Is it trash or can I recycle it?

Should I recycle it or toss it in the trash? That question seems to be asked daily around Tucson.

A recent tour of the Republic Services recycling plant and the Los Reales Sustainability Campus ─ formerly the Los Reales landfill ─ helped answer the question. The tour was organized by Cristina Polsgrove, public information officer for Tucson Environmental Services.

The first stop was the recycling plant where a master recycler offered advice and information about recycling in our area.

Rather than separating our recycling into paper, metal and plastic before it is picked up, in the Tucson area we use single-stream recycling. As long as everything put in residential recycling bins belongs there, the recycling is transported to the materials recovery facility (MRF) run by Republic Services. There it is sorted and baled for resale.

Sorting is done by hand and by machine. First people must pull out items that don't belong and shouldn't have been put in recycling bins in the first place. These include plastic grocery bags and other flimsy or flexible plastic ─ a constant problem, green waste, containers with food waste in them, containers with liquid, Styrofoam or other plastic foam, tissue paper, gift wrap, old clothing, hazardous materials and, of all things, dirty diapers. If people stopped putting things in their recycling bins that didn't belong, recycling might be cheaper.

Optical sorters and other mechanical sorters complete the job.

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More information on what can and can't be recycled is at recyclingsimplified.com and tucsonaz.gov/es/recycle-coach

Following the MRF, the tour went to what used to be called the Los Reales Landfill, but is now the Los Reales Sustainability Campus. While the landfill is expected to last at least another 65-70 years, that can be extended if more trash is diverted from the landfill. Los Reales will one day soon be a center for sustainability including recycling, composting and other diversion. Appliances are collected and refrigerant is removed. Tires are also collected. While the landfill is open for public use, not all of the facility is open to the public yet.

Household hazardous waste can be dropped off from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays. More information on HHW and other activities at Los Reales is at tucsonaz.gov/es/los-reales-landfill

Here's why your recycling sometimes ends up at a Tucson landfill

Find out more on what can — and can not — be recycled in Pima County and where it all goes.