A look at area recycling

CLOVIS — One Clovis resident wants the people of eastern New Mexico to be aware of the recycling options in the area.

“I’m a big recycler, I even got people in our church to recycle,” Beulah Mattingly said. “I go through the trash to pull out the plastic bottles and the tin cans.”

Mattingly said she makes use of the recycling containers offered by the city, located at Wal-Mart, Albertson’s and the post office on 21st Street.

These containers are supposed to offer recycling of cardboard, tin cans and clear plastics, but Mattingly said she was concerned after hearing a rumor that the city’s recycling containers were actually being disposed of in the landfill along with all of the other trash.

Clovis Public Works Director Clint Bunch shot down the rumor, which he said has been circulating for years.

“Not true at all,” Bunch said. “We’ve heard that rumor before also, there’s no basis to it whatsoever.”

Bunch said the only time the contents of a recycling container would be dumped in the landfill would be if it consisted of mostly non-recyclable materials, but he said that hasn’t happened in many years.

Bunch said the cardboard and tin cans are taken straight to a local recycling plant while the clear plastic is hand-sorted by grade, which Bunch described as a painstaking, “labor-intensive process.”

He said the plastic is then baled based on its grade and sold in Albuquerque once the city has enough plastic to fill a pair of trucks that return from Albuquerque with road materials the city needs, in order to maximize efficiency.

Bunch said glass and paper recycling isn’t offered in Clovis because there is no local market for those products, meaning it wouldn’t be cost effective.

“Recycling’s not an actual money maker, it’s just something that’s good for the environment,” Bunch said.

Mattingly said she gives glass to her pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church who then takes it to a glass recycling facility in Lubbock and gives her newspaper to Goodwill.

“There are places to take it, it’s just inconvenient unless you’re going that way,” Mattingly said.

Mattingly said her interest in recycling is based of a concern for the environment and the potential expense associated with creating a new landfill if the current one is filled up.

“It’s important for me for the health of our land but also as a taxpayer I’m concerned about the filling of our landfill that we’re going to run out of space and pay more,” Mattingly said.

Bunch said the city’s recycling containers get “a large amount” of materials and are emptied two or three times a week, collecting around 15 tons of cardboard a month.

Bunch said in order for the materials to be recycled by the city, the plastic must be clear, and the cardboard must be from a cardboard box, like a shipping box, and not cereal boxes and other similar items.