Waste & Recycling Coordinator

GKN•Garden Grove, CA

4d•Onsite

About The Position

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.

Requirements

High school diploma or GED required
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

Nice To Haves

Associate degree, technical certificate, or equivalent coursework in environmental compliance, sustainability, logistics, manufacturing, chemistry, or related field preferred.
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.

Responsibilities

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.