AZ Adds Recycling to rest stops

The Arizona Department of Transportation is implementing a recycling program at its rest areas. The state has already installed recycling receptacles at three of its rest areas and plans to bring in its other sites soon.

“With each site visit I make to our rest areas, I see how necessary recycling is,” says Bobby Wheeler, rest area manager for ADOT. “There are large amounts of plastic bottles and aluminum cans tossed in waste receptacles that go to a landfill without first being separated. We need to do the right thing and ensure recyclable materials are actually getting recycled.”

The program is possible at no cost to the state thanks to partnerships the Infrastructure Corporation of America and the local recycling vendors that serve each rest area. In McGuireville, the partnership includes Rainbow Acres, an organization that provides jobs sorting plastics and aluminum to developmentally delayed adults.

“A crew comes from Rainbow Acres ranch five days a week where five ranchers and two of our staff members will sort all of the plastics and cans,” explains Jill McCutcheon, executive director of Sedona Recycles. “We couldn’t do the work without this great group of people. We are glad that we were contacted to provide recycling at the McGuireville rest area.”

The other two rest areas that currently offer recycling are in Hassayampa and Ehrenberg.