What can be recycled?

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Reduce, reuse and recycle are all ways to reduce solid waste buildup in landfills. Reduce means lessening the amount of items or resources being consumed and finding alternatives to reduce our use. Reuse means extending the 'life' of an item or repurposing it rather than discarding it.

Materials to recycle in Cochise County. When the transfer stations start accepting recyclable materials, they will probably accept plastics, aluminum and steel cans, old newspaper, old corrugated cardboard, sorted office paper, mixed paper, and scrap metal. Current market prices for a lot of these materials, particularly plastics, aluminum and steel cans, and office paper, are quite high.

Plastics. Usually only #1 (PET, PETE - Polyethylene terephthalate; soft drink and water bottles), and #2 (HDPE - High density polyethylene; milk, juice, and water bottles) plastics are accepted at recycling facilities and that is likely to be the case in Cochise County for the foreseeable future. Trash and retail bags are also HDPE but are usually NOT accepted for recycling. PVC (#3 - Polyvinyl chloride; juice bottles, PVC piping) is hard to recycle because of its high chlorine content and many additives, and a small amount of PVC can contaminate a batch of PET and HDPE.
Mixed paper usually includes glossy paper (catalogs and magazines) but this material is harder to recycle as it has a clay coating that some paper mills can't handle. Paper is the number one material that we throw away. For every 100 pounds of trash we throw away, 35 pounds is paper. Newspapers take up about 14 percent of landfill space, and paper in packaging accounts for another 15 to 20 percent.

Glass is usually not recycled back into new glass. It is collected in Tucson but is currently ground up for use as a filler in concrete and road surfacing materials. I don't expect glass to be recycled in Cochise County at all. If you collect glass, drop it off at one of the 15 recycling collection centers in Tucson next time you're up there.