Recology is an integrated resource recovery company serving more than 2.5 million residential customers and over 100,000 commercial clients across 127 communities in California, Oregon, and Washington. The company operates through a network of 26 collection companies that provide waste collection, material processing, and recycled commodity marketing services.
The company's operations span the full resource recovery chain: collection services, processing facilities that extract and sort materials, composting operations, recycling centers, and organics processing. Recology markets recovered materials to manufacturers who incorporate them into consumer goods, creating closed-loop systems that divert waste from landfills.
Since 1986, Recology has been entirely employee owned through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, a structure the company states allows it to pursue environmental initiatives without external shareholder constraints. The company traces its roots to Italian immigrants in San Francisco during the mid-1800s, when founders began sorting refuse to recover bottles, rags, and papers for resale - a foundation that shaped its modern mission to eliminate waste through sustainable resource recovery practices.