TUCSON, Ariz. - The life of most college students involves being bombarded by junk mail, reading the free college paper and consuming a casual beer or 10 every weekend.

But for students who live in an apartment complex near campus, odds are most of these recyclable items end up in the trash, as most complexes do not offer recycling.

“It’s probably accurate to say that very few (apartment complexes) recycle,” said Christina Polsgrove, a Tucson environmental services public information officer. “You have to have a management that really wants to do it and is willing to assist residents to inform them about what is recyclable and what’s not.”

Polsgrove said that although every waste collection service in Tucson offers recycling, few apartments use the service because of increased costs and other complications with the service.

“It’s a choice management makes,” Polsgrove said. “I think one thing that could push it would be if renters were requesting recycling.”

However, most apartment complex residents never voice their opinion.

“In two years I have had one person out of my 363 residents come up to me and request recycling,” said Amy Kirby, the general manager of Entrada Real. Kirby oversees the Entrada Real properties at One W. University Blvd, Two W. University Blvd and 1850 N. Tyndall Ave.

Nita Hall, the community director manager of Zona Verde Apartments, has had a similar experience as she noted only two residents have requested a recycling program.

Zona Verde, located at 1201 E. Drachman St., does not currently offer recycling, but Hall said she hopes the complex will offer a program in the near future.

“The notion that people still won't acknowledge something as great as recycling as a simple, effective and financially beneficial way to stop this problem has been just scary,” said Carrie Sherman, a resident of the Stone Avenue Standard, 1800 N. Stone Ave. “But that fear was motivating, so I stopped waiting for somebody else to make the change for me.”

Last fall Sherman took an active stance when she and her lawyer drafted a petition as a resident of the apartment complex detailing why recycling is necessary. Her efforts also focused on the cost of implementing recycling and neighboring policies.

She then collected signatures and presented the petition to Cornerstone, the company which owns the Stone Avenue Standard property. The petition is still pending approval and Sherman declined to give further detail as recommended by her lawyer, who declined to be interviewed.

The Stone Avenue Standard refused to comment, stating that its corporate office instructed it not to talk to any media.

Leo Grifka, a Stone Avenue Standard resident, said he was unaware of the pending recycling program but would welcome the change.

“I’d love it,” Grifka said. “I always feel kinda bad when I throw out cans or a bunch of paper. It’d be nice to have an easy way to recycle that stuff.”

Polsgrove said the main reason many apartments do not recycle involves the financial and time commitment for management.

“There needs to be monitoring of what people are putting in the recycling containers and a lot of apartment management does not want to have to deal with that,” Polsgrove said. “For individual homes, if someone is putting restricted items in their recycling, we can just pull their can. It’s really difficult to monitor at a big apartment complex.”

Additionally, apartment complexes of 25 units or more qualify as a commercial customer and pay a fee based on the size and quantity of recycling containers they use and the frequency of their pickup, Polsgrove said.

Due to all the factors, Polsgrove was unable to provide a cost estimate for commercial customers, but she noted that residential customers pay $14 a month for recycling services.

Rincon Apartments, 720 N. 6th Ave., was the only apartment complex of the seven complexes interviewed for this article that offered recycling on its property.

According to Rincon owner Margarete Sokser, the complex has recycled for years, utilizing large blue receptacles provided by the city of Tucson.

University Heights, 1201 N. Park Ave., and Sahara Apartments, 919 N. Stone Ave., both cited expenses as the reason they do not recycle.

“We’ve looked into it several times and we’ve had a lot of residents concerned about it, but it’s really expensive to get the bins out here,” said Nikki Manrique, the assistant manager of University Heights. “What we would have to do is we would have to get approval from our corporate office.”

Ariana Porter, the marketing manager of Sahara Apartments, said her staff has “looked into it, trying to figure out how to do it, but the primary reason we don’t is because the cost from the city is so expensive."

The Seasons Apartments, located 811 E. Wetmore Road, also does not recycle and has no plans to begin recycling, according to leasing agent Angela Cocslio.

Real Entrada offered a different reasoning for not recycling.

“I would be more than happy to have recycling, but (the canister) would take up four parking spaces, that’s the only way we could do it,” Kirby said. “It’s a choice, do I offer recycling or offer parking, and a lot more residents complain about parking than recycling.”

Without a convenient method to recycle, many residents throw everything away, like Entrada Real resident Mike Karls.

“I would (recycle) if I could, (though),” Karls said.

Other apartment tenants find alternatives. Melissa Vrabel, who lives at Entrada Real, saves her recyclables until she can bring them to her boyfriend’s house, where recycling is an easy option.

“I think it would be terrible to just throw all these newspapers away,” Vrabel said. “Until we have recycling here, I’ll keep going a little out of my way.”

Here is more information on where to recycle in Tucson.

Michael Schwartz contributed reporting to this article.