Helping Santa Fe rethink their waste
Recycle
Paper
Many of these common household or office items can be placed in your recycling bin or taken to a transfer station. Recycling used materials into new products reduces: the consumption of raw materials, energy usage, air pollution from incineration, and water pollution from landfilling.


PLASTIC # 1-7 RECYCLING
Capital Scrap Metal now accepts plastic # 1-7 for recycling!
Capital Scrap Metal>
batteries CURBSIDE RECYCLING
What can and cannot go in your curbside bin and how should it be separated?
read more >
batteries RECYCLE AT WORK
Find out how you can save $$ by recycling! Print recycling posters for your business or school.
read more >

PHONE BOOK RECYCLING
You can recycle your phone books at any of the following drop off bin locations:
BuRRT >
County Transfer Stations >
City of Santa Fe Environmental Services Division >
BUCKMAN ROAD RECYCLING & TRANSFER STATION HOURS: 8:00am - 4:45pm Mon - Sun
CAJA DEL RIO LANDFILL
HOURS: 7:00am - 5:00pm Mon - Sat
Paper materials such as office paper, packaging, paper towels; make up a large portion, roughly 35%, of our waste stream.

While most of it cannot be recycled (paper towels and tissues) they can be composted. By recycling the rest of the paper materials, we are helping to reduce the impact we have on the world’s forest, water, and air quality.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency? (EPA) has found that recycling causes 35% less water pollution and 74% less air pollution than making virgin paper. Recycling one ton of newsprint saves about 1 ton of wood while recycling 1 ton of printing or copier paper saves slightly more than 2 tons of wood. It has been estimated that recycling half the world’s paper would avoid the harvesting of 20 million acres (81,000 km²) of forestland.

Santa Fe recycles:

  • Corrugated Cardboard (OCC)
  • Hardback/Paperback books
  • Mixed paper (office paper, colored paper, paper bags, junk mail)
  • Magazines
  • Newspaper
  • Phonebooks
  • Shredded paper (in clear plastic bags)
Where can I recycle it? Search
BuRRT

City Curbside Recycling

County Transfer Stations

Capital Scrap Metals Inc. (cardboard only)
1162 Cooks Lane, Santa Fe
(505) 471-0740

Mr. G’s Recycling (cardboard only)
7625 Baca Lane, Santa Fe
(505) 474-6969

Reduce & Reuse:

Rethink your paper options before you toss!

  • If you have leftover cardboard boxes after a move, try advertising free boxes on Craigslist.
  • Old newspaper works great as packing material.
  • Stop your unsolicited junk mail, phone books, and catalogs for free.
    Catalog Choice – Santa Fe

Paper can be composted!

Some food soiled paper goods can be composted or vermicomposted (worm composted) like: paper plates, napkins, paper towels, tissues, pizza boxes. See our Backyard Composting section for more information.

These items are trash:

  • Waxed corrugated cardboard boxes (used for produce)
  • Cereal boxes, 6 pack containers, tissue boxes
  • Paper towels, tissue, and toilet paper
  • Waxed cartons such as milk and juice cartons, and waxed paperboard such as frozen food boxes
  • Food-contaminated cardboard (pizza) boxes and paper plates and cups

What’s the difference between pre-consumer and post-consumer paper?

Pre-consumer waste is material which left the paper mill but was discarded before it was ready for consumer use. This is usually the case when products are made out of paper, like greeting cards and paper bags. Post-consumer waste is when the greeting card or paper bag is discarded after it has been used.

Close the loop

Don’t just recycle, but buy recycled products too! By buying recycled paper, you are not only supporting the efforts of recycling but you are reducing the use of raw materials (in this case virgin trees), energy usage, air pollution from incineration, and water pollution from landfilling.