Waste & Recycling Coordinator

Job Summary

Coordinate hazardous waste, non-hazardous industrial waste, universal waste, used oil, recyclable materials, organics, and general solid waste programs for a vertically integrated acrylic and glass aerospace transparency manufacturing facility.

Ensure waste streams are properly identified, segregated, labeled, accumulated, recycled, shipped, documented, and closed out in accordance with California DTSC/Title 22, federal RCRA concepts, Orange County CUPA expectations, City of Garden Grove commercial recycling/organics requirements, and applicable Department of Transportation shipping practices.

Support operational continuity, customer audit readiness, and environmental stewardship by preventing improper disposal, minimizing landfill waste, reducing waste-generation cost, improving source segregation, and controlling waste risks associated with MMA/monomer handling, solvent bonding, coatings, acrylic scrap, glass waste, contaminated absorbents, filters, sludge, wastewater treatment residuals, maintenance wastes, and packaging.

Job Responsibilities

1. Waste Generation, Segregation, and Accumulation Control

• Perform routine inspections of satellite accumulation areas, central accumulation areas, universal waste areas, used-oil areas, recycling points, scrap staging, trash/organics areas, and outdoor waste storage locations.
• Verify containers are compatible with contents, closed when required, in good condition, properly labeled, dated where applicable, protected from stormwater, and not overfilled or mixed improperly.
• Coordinate timely pickup, consolidation, movement, and shipment of hazardous waste, universal waste, used oil, non-hazardous industrial waste, scrap acrylic, glass, packaging, pallets, cardboard, metals, e-waste, batteries, lamps, filters, absorbents, and maintenance waste.
• Escalate any leak, damaged container, unknown waste, unlabeled container, incompatible storage, storm drain exposure, or missed pickup that could create a compliance, safety, or production risk.

2. Hazardous Waste and California Compliance Execution

• Support waste determinations using SDSs, process knowledge, generator knowledge, analytical data, and EH&S/Environmental Manager direction.
• Maintain hazardous waste profiles, manifests, electronic manifest records, land disposal restriction documentation, inspection logs, training records, contingency information, and vendor certificates.
• Support California DTSC/Title 22 and RCRA-based generator requirements including generator category awareness, EPA ID number support, accumulation time awareness, and cradle-to-grave documentation.
• Prepare for and support Orange County Health Care Agency CUPA inspections, internal audits, waste-area walkdowns, corrective-action follow-up, and evidence packages.

3. Recycling, Organics, and Solid Waste Programs

• Coordinate site recycling and diversion programs for cardboard, paper, plastics, acrylic scrap, pallets/wood, metals, packaging, e-waste, toner, batteries, lamps, organics, and other recoverable materials.
• Support City of Garden Grove and hauler requirements for commercial recycling and organics, including container access, labeling, education, contamination checks, and service alignment.
• Track recycling quantities, landfill diversion, contamination issues, missed pickups, container needs, and opportunities to right-size service levels.
• Partner with purchasing, packaging, shipping, operations, and suppliers to reduce packaging waste, improve returnable/reusable packaging, and identify outlets for clean acrylic and glass scrap where legally and commercially viable.

4. Vertically Integrated Acrylic and Glass Manufacturing Support

• Coordinate waste controls for acrylic casting/forming scrap, MMA/monomer containers, contaminated PPE, solvent wipes, adhesive/coating wastes, filters, resins, catalyst/inhibitor containers, polishing waste, glass dust/slurry, broken glass, rejected transparencies, and production cleanout materials.
• Work with operations and quality to prevent cross-contamination of recyclable acrylic/glass streams with hazardous constituents, FOD-sensitive materials, customer property, restricted program materials, or confidential/controlled scrap.
• Support cleanout, line-change, maintenance, shutdown, trial, and spill-cleanup activities to ensure wastes are staged and documented correctly from the point of generation.
• Coordinate with environmental engineering and facilities on wastewater treatment residuals, sump cleanouts, sludge, filters, oily water, and other water-related waste streams.

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5. Training, Communication, and Shop-Floor Engagement

• Deliver or support practical waste and recycling training for operators, maintenance, shipping/receiving, contractors, and supervisors.
• Maintain visual labels, posters, waste-area instructions, container color coding, and quick-reference guides for what goes where.
• Coach employees on source segregation, container closure, labeling, spill reporting, universal waste, used oil, recyclable materials, organics, and prohibited disposal practices.
• Support safety and EH&S meetings by reporting trends, findings, improvements, and recurring waste-stream issues.

6. Data, Vendor, and Continuous Improvement

• Maintain waste and recycling dashboards including shipment counts, costs, landfill diversion, recycling tonnage, hazardous waste volumes, container findings, missed pickups, and corrective actions.
• Coordinate with approved transporters, waste vendors, recyclers, haulers, labs, and disposal facilities; verify service quality, documentation, and safe site activities.
• Support development of waste minimization projects, such as solvent wipe reduction, reusable packaging, better scrap segregation, material substitution, process yield improvements, and improved purchasing controls.
• Assist EH&S leadership with annual reports, sustainability metrics, customer/insurance audits, regulatory submissions, and management reviews.

7. Aerospace & Defense Audit and Controlled-Material Considerations

• Maintain traceable records and objective evidence that support aerospace customer audits, AS9100/NADCAP-style expectations, and defense-prime supplier scrutiny.
• Coordinate securely with quality, security, contracts, and program teams for disposal or recycling of controlled, customer-owned, export-controlled, or proprietary scrap and documentation.
• Recognize waste handling as an operational continuity risk: improper disposal, mixed waste, or delayed shipments can disrupt civil and military aircraft production commitments.
• Protect contamination-sensitive areas by ensuring waste containers, movement routes, contractor work, and scrap staging do not compromise product cleanliness, optical quality, or FOD controls.

Job Qualifications

• High school diploma or GED required; associate degree, technical certificate, or equivalent coursework in environmental compliance, sustainability, logistics, manufacturing, chemistry, or related field preferred.
• 2+ years of experience supporting waste management, recycling, environmental compliance, manufacturing logistics, EH&S, facilities, maintenance coordination, or regulated industrial operations.
• Working knowledge of hazardous waste segregation, container management, labeling, accumulation areas, manifests, universal waste, used oil, recycling programs, and waste vendor coordination.
• Ability to understand SDSs, waste profiles, shipping documents, labels, inspection checklists, recycling requirements, and site procedures.
• Strong organizational skills, attention to detail, follow-through, and ability to maintain accurate records and deadlines.
• Ability to work safely in production areas involving flammable liquids, MMA/monomers, solvents, coatings, resins, glass processing, machinery, forklifts, maintenance work, and outdoor waste storage.
• Basic computer skills including Microsoft Office, spreadsheets, scanning/document control, vendor portals, waste databases, and corrective-action systems.
• Ability to communicate effectively with operators, supervisors, maintenance, shipping/receiving, contractors, haulers, recyclers, and EH&S professionals.
• Must be a U.S. Person per ITAR regulations to comply with export compliance requirements

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in aerospace, defense, acrylic/PMMA/MMA processing, glass fabrication, coatings, solvent bonding, chemical manufacturing, precision machining, or high-mix regulated manufacturing.
• 40-hour or 24-hour HAZWOPER, DOT hazardous materials training, RCRA hazardous waste training, California hazardous waste generator training, forklift certification, or equivalent site-relevant training.
• Familiarity with DTSC hazardous waste generator requirements, California Title 22, RCRA concepts, e-Manifest, waste profiling, CUPA inspections, CERS/HMBP interfaces, and SPCC/secondary-containment concepts.
• Experience with CalRecycle commercial recycling/organics requirements, SB 1383, AB 341, AB 1826, AB 827, and local hauler or City of Garden Grove program requirements.
• Experience supporting internal audits, customer audits, AS9100/NADCAP-style environments, controlled scrap disposition, or defense/aerospace supplier practices.
• Experience tracking waste KPIs, landfill diversion, recycling contamination, vendor performance, cost savings, and waste minimization initiatives.
• Bilingual English/Spanish capability or demonstrated ability to train and influence a multilingual manufacturing workforce.
• Experience with lean manufacturing, 5S, visual controls, standard work, material handling, warehouse processes, or production-area ownership systems.

Compensation Data

Salary range: $66,886.00 - $83,608.00