Commercial Solar Panel Recycling in California
Net Zero Waste
Net Zero Cost.
The Solar Recycling Company recycles and recovers value from end-of-life solar panels for commercial and utility-scale projects across California. We handle decommissioned arrays from EPC contractors, O&M providers, and asset owners, move the material to our California facilities, recover the glass, aluminum, silicon, copper, and silver, and issue a Certificate of Completion. Get a Quote and we will respond within 24 hours.
Why Choose Our Solar Recycling Company
The Solar Recycling Company is a California recycler, not a broker that forwards your panels and hopes. We take end-of-life and decommissioned panels from commercial and utility-scale projects, process them at our California facilities, and recover the glass, aluminum, silicon, copper, and silver inside them. Panels that still test good are refurbished for reuse; the rest are recycled responsibly. You get one accountable partner for pickup, logistics, recycling, and documentation, handled to California universal waste standards.
Years Experience
States Served
Chemical Free
Landfill Waste
solar panel recycling in california
What We Offer
Sell Solar Panels & Equipment
Solar Asset Recovery is the secondary market for excess new and used solar panels, inverters, battery backup storage.
Solar Panels Recycling & Destruction
Buy Solar Panels & Equipment
We ship globally.
Our Solar Recycling Company Process
At our California solar panel recycling company, we’ve built a proven, end-to-end system for handling end-of-life solar panel recycling in California the right way. Every step is designed to maximize recoverable materials while protecting local communities and ecosystems, supporting cleaner energy from start to finish. By following strict environmental and operational standards at every stage, we keep solar panel waste out of California landfills and help power a more circular, resource-efficient clean-energy economy.
Discovery
Share the panel type, quantity, condition, and site location, and we scope the project.
Logistics
We coordinate packaging, pickup, and transport from your California site.
Estimation
You’ll receive an initial estimate outlining the Solar Recycling Company scope, material recovery potential, and associated costs, and if needed, we’ll provide a prepaid shipping label for easy delivery to our Solar Recycling Company facility.
Estimation
We return a quote, usually within 24 hours, with handling and documentation included.
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Logistics
Prepare and dispatch your solar panels to our Solar Recycling Company center for secure, trackable recycling, with all logistics managed to meet sustainability and safety standards.
Reprocessing
Panels are sorted for reuse or recycling, and recoverable materials are separated at our facilities.
You receive a Certificate of Completion for your compliance and ESG records.
Get Your Quote
Ready to get started? Fill out our form and we’ll get back to you with a personalized quote within 24 hours.
scrap solar panel recycling company in california
Solar Asset Recovery is the scrap solar panel recycling company. We help to minimize the waste and try to offset costs of shipping and handling by recycling your old and used solar panels and equipment.
Are you looking to recycle broken solar panels, inverters or power storage in California? Contact us with the details and would love to see if we can be of assistance.
*We don’t typically deal with small residential projects, only large scale commercial and utility-scale decommissioning. Typical minimum would be 100 panels.
Who We Work With
California Solar Panel Recycling Laws & Compliance
Since January 1, 2021, California has managed discarded solar panels as universal waste under the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC). In plain terms, commercial solar panels cannot go to a normal landfill; they must go to an authorized universal waste handler or recycler. The rule lets handlers accumulate panels for up to one year and transport them without a full hazardous waste manifest, which makes properly run recycling both legal and practical. The Solar Recycling Company handles projects to these standards from its California facilities and issues a Certificate of Completion for each job.
California Recycling Laws Every Solar Owner Should Know
Law | Applies to | Financial assurance deadline | What it now requires
|
|---|---|---|---|
SB 489 (2015) + DTSC PV-Module Universal Waste Regulations (effective Jan 1, 2021) | End-of-life photovoltaic modules that would otherwise be hazardous waste, held by any commercial handler in California | No lease-based deadline; a continuous handling standard since Jan 1, 2021. Panels may be accumulated up to one year before shipment | End-of-life panels must be managed as universal waste and sent to an authorized universal-waste handler or recycler, not landfilled. Reduced paperwork (transport without a hazardous-waste manifest), but recycling or disposal through permitted channels is mandatory |
Solar-Use Easement Act (Gov. Code ch. 6.9, sec. 51190 and following; SB 618/2011, amended by AB 1156/2025) | Utility-scale solar sited on Williamson Act (agricultural-contract) land via a solar-use easement | Decommissioning plan and financial assurance required at easement approval; framework uses periodic (about five-year) assurance updates; restoration due on easement termination | Removal of all solar equipment, soil management, and restoration of the land to agricultural condition, backed by operator financial assurance reviewed by the Department of Conservation |
County conditional-use permit + CEQA (project-by-project) | Most utility-scale solar and battery projects on private land permitted by California counties | Decommissioning bond or surety set as a permit condition; typically posted before construction and maintained through operation, with removal due at end of use or permit expiration | A decommissioning plan, equipment removal, site restoration, and increasingly recycling of panels, with a bond sized to the county’s removal estimate (often net of salvage value) |
Battery storage: SB 283 (2025) and AB 303 (2025), with AB 205 opt-in permitting | New battery energy storage facilities (BESS) | No statewide decommissioning-assurance deadline; recycling and removal assurance is set locally through the conditional-use permit and CEQA, not by these statutes | SB 283 requires new BESS to meet NFPA 855 fire-safety standards and coordinate emergency response with local fire authorities; AB 303 (a two-year bill) proposed siting setbacks. Unlike Texas HB 3809, California has no statewide statute requiring BESS recycling financial assurance yet |
Our Facilities and Service Area:
Santa Ana, CA: 1736 E. Borchard Ave., Santa Ana, CA 92705.
Desert Hot Springs, CA: 65089 San Jacinto Ln., Desert Hot Springs, CA 92240.
We serve commercial and utility-scale projects across California, including Los Angeles, San Diego, the Bay Area, Sacramento, and the Central Valley.
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It’s tough to be proud about how environmentally friendly renewable energy sources are if they turn out to be major sources of pollution in the future.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about our solar recycling company services
Why should I recycle my broken solar panels?
There are several valid reasons why you should recycle your end-of-life, unused, or broken solar panels in California and cities like Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Fresno, Sacramento, Long Beach, Oakland, Bakersfield, Anaheim, and below we’ll discuss some of them.
The most important one is arguably the fact that recycling your solar panel is the environmentally responsible thing to do.
Solar panels are made with hazardous materials (i.e., cadmium, chromium, lead, and others). When you irresponsibly dispose of your solar panels, these hazardous materials can pollute the environment. Responsible recycling of solar panels can help to keep these dangerous materials out of waterways or landfills.
Another important reason to consider is the fact that recycling solar panels can help to conserve resources. Manufacturing a solar panel is expensive and requires the use of many valuable materials. In the recycling process, we can recover some of these valuable materials, be it silicon, glass, or even silver and copper.
We can then reuse these materials to make new products, including new solar panels. This practice can indirectly contribute to protecting the environment, since we can reduce the need for extracting non-renewable resources from the earth.
How does solar panels recycling process work?
A typical solar panel recycling process in California follows these steps:
- Dismantling: the first step in the California solar panel recycling process is to dismantle the panels. This step typically involves dismantling the glass, metal, and plastic components from the panel. Plastic components tend to be more difficult to remove than glass and metal components.
- Hazardous materials removal: solar panels may contain hazardous materials such as chromium, lead, and cadmium. In the recycling process, these materials are removed from the glass panels before being disposed of in an environmentally responsible and safe manner, for example, by incinerating them, shredding or disposing of them in a landfill.
- Glass recycling: the glass materials extracted from the solar panel will then be recycled into new glass products (i.e., bottles, windows, or even other solar panels.) Recycling glass involves crushing it into smaller pieces before they are then melted down and re-formed into new products.
- Metal recycling: recycled metal materials can be used to make new metal products, such as phones, cars, and other hardware. Metals are melted down at very high temperatures and then cast into new shapes to form new products.
- Plastic recycling: the plastic materials can be melted down and then molded into new products, such as toys, furniture, and other products.
In practice, the solar panel recycling processes of each component can be very complex. But as we can see, recycling solar panels in California can play a very important role in reducing waste and protecting the environment.
What types of solar panels can be recycled?
Most solar panels can be recycled. However, some types of solar panels—especially those that contain hazardous materials—may be more challenging to recycle and may require special handling.
Below we will discuss some major types of solar panels available and their recyclability:
- Crystalline silicon solar panels
The most common and widely used type of solar panel available, these solar panels are made mainly from silicon. Crystalline silicon solar panels are relatively easy to recycle, and the recycling process can recover a relatively high amount of materials that can be used to make new products, including new solar panels.
- Cadmium telluride solar panels
A type of thin-film solar panel, they are made from cadmium and telluride, both are hazardous materials. Due to this issue, recycling cadmium telluride solar panels may require special handling and tools to ensure proper disposal of these hazardous materials.
- Thin-film solar panels
Thin-film solar panels are a class of solar panels that can be made from a variety of materials, including cadmium telluride (discussed above), copper indium gallium selenide, and amorphous silicon.
Most thin-film solar panels can be recycled, but the difficulty may vary depending on the materials used.
- Amorphous silicon solar panels
Made from a non-crystalline form of silicon, these solar panels are less efficient than crystalline silicon solar panels, but they are also more affordable. The recyclability rate is also lower than that of crystalline silicon solar panels.
- Copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) solar panels
As the name suggests, this type of solar panel is made of copper, indium, gallium, and selenide. They are a type of thin-film solar panel that is becoming increasingly popular. CIGS solar panels can be recycled, but since they are relatively new, the difficulty is still being assessed.
- Perovskite solar panels
A new type of solar panel is made from a material called perovskite, a mineral that has been found to be very efficient at converting sunlight into electricity. Perovskite solar panels can be recycled, but again, they are very new, so the recyclability rate is still relatively unknown.
Is solar panels recycling environmentally friendly?
Yes, solar panel recycling is environmentally friendly and, in fact, can help you contribute to creating a more sustainable future in several ways:
- Reducing pollution
Solar panels contain hazardous materials that, when not recycled properly, can pollute the environment. Proper recycling of solar panels will also ensure the correct disposal of these hazardous materials, so they won’t pollute the environment.
- Conservation of valuable resources
Solar panels are made from renewable and valuable materials, such as silicon, copper, and even silver. Recycling these materials helps to reduce the need to extract these valuable materials from the earth for making new solar panels.
- Creation of jobs
The recycling of solar panels in California and other states is now an industry of its own that can help create new jobs in the collection, manufacturing, and processing of solar panels. The creation of these new jobs can help create a more sustainable future and boost the economy.
In short, recycling solar panels in California, Texas, Arizona and Florida is a recommended and sustainable way to manage your end-of-life solar panels
What happens to the materials after solar panels are recycled?
The materials from recycled solar panels can be used to make new electronic devices (including new solar panels) or other products. In some cases, some materials can be returned to circulation.
Below is a list of some materials commonly contained in solar panels and what happens to these materials when recycled from solar panels:
- Glass: can be used to make new products such as containers (bottles, jugs), windows, and others.
- Metal: metal materials like silver and copper can be used to make cars, computer hardware, and various metal appliances.
- Plastic: plastic materials can be melted and re-molded to make toys, plastic furniture, and other plastic products.
- Semiconductors: semiconductors extracted from recycled solar panels can be used to make new electronic devices, including new solar cells and solar panels.
Other components and materials, like adhesives and sealants, can be re-used when making new products.
When materials can’t be reused, they will be disposed of in an environmentally responsible manner. Hazardous materials will also be disposed of safely, not to harm the recycler or the environment.
Is it legal to send commercial solar panels to a landfill in California?
No. Since January 1, 2021, California manages discarded photovoltaic modules as universal waste under DTSC rules, so commercial solar panels cannot go to an ordinary landfill; they must be handled by an authorized universal waste recycler. The Solar Recycling Company recycles commercial and utility-scale panels to these standards at its California facilities and documents each project with a Certificate of Completion. Get a Quote and we will confirm the right path for your site.
How much does commercial solar panel recycling cost in California?
Cost depends on volume, panel condition, and how far the material has to travel, so recycling is quoted per project rather than by a flat rate. Panels that still test good can offset cost through reuse, which is why we assess condition first. Share your panel count, condition, and location and we will return a quote, usually within 24 hours.
Do you provide a recycling certificate and chain-of-custody documentation?
Yes. Every completed project comes with a Certificate of Completion confirming responsible recycling and California regulatory handling, which you can attach to an ESG or compliance report. For larger projects we can also provide project-level detail such as panel counts, recovered weights, and downstream handling. Ask for the documentation pack when you request a quote.
What is the minimum project size you take in California?
We work with commercial and utility-scale projects, with a typical minimum of about 100 panels, covering EPC contractors, O&M providers, asset owners, and energy and utility companies. If you have only a few residential panels, your local household hazardous waste program is the faster route, and we are happy to point you there.
Do you recycle panels in-house or broker them to someone else?
We do the core work in-house at our California facilities: intake, sorting, refurbishment testing, and material separation to recover glass, aluminum, silicon, copper, and silver. Where a specialized material stream needs a dedicated downstream processor, we route it to a vetted partner and can name that partner on request.
How do I choose a solar panel recycling company in California?
Check four things: that the recycler is authorized to handle PV modules as universal waste in California, that it names its California facilities, that it explains what it recycles in-house versus routes downstream, and that it issues a Certificate of Completion you can put in a compliance file. The Solar Recycling Company meets all four. Get a Quote and we will walk you through the documentation before you commit.