Where Does it Go?

Tucson Recycles features an authorized list of recyclable materials, which the City collects from the blue recycling barrels and neighborhood recycling centers each week. These commodities are delivered to Waste Management Recycle America, a local materials recovery facility. There, the materials are sorted, baled and shipped to the manufacturers listed below to be made into new products. For the last 12 months, our recyclables have sustained a market value of over $70 per ton. From their sale, the City of Tucson share is around $1 million dollars, besides the saving of expensive landfill capacity.

Information provided by Recycle America

Commodity

 

End Product

Company

Cardboard, newspaper, magazines

Cardboard, box board, blank newsprint
  • Abitibi Consolidated
    Snowflake, AZ
  • Yao Yang
    Gardina, CA
  • Smurfit Newsprint Corp.
    Pomona, CA

Cardboard

Packaging boxes, box liners, shoe paper (inserted inside new shoes)
  • McKinley Paper Co.
    Albuquerque, NM
  • Potential Industrial Inc.
    Wilmington, CA

Office paper, white ledger paper, colored paper

Tissue paper, white coating on cardboard
  • Weyerhaeuser
    Phoenix, AZ

Phone books

Building/construction insulation
  • Green Fiber
    Phoenix, AZ

Aluminum cans

Can sheet used to make new cans
  • Anheuser Busch Recycling
    St. Louis, MO

Glass food & beverage containers

Glassphalt
  • Tucson Ready Mix
    Tucson, AZ

Tin cans

90% made into new steel; 10% sold to copper industry
  • AMG
    Seattle, WA

#1 PETE plastic bottles & jars

Polyester fiber to make comforters, pillows, clothing or carpet
  • Wellman
    Johnsonville, SC

#2 HDPE plastic bottles & jars

Drainage pipes, flower pots, other plastic items
  • USA Polymer Corp.
    Houston, TX
  • Freshpack Corp.
    Houston, TX
  • Envision Plastics
    Chino, CA
  • American Chung Nam
    City of Industry, CA

Milk cartons, drink boxes

Writing paper
  • America Chung Nam
    Pomona, CA

Chipboard/paperboard (like cereal boxes)

Filler medium for cardboard
  • America Chung Nam
    Pomona, CA