Recycling begins in the home. As with most materials we purchase, disposal is an issue.
Aluminum cans are almost pure aluminum and are smelted back into aluminum sheeting to make more cans. Aluminum cans are said to be one of the fastest turnaround in the recycling industry taking only 3 days from recycling container to on the shelf at your local store with a new product.
Cardboard can be used in making several products such as sheet rock backing, new cardboard, shingles, cellulose insulation or shipped to China for reuse.
Plastics are used in making some clothing, carpets, reused in plastic manufacturing, as a fuel source, or products for construction such as decking or fence posts.
Paper and or paper products are reprocessed into new paper products of a new form, such as paper towels or toilet paper.
By recycling, the material keeps getting used over and over rather than the other option of becoming trash that has to be “land filled” and will not be used again.
Archuleta County Transfer Station:
Archuleta County’s recycling center is located at the Transfer Station on Trujillo Road (CR 500), and open Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. The cost is $2.00 per Residential Load and $6.00 per cubic yard of Commercial recyclables.
The County uses a recycle baler to process recyclables. We will be baling individual products so we will need them separated in identifiable categories.
CATEGORY I
Plastics – Please remove all lids and remove contents, no bags
#1 plastic usually identified as pop or water bottles. Clear bottles may not have a number
#2 plastic usually identified as milk or soap jugs
#3-7 plastic are not accepted as recyclables
CATEGORY II
Paper – Newspaper (advertising inserts are OK)
CATEGORY III
Corrugated cardboard, brown paper and other paper products such as press board (cereal boxes, shoe boxes, etc.), office paper, packing paper, magazines, phone books. Corrugated cardboard will be placed directly into the baler or stockpiled near the hopper when the baler is in use baling another commodity.
CATEGORY IV
Aluminum Cans – This does NOT include foil pans or aluminum foil. Aluminum cans ONLY. The cans are sold to provide funding for the Environmental Awareness Scholarship. We will handle these as we have been.
CATEGORY V
Steel, Tin and Aluminum foil and pans – Please remove all contents and rinse cans.
CATEGORY VI – Not currently accepting Glass!!
Glass – Bottle glass only, color doesn’t make a difference. Remove caps, corks, lids. No window glass. This material will be used as aggregate in our leachate collection system during our next cell expansion at the landfill rather than importing washed screened gravel.
CATEGORY VII
E-Waste
Electronic items varying from keyboards, dvd players, printers, etc.
TV’s and Monitors are NOT accepted.
For more information, contact the Archuleta County Solid Waste Department.