earth911.com APIearth911.com ↗
Search Earth911 recycling centers by material and location, get full facility details, browse educational articles, and autocomplete material names via 4 endpoints.
curl -X GET 'https://api.parse.bot/scraper/0be26c57-6028-468b-b7b2-60bc9f679d5b/search_recycling_centers?distance=25&location=10001&material=paper' \ -H 'X-API-Key: $PARSE_API_KEY'
Search for recycling centers and programs by material and location (zip code or city name). Returns a list of matching centers with address, phone, distance, and preview of accepted materials.
| Param | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| distance | integer | Search radius in miles. |
| locationrequired | string | Zip code or city name to search near (e.g. '10001' or 'New York'). |
| materialrequired | string | Material to recycle (e.g. 'paper', 'plastic', 'glass'). Use suggest_materials endpoint to discover valid material names. |
{
"type": "object",
"fields": {
"query": "object containing the search parameters (material, location, distance)",
"results": "array of recycling center/program objects with name, location_id, address, phone, distance, type, preview_materials, and detail_url",
"total_results": "integer count of results returned"
},
"sample": {
"data": {
"query": {
"distance": 25,
"location": "10001",
"material": "paper"
},
"results": [
{
"name": "New York City Curbside Recycling Program",
"type": "program",
"phone": "+1 (555) 012-3456",
"address": "New York, NY 10001",
"distance": "MunicipalProgram",
"detail_url": "https://search.earth911.com/program/Q1RTNVlbU19C/...",
"location_id": "Q1RTNVlbU19C",
"preview_materials": [
"Blueprints",
"Booklets",
"Brochures"
]
}
],
"total_results": 10
},
"status": "success"
}
}About the earth911.com API
The Earth911 API exposes 4 endpoints for querying recycling facilities, programs, and sustainability content from earth911.com. Use search_recycling_centers to find facilities near a zip code or city that accept a specific material, then call get_location_details with the returned location_id to retrieve full hours, accepted materials, and available services like dropoff or pickup.
Searching for Recycling Centers
The search_recycling_centers endpoint accepts a required material string (such as 'glass' or 'plastic') and a location value — either a zip code or city name. An optional distance integer sets the search radius in miles. Each result in the results array includes name, address, phone, distance, type (location or program), and a preview_materials field showing a subset of what the facility accepts. The total_results integer tells you how many matches were found. Use suggest_materials to discover valid material strings before querying — it accepts a partial string like 'plas' and returns matching material names.
Facility Details
get_location_details takes a location_id from search results and returns the complete record for that facility or program. The materials_accepted array includes each material's name and a services array indicating supported options such as 'dropoff' or 'pickup'. The response also surfaces hours as an array of strings, a description, and the type field distinguishing a physical location from a mail-in or virtual program.
Educational Content
get_educational_resources queries Earth911's article library. It accepts an optional query keyword and a page integer for pagination. Each item in results includes a title, url, and excerpt, making it straightforward to surface relevant recycling guides alongside facility search results in your application.
- Build a recycling locator app that queries
search_recycling_centersby zip code and material to show nearby drop-off sites on a map. - Populate a facility detail page using
get_location_detailsto display full hours, phone, accepted materials, and pickup vs. dropoff options. - Autocomplete a material search field using
suggest_materialsto help users find the correct material name before submitting a search. - Aggregate recycling program data across multiple cities by looping
search_recycling_centerswith differentlocationvalues. - Display contextual sustainability articles alongside facility results using
get_educational_resourceswith a material keyword as thequery. - Filter search results by
typeto show only physicallocationentries vs. mail-inprogramentries in a recycling directory UI. - Generate a report of facilities accepting a specific material within a defined
distanceradius across multiple zip codes.
| Tier | Price | Credits/month | Rate limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo | 100 | 5 req/min |
| Hobby | $30/mo | 1,000 | 20 req/min |
| Developer | $100/mo | 5,000 | 250 req/min |
One credit = one API call regardless of which marketplace API you call. Exceeding the rate limit returns a 429 response. Authenticate with the X-API-Key header.
Does Earth911 have an official developer API?+
What does `get_location_details` return beyond what `search_recycling_centers` already shows?+
search_recycling_centers returns a preview_materials field with a subset of accepted materials. get_location_details returns the full materials_accepted array, where each entry includes the material name and a services array (e.g., 'dropoff', 'pickup'). It also adds hours, description, and confirms the type as either 'location' or 'program'.Can I retrieve user reviews or ratings for recycling centers?+
Does `get_educational_resources` support filtering by category or material type?+
query string and a page integer for pagination, but does not expose category or material-type filters as distinct parameters. Filtering is limited to keyword search. You can fork the API on Parse and revise it to add category-scoped filtering if the underlying content supports it.Is there a limit to how far back `get_educational_resources` pagination goes?+
page integer and paginated results arrays, but the total article count or maximum page number is not included in the response. In practice, you will need to increment page until an empty results array is returned to determine the full extent of available content.