The Santa Rosa mateials recycling facility, which serves over 170,000 customers in 13 communities, handles up to 880,000 pounds per day of mixed recyclables. (Polypropylene Recycling Coalition)

One year ago, Recology poured $35 million into its Santa Rosa recycling plant. With 100 conveyor belts, optical scanners, and storage bunkers the size of small houses, the Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) was billed as one of the highest-capacity recycling operations on the West Coast.

The upgrade wasn’t just for show. It turned the plant into one of the few in California able to capture polypropylene — #5 plastic — the stuff in yogurt tubs, butter containers, takeout cups, and endless caps and lids. Before the upgrade, most of that plastic went to the landfill.

The fix came with help from The Recycling Partnership, a national nonprofit backed by consumer brands and industry groups that fund recycling upgrades across the country. Through its Polypropylene Recycling Coalition, the Partnership gave Recology a grant to install specialized sorting equipment.

“When we first engaged with Recology, the facility wasn’t able to sort polypropylene at all,” says Brittany LaValley, who works with the Partnership. “That grant helped them install the equipment to capture it and move it into the market for a second life.”

Where does it go after it leaves Sonoma County? LaValley points to reclaimers in Oregon, Nevada, Southern California, and even British Columbia. “Right now, polypropylene is being turned into durable goods like lawn furniture, plastic lumber, even railroad ties,” she says.

It’s not a perfect loop — your butter tub isn’t becoming another butter tub just yet — but it’s progress. And progress matters, because California law now requires a 65% recycling rate for single-use packaging and foodware by 2032. New rules under SB 343 will also tighten up labeling so only materials that can actually be recycled get that familiar chasing-arrows symbol.

LaValley thinks those changes will matter to everyday residents. “Consumers shouldn’t feel like the entire success or failure of recycling rests on their shoulders,” she says. “The system is complex. But what we’re seeing in Sonoma County shows that investment and innovation can make it better.”

Still, the future isn’t simple. In Rohnert Park, a company called Resynergi has applied to build a facility that uses pyrolysis — a heat-based process sometimes called “chemical recycling” — to turn plastics into oil. Neighbors worry about emissions and health risks, with some calling it incineration in disguise.

LaValley doesn’t dismiss those concerns. “We need to be diligent in understanding new technologies,” she says. “But innovation is absolutely needed. Recycling is never going to be perfect — the challenge is too big — but it can keep getting better.”

One year in, Sonoma County’s $35 million bet on recycling is humming along. The plant is processing nearly 900,000 pounds of material a day and capturing plastics that used to be trash. Whether that momentum carries forward — and whether residents embrace the next wave of recycling technology — will decide if the investment becomes a model or just a moment.