so I can take them out, he said don't worry I got it I said thank you. So I turn around and the owner of the place was looking me looking upset about something. But this is me and the owner conversation. Owner:you need to clean the glass! Me:excuse me? Owner: you need to clean the glass (points at me this time) Me: so you want me to wash the glass before I bring them here? I'm confused on what you are telling me. Owner: clean the glass because it's not the guy job (cashier) to go through your trash. Me: well I told the guy if he needed me to take it out just point and I will do so. Owner:no no no, still it's your responsibility to take it out. Me: well I'm not a recycling person so how will I know what you can or can't take, does that make sense. Idk anything about glasses so the person telling will know me right? Owner:just looked at me, keeps saying I need to clean it. And then walks away. Me: looks at the cash register guy and said who the hell was that, he told the owner, I said so is that how he treats everyone here? If so I would look for another job. Got to if it to the place tho it is clean but I'm NEVER going back there again. read more

I want to start by saying I am a long time Gardena resident, who's watched my usual recycle centers close down for whatever reasons, so I really appreciate the fact that these guys are still open and serving the community. With that being said, my review still needs to be honest. THE GOOD; Their mobile billboard parked on western indicates you will get $2 per pound for CRV cans. Cool! Upon arrival, it was really organized, with plenty of trash bins, scrap containers, and seemed to be pretty quick in and out. Cool! Were there people running to help me...no. That's not too typical at these sort of places. The two guys there, while not overtly friendly, we're not A holes either...Cool I guess? THE BAD; Now to the reason I deduct stars. I'm an experienced recycler, taking cans and bottles back for a family of 9 for over 20 years. I know the games these centers play, and this one is no exception. 1. My cans were clean and dry, not a little, not mostly...100% clean and dry. I'm pretty OCD about this when I presort at home and store the cans. Without even a cursory inspection of the cans, they deducted 6% for moisture. This is, sadly, a typical experience at these places...one I've had to argue about in the past. This being my first time here, I kept my mouth shut the entire time to see what they did naturally. 6% isn't actually bad in the real world...I've had other recyclers auto deduct 15% before. Still though, its sad they didn't even look or explain to me what they were doing. 2. Bait and switch. The mobile billboard says $2. The sign at the shop says 1.75. Again, a tactic I'm used to and I chose not to say anything to see what they'd do. After their bogus 6% moisture deduction, I got about 1.644 per pound...a difference from the advertised $2 of .356 per pound, which added up to a $14.88 difference for my 41.8 pounds of cans. THE UGLY; Sadly, this seems to be a business model common to many recycling centers. I think they'd be much better off with complete transparency and price tiers clearly conveyed to their customers, but apparently this is hard to do. If it takes false advertising and fake moisture deductions for them to be profitable enough to stay in business, then so be it. My experience with these types of businesses is that they'd be better off cultivating relationships with their customers instead of fostering resentment. I will go again, but next time, I'm going to be vocal about the ad, and the moisture. I'm looking forward to updating this review then. In the meantime, you are now armed with the info from my experience...I hope it was helpful, use it as you will. read more

Gardena Recycling Center - Recycling Center Near Me - Gardena, California

For a recycling center clean enough, Good people and plenty of parking. ........ read more

I grew up in the gardena area and have been coming to this place for years and have always had a good experience. I returned because my parents still live there and had cans they wanted me to take in, it was quite a bit almost a hundred pounds. I put them in the plastic weighing containers and then had it done and was surprised that when I got the receipt there wasn't a hundred pounds in cans. By the time I got home I noticed they charged me a 15 percent fee, my guess is it's a wet fee. There was no rain and I smashed all those cans in the morning before I came. There is absolutely NO WAY that there was 15 pounds of moisture or dirt or anything except for aluminum in there and if there was you would have seen it coming out of the bottom of the weighing cages. If they had warned me ahead of time I would not have even had them weighed there, the man who was in charge didn't say anything except to see my ID before paying me. That is a dishonest business practice and I would never recommend this place nor will I ever return. read more

Not the best location but it's close n easy. Went there around 10-11ish n wasn't busy :-)

So far, so good! Seems a lot better than the closed down, rip-off place of of 182nd Street.

Thieves they don't give you what your cans are actually worth it's better to go to bestway recycling they'll give you what your cans are actually worth but these guys have became rats smh read more

My mother-in-law and I come here about very 5 months or so, it would be 5 stars except for the owner he is a straight-up jerk. Employees are awesome- place is SUPER clean compared to other centers we have gone to in the area. Our stuff is pre-sorted and clean, I cant handle the rude people that take up all this space sorting their stuff do that at home. We're small so I love the big barrels on wheels makes things so much easier, in the warmer weather you will be mauled by bees but the line goes really fast. read more

On yelp it says they close at 1pm. We arrived at 11:40am and saw their business hours and it says they close at 12pm. So they need to fix that. We had 20 mins to discard all of our recycling which is plenty of time. As soon as we parked, a man (who looks to be like the owner of this place) comes out and tells us to "hurry up", they were about to close. We understood and hurried up. 5 mins later at 11:45pm...he tells us to bring up whatever we had in the waste bins and the rest would have to wait. We still had 15 mins left and he refused. He was such an ass and his demeanor was nasty. We will never come back here. And we will never recommend this recycling place to anyone. read more

Worst customer service I go in asking questions person by the name "Chino" started shouting things at me telling me to read the sign etc thats what there their for to help out customers not to shout and scream at First And Last time here Mark Ass..... read more

I went to do some recycling on 1.29.21. My aluminium cans was on one scale which I could see how much it weighed, but my plastic bottles were on another scale. There is no way I could know how much my bottles weighed and the plastic container was full. I'm not going back there because I've been to other recycling places and for sure I got more than $15.00 read more

I don't live in Gardena but I shop in Gardena. I went to this recycling place and I was asked for my I.D. I politely showed my D.L. and I was told that they could not accept my recycling because I didn't live in Gardena. I purchased my items in Gardena so why not recycle my items there. THIS WAS TOTALLY UNCALLED FOR AT ITS BEST. The old guy was so very RUDE. read more

This place is Clean! The premises are very, very, clean and well kept------- not like the other recycling places! They take many kinds of metal, for instance, my brother-in-law just moved into a house and we were cleaning outside on the side of the house. Someone had replaced the shower doors and left the aluminum tracks to the doors dumped on the side of the house. I brought those in to Gardena Recycling Center and they were worth $2. It's not just the money, it's the fact that whatever you take to them gets recycled and doesn't end up in the dump. P.S. I took some old copper pipes and some other metal items at my first visit and walked away with $19....! You can take regular redeemables, like water bottles and tin cans here also. So clean out your backyard and your garage! Then your neighbor's & friend's garage... and bring all that metal junk here!! Get Busy! Thomas the Train http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/06/18/business/19thomas-600.jpg read more

This is my first time recycling here after moving in the area. The place is very clean and organized. I love that the bins all have wheels which makes things so much easier. This makes me look forward to recycling! read more

Very clean facility. Large bins for recycled items. First time there. For, first timer's they ask for ID. In & out within 10 minutes. Since I have them per bagged & separated before hand. A+ read more

So stupid...you can only come if you have a car. And you need an iD. For what? I have no idea. No one helps new customers to separate their things. The sign says stainless steel but the guy tried to discourage me from getting mines weighed because he said it's too cheap. No communication. Good luck homeless people because they're excluding them by limiting their customers to cars only. So stupid. Never coming back here. read more

Gardena Recycling Center - The sign at the entrance - Recycling Center Near Me - Gardena, California

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Came here before and recycled our cans and such. Now when we visit the place again, they said they only take CA CRV's only! - Like seriously WTF moment?! Now we have to go find elsewhere to recycle the other little sh*t stain few of a cans/bottles we have left that they wouldn't take SMH Waste of time. Just going to go home with what I have and save it for another time. Gonna call in the other places next time before I leave home to make sure. read more

Gardena Recycling Center - The Gardena Recycling Center - Recycling Center Near Me - Gardena, California

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My sister and I went to GRC for the first time. I was hesitant because of the negative reviews and realized everyone's experience is different. It was one of the cleanest recycling centers I have seen. The guys were helpful and the owner showed no attitude. Now my sister can go alone and feel safe (she's 76). I feel as though the money we received was decent. My recommendation check it out. If you like nasty recycling centers go some where else. read more

They have bad customer service. If you're a woman they talk to you like you're stupid. I go to the recycling center in Lawndale now they offer better prices and have nice staff. This place needs a complete re haul of their workers. No one is helpful and you ask them one question and they make you look like you're stupid. Ladies, don't give your recyclables to these creeps. read more

I have been going here for years. My daughter and I sort b4 we go for faster service and of course ice cream after for a job well done.

I save my recyclables and come here about twice a year for past few yeas. It's very clean and organized with good staff. Came here last month and still clean and organized. Does not take a lot of time and feel like I'm not throwing my money away. read more

Cool center. They take plastic, glass, and cardboard. They even pay per lb. I didnt have much just wanted to clean out my house. It was quick and easy ! Staff is very friendly too. read more

Clean and safe environment with super fast Nd friendly service. I usually go to Re-Planet but this place is much faster and more convenient. read more

I've been here 3 times, the first 2 were pretty good, they helped me sort out some of my metal scraps and unload the car. BUT my last visit was horrible. I will never return here. I guess its because my first 2 visits had items worth value (copper, aluminum, stainless steel), but my last visit was mostly scrap metal, i think maybe 2 cents a pound. When I asked the guy for help, he looked at my stuff and told me that he doesn't even want to bother with it. He will bring a dumpster and I can throw away the items here. I was a little appalled, and I was tired from loading up at least 500lbs of it into my van, so I said I will just throw them away. WELL THANKS FOR TAKING MY METAL FOR FREE, even if it was $10 bucks or something, he could have at least weighed it and paid me for it, instead of telling me to throw away my "trash" here or take it somewhere else. He was giving me attitude too and trying to rush me saying "you want the dumpster or not? your wasting my time" when it wasn't even busy. I'll take his advice next time and take my metal elsewhere. read more

I have been here many times during the year and I always felt as a black male I was been cheated, so I decided to conduct a test. My test proved that I was right. I had a friend take her plastic a day before I did. I used the same bags that she used and I purposely added more plastic than she had in her bags. My receipt showed that I had more weight than her receipt, but I got paid less money than she did. I already contacted the Better Business Bureau with proof. read more

I have been here several times, I usually don't have many plastic bottles but maybe half a bin at the most. I have felt like I wasn't getting all the money I was due so I count my bottles now as I place them in the bin to give myself an idea of how much it should be-they didn't weigh my items sometimes and just threw them in the bin with no real count. So things have been right since then I can say. My MAIN complaint about this place since day 1 is nobody really speaks ENGLISH! So initially when I had questions etc I couldn't really get a straight answer because the guys that weigh the items couldn't properly communicate with me. I am from Georgia so I guess this is how a lot of places here are, but if you have a biz here in US the least you can do is staff people that speak English well to deal with customers. Every customer you have isn't a Spanish speaker. As a first timer, it will take a sec to figure out how everything works if you aren't used to recycle centers like this, since nobody can really help you unless you speak spanish. People are friendly and the wait isn't to long to get items weighed. read more

This place may be clean but the owners are sharks! I have used them twice now and both times they deducted $ from me for "moisture." My recycling sits in a closed garage for weeks before I accumulate a large enough load to make it worth my while to transport to a recycling center. On a recent trip to Gardena Recycling I had $3 deducted for my fictitious "moisture." This is how crooked they are... I returned 13 lbs. of alum. cans @ $2.00/lb. with their online (hook) coupon. I should have received $26 but only netted $23 after the deduct. Their $3 deduction amounts to 1 1/2 lbs. of "moisture" at $2 per pound. Water weighs 6 lb./gallon so my 1 1/2 lbs. of "moisture" equaled 1/4 gallon or 1 quart of water. Yea, I hid a quart of water in my cans so I could fraudulently pump up the weight...this is such B.S.! Consumer tip...use Western Recycling a few short blocks south of this location, they are fair and their pricing is better too! read more