ALBUQUERQUE, NM (KRQE) – The city is closing two recycling drop-off sites, leaving even fewer options for city residents. The Juan Tabo recycling site near Candelaria is popular with people who frequent it at all hours of the day, dropping off cardboard and the most popular item of all, glass.
“I know it’s a very popular place because of glass recycling and it’s very important to help the community stay cleaner,” said Dr. Fredda Rosenberg. Many enthusiasts say they sometimes travel miles and some venture as far as the Eastern Mountains just to recycle items they otherwise couldn’t. “I don’t know of many other recycling sites around Albuquerque. Glass to me is important because we can normally put the rest of our stuff in our blue bin, but glass we can’t get into at all,” recycler Sheryl McGartland said.
As for what caused the closures? A spokesperson for Albuquerque’s solid waste department said the location was on private property, owned by neighboring Lowe’s, which the city says no longer wants the recycling site on its land.
This raised concerns about what might happen to us. “It’s very very disappointing and I’m concerned about the waste that will end up in the city, which is my big concern.” Having this here for us I think is not even an option, it’s going to go to a landfill and it’s going to last forever,” Mathew Henderson said.
The city says the Juan Tabo location is scheduled to close on September 2. The second planned location for the closure is located downtown under the Marquette overpass which, for now, only collects glass. This will close next Friday due to construction in the area. After the closings, there will be ten drop-off sites around Albuquerque for people who want to recycle their glass. The city says it has no plans to add more.