81%recovered · 73 of 90 million lbs · as of August 2025
Where your waste goes
81% of what we haul gets a second life.
Nothing in a Yellowsack goes straight to landfill. Every bag is collected by crane truck and taken to a certified resource-recovery facility, where it's sorted by material and processed for reuse. So far that's 73 million of 90 million pounds recovered. Here's what happens to each material — and how to make your own number higher.
- Your bag
- Crane truck
- Certified sorting facility
- Five material streams
The facilities
San Francisco Bay Area
GreenWaste Zanker Resource Recovery Facility, San Jose
A full resource-recovery operation with dedicated lines for construction and demolition debris, concrete, wood, brush and yard waste, asphalt shingles, drywall, and soils. Zanker was the first recycling facility west of the Mississippi to earn third-party certification from the Recycling Certification Institute, and its wood-recycling operation runs at an independently verified 99.9% recycling rate.
Los Angeles & Orange County
Crown Recycling Services, Sun Valley
A construction-and-demolition diversion facility certified by the City and County of Los Angeles and the State of California, handling C&D materials, green waste, and mixed loads.
The acceptance rules are the same at both.
What happens to each material
- 99.9%verified recovery rateClean woodChipped and recycled — bare, untreated lumber is the most recoverable thing you can put in a bag.Clean wood page →
- 99.9%verified recovery rateYard wasteProcessed into tree chips, mulch, and compost on the same line as wood. Keep palm, ivy, and other fibrous plants out — they can't be processed as green waste.Yard waste page →
- 99.1%verified recovery rateConcrete & bricksCrushed on the concrete-recycling line and recovered as aggregate and construction material; rebar and wire pulled out for metal recycling. Stucco and plaster go the same way.Concrete & bricks page →
- Recoverednot separately ratedDirt & gravelProcessed on the soils line and recovered as landscape and construction material rather than landfilled.Dirt & gravel page →
- 36–38%commingled construction debris*Mixed debrisSorted on the C&D line: wood, metal, drywall, cardboard, and inerts are pulled out; asphalt shingles have their own line; mattresses are recycled separately; refrigerant is removed from appliances by a certified handler; e-waste goes to electronics recycling. What's left goes to landfill. Bulky furniture loads recover less.Mixed debris page →
*Twelve-month diversion rates at GreenWaste Zanker, San Jose, verified by the Recycling Certification Institute, counted without alternative daily cover — the stricter count; material used as landfill cover isn’t counted as recycled. Rates for Crown Recycling Services, Sun Valley, to follow. Rates as of September 2026.
Read the table honestly
A bag of clean wood recovers 99.9%. The same wood thrown into a mixed bag with drywall and carpet recovers whatever the mixed line can pull out — a third to a bit over a third. Same wood, same truck, same facility. The only difference is the bag it went in.
How to raise your own number
Source-separate — it's the single biggest lever, and the numbers above are the proof. One bag of clean wood and one of mixed debris recovers far more than one bag of both, and the separated bag gets its own, lower rate. Keep dirt and concrete in their own Mediums. Keep treated wood out entirely; it's hazardous and has to go to a licensed facility, not a bag.
How to spot pressure-treated wood →For contractors: reports and LEED
Every contractor account gets an online waste-recovery report per project: recycling rate, cost, and weight tickets — numbers your client can put in writing. And because Zanker holds RCI certification, projects that send their materials there are eligible for one LEED point through the Verified Construction and Demolition Recycling Rates Pilot Credit.
Contractor accounts →