If your apartment, house or office does not have a recycling pick-up service, there are still alternatives to throwing everything away. Tucson has 13 neighborhood recycling centers where you can drop off recyclables free of charge.

“Thirty-five percent of what you throw away is recyclable, the challenge lies in that people do it correctly,” said Christina Polsgrove, a Tucson Environmental Services public information officer.

It is important that you recycle only what is approved in the list below.

“We’ve had to close a couple of sites because people were putting trash in it like mattresses and sofas and just about anything,” Polsgrove said.

The following items may be recycled at the facilities:
• Paperboard/ chipboard
• Fiberboard
• White & colored office-type paper
• Milk cartons & drink boxes
• Mail
• Phonebooks
• Newspaper & all newspaper inserts
• Glass food & beverage containers
• Corrugated cardboard
• Brown paper bags
• Magazines & glossy catalogs
• Steel/tin cans
• Plastic non-hazardous product bottles and jugs
• Aluminum cans