City of Tucson recycling program to expand in July | Environment

Starting on July 2, Tucson's recycling will be taken to a new 'home', a state-of-the-art facility located at Ajo and Alvernon.  This new facility will be able to sort and market a larger variety of materials, which in turn means recycling in the city will now be easier than before, especially for plastics.

This new recycling facility is part of the City's Environmental Services new contract with ReCommunity Recycling, to process and market the recyclables collected by the City from residents and businesses.  This new sort facility will use a combination of sorting machines that includes optical sorting, that will make the process easier and much more efficient.  This optical sorting determines the type of material being processed, so they go to the correct area and cause less contamination and allow for larger quantities to be picked up.

All of these new sorting machines will mean to Tucson residents less confusion about what is 'recyclable' and what isn't, especially in way of plastic recycling.  The idea will be if it is a plastic container, put it in the blue barrel. 

“Our customers will be able to recycle a much greater amount of the plastics used in their homes and businesses. No looking at the numbers—if it’s a plastic container, it’s recyclable," said Fran LaSala, Waste Diversion Manager. "For years, customers have asked us to take more plastics especially things like yogurt containers and butter tubs. We’re happy to say we are now able to take those and more.”

Residents will receive a copy of the new list of recyclables in their July water bill. More information is available on the web at www.TucsonRecycles.org or by calling the Recycle InfoLine at 791-5000.