What are our Recycling Options?

Our area has several options. The City of Prescott provides recycle containers to its residential customers inside the Prescott city limits. The items collected in these containers are: aluminum, metal, newspaper, magazines, household white paper, chip board, cardboard and plastics numbered 1-7 only.

Below is a list of the plastic type and corresponding number. Most containers are supposed to have a number between 1 and 7, but sometimes those pesky numbers can be difficult to find. The rule of thumb is, if there is no number, the container goes in the trash.

1 water, soda, juice and shampoo bottles

2 bleach containers, milk and water jugs, laundry detergent & cleaning products

3 medicine bottles

5 food containers, plastic squeeze bottles

6 styrofoam containers

7 5-gallon water and sport water bottles

Visit the City of Prescott web site www.cityofprescott.net/services and there you will find more information on waste services.

Area residents also have the option to collect and transport items directly; the Sundog Transfer Station has several bins available for plastics, paper and aluminum. There are also bins for e-waste.

The local Lions club has recycle collection points throughout the area located in shopping centers for newspaper and bagged shredded household paper. Each year the club uses the proceeds from their all-volunteer recycling effort to aid various area organizations. Recycling is the club’s single biggest fundraiser.

Our local Target store has been accepting glass for recycling since 2010. The glass taken to Target needs to be clean, unbroken and free of pests. They have experienced such an upsurge in glass deliveries to their store that they now have a special glass recycling dumpster located behind the store. The store management asks that due to the fragile nature of glass, that recyclers do not leave bags of glass in the front of the store during off hours. The dumpster behind the store is available 24 hours a day.

Area residential customers outside the Prescott City Limits and commercial customers countywide have an exciting new recycling option. In January 2012, Patriot Disposal, Inc. opened their Freedom Recycling Center. This recyclable reclamation plant is the only one of its kind in Northern Arizona. All waste collected from the company’s 17,000 residential and commercial customers are sorted, at their facility, to divert valuable recyclable materials from reaching the landfill. Each month Patriot Disposal diverts an average of 480 tons of glass, aluminum, metal, plastic, paper products, paper and cardboard from the waste stream and their diversion rate is increasing by the month. Through their effort to assist area residents in greening their homes and businesses, Patriot Disposal has created 30 new jobs in our area and eliminated a portion of their own carbon footprint. For more on this one can + one truck method of recycling contact Patriot Disposal at 775-9000. Again, ONLY residential customers serviced by Patriot Disposal can recycle glass through their residential pick-up service, otherwise glass must go to Target for recycling. If these options are not used, all glass goes to the landfill.

Our local Lowes recycles rechargeable batteries, compact CLF’s, fluorescent tube lights and plastic bags.

Home Depot will recycle all household batteries, compact CFL’s, and fluorescent tube lights.

Most grocery stores will recycle plastic bags.

Bennett Oil on Sheldon collects all engine/motor oils and used antifreeze and transport for recycling.

David at Batteries Plus in Prescott Valley recycles all electrical items, TV’s, computers, cell phones, etc. any type of battery and CFL’s.

We all know we should recycle and we have some great recycling opportunities here in Yavapai County so let’s make an effort to be green and reduce our carbon footprint.

Did you know that when you toss out one aluminum can you waste as much energy as if you’d filled the same can half-full of gasoline and poured it into the ground?

Did you know each year Americans throw away 25,000,000,000 styrofoam cups, enough every year to circle the earth 436 times?

As a reminder YCCA and our local Chambers of Commerce along with Central Arizona Partnership are sponsoring Candidate Forums for Yavapai County Board of Supervisors. These forums will take place July 30, July 31 and August 1. For times and locations for the respective Supervisor District Forums, please visit the Prescott or Prescott Valley Chamber web sites, or centralarizonapartnership.org or ycca.org for times and locations. Looking forward to seeing you there. Make it a great day.