Sandia Heights Sanitation
Recycling Guide
Sandia Heights Services is committed to helping maintain a healthy environment — here’s what goes in the recycling bin and what doesn’t.
Sandia Heights Services is committed to helping maintain a healthy environment for Albuquerque's current and future generations. By utilizing waste products in a constructive way, we can decrease the size of our landfills. In addition, recycling helps conserve our natural resources by turning recycled materials into new items, lessening the need to collect natural resources such as water, minerals, coal, oil, gas and timber.
Accepted Recyclables
Paper
- Newspapers
- Magazines
- Office paper
- Corrugated cardboard
- Cereal and cracker boxes
- Phone books and books
- Brown paper bags
- Paper egg cartons
- Junk mail
Plastic
- #1–#7 plastic bottles and tubs
- Rigid plastic toys
Metal
- Aluminum cans
- Tin cans
- Foil & pie pans
- Small electronics
- Pots & pans
- Small appliances
Not accepted: Glass, garbage and food, light bulbs, wood, hazardous waste, sharp metal, yard waste, batteries, motor oil bottles, medical waste and needles, Styrofoam, TVs and computer monitors, plastic grocery bags, wrapping paper, ink cartridges.
Do I Have to Rinse My Recyclables?
Jars, Bottles & Cans
- If the empty jars, bottles, and cans have visible residue within the container, you should rinse them out before tossing them in the recycling bin.
- This doesn't mean you need to break out the dish soap and a sponge in order to clean out the remaining contents. All you need to do is fill the jar, bottle, or can with water and swish the water around until a majority of the remaining contents are removed from the sides. That's it!
- However, for containers that were filled with more sticky substances (jelly, honey, marshmallow fluff), take the extra few seconds to give it a quick scrub.
Cardboard & Paper
- Grease and oil make cardboard and paper unrecyclable, so pizza boxes covered in grease aren't fit for the recycling bin. However, if the box is mostly clean with just a few specks of grease, you're fine to recycle it.
- The same goes for other contaminants. If you're making pancakes and a drop of egg lands on the box, it's still clean enough to recycle. However, too much of a mess will make it impossible to recycle.
- Additionally, crumpled, torn or misshapen paper and cardboard can be recycled the same as flat products. As a side note, paper that has been shredded or torn into bits must be contained in paper bags to avoid the small pieces from blowing away and causing littering.
Items that are heavily soiled or impossible to clean, unfortunately cannot be recycled and should be thrown away.
Additional Resources
For more information, please visit the New Mexico Recycling Coalition website for a full directory of all recycling centers. The directory allows users to search for recycling centers by type of material to be recycled or by the type of services offered.
Recycling question, Mon–Fri