Kern County / Lancaster

Recycling Market Development Zone

Grow Your Recycling-Based Business!

If your company manufactures new products from recycled material or processes recyclables to increase market value, the Recycling Market Development Zone (RMDZ) program may benefit you. The program can help whether you are an existing business, a start-up business or a company wanting to relocate.

The RMDZ program helps California businesses cut costs and increase profits. The RMDZ program is a partnership of local governments and the California Department of Resources, Recycling, and Recovery, created to provide incentives to businesses using secondary materials from the waste stream as feedstock for their manufacturing processes.

Kern County is an RMDZ

The County of Kern, along with its eleven cities, is a state-designated Recycling Market Development Zone (RMDZ). The RMDZ is a geographic area designated by CalRecycle to foster end-use markets for recyclable materials. The purpose of the RMDZ is to help create local markets for the processing, manufacturing and marketing of products made from recycled materials. The RMDZ Program provides assistance to businesses in Kern County that use recycled or reused materials and/or minimize solid waste generation.

RMDZ program benefits include:

  • Low Interest Loans and Other Assistance with Financing – The RMDZ can finance up to 75% of a project, up to $2 million per loan. Loan terms are up to 15 years, and the low interest rates are from fixed-rate State funds. Rates are kept at or below the prime rate.
  • Permit Assistance - public agencies will assist businesses through local and state permitting and regulatory processes.
  • Location Assistance - businesses will be guided to over 12,000 acres of industrially zoned property, and other sites, throughout Kern County.
  • Other Benefits - include business plan assistance, business incubator and industry cluster networks, promotion and capital network access.

Who's Eligible - Most of the incentives are designed specifically for manufacturing businesses located in Kern County. A business who manufacturers a new product out of recycled materials, processes recyclables in such a way that their market value is increased, repairs items that would otherwise become waste, or makes products using less materials or while generating less waste, may be eligible to participate in the RMDZ program.

  • For more detailed information about the RMDZ Program, see the CalRecycle website for the Kern County RMDZ.
  • For information about the Kern County RMDZ program send an email to the RMDZ Administrator at : Waste@KernCounty.com.
  • For information about other economic development opportunities in Kern County see the Kern Economic Development Corporation (KEDC) website at: www.kedc.com/

CLICK HERE to visit the Video Library and view RMDZ Videos.

Green Your Business

The Kern County RMDZ in collaboration with the Green Team San Joaquin offers free Waste, Energy, and Water conservation audits to businesses throughout the County. For more information CLICK HERE.