Queen Creek logs successes in recycling efforts

Queen Creek is seeing more people recycling and more waste being diverted from landfills.

At its Wednesday meeting, the Queen Creek Town Council received an update on how the town’s recycling program is performing and what’s on the horizon.

“Our recycling drop-off events … for 2025, we had over 1,000 participants and we diverted almost 70 tons of material from the landfill to have a second life repurposed or recycled,” Ramona Simpson, the town’s environmental and fleet operations manager, told the council. “We appreciate all of the community members that really take this to heart and are finding other sources for what could go into trash.”

Another recycling success story for the town has been the results of its glass recycling pilot program. Residents are encouraged to drop off their glass bottles and jars at the town’s recycling center instead of putting them in their curbside recycling carts which are turned into dust cover for landfills.

“When you come and put your glass at our recycling facility our provider, Waste Connections, hauls that to Strategic Materials in Phoenix and they make it into new glass right there,” Simpson said. “This is the best use and we’re really grateful to the residents that are really participating in that.”

In the two years the program has been operating, 80 tons of whole glass was diverted from landfills. The town is considering adding more glass recycling centers in other areas of Queen Creek.

Last year saw the relocation of the QC Recycle Center from Ellsworth Road adjacent to the old dog park and the municipal services building to 22179 E. Ryan Road near Frontier Family Park.

The $322,000 relocation was funded from the solid waste and recycling fund balance.

The move was necessary after the area was identified as the location for the Queen Creek Police Department’s new headquarters.

“Even though the move happened, everyone is finding (the new location),” Simpson said. “The signs at the old location move people to the new location.”

This year, there are plans to add three containers to the new recycling center for a total of 26.

The recycling center is open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week. Cardboard boxes must be broken down, and plastic bags are not accepted.

As part of another pilot program, the town set up four “big-belly containers” for recyclables at the Founders’ Park splash pad. More than 3 tons of recycled materials were collected at the Founders’ Park containers in 2025.

“Now some of it was a little contaminated, so we’re going to do some different things this next year and we have moved (the containers) to Frontier Family Park — three of them — and one unit is staying at the Founders’,” Simpson said. “We’re going to see if these new locations give (the program) a little bit of a different life.”

As Queen Creek does not have a household hazardous waste drop-off location, the town partners with Gilbert to provide residents with an environmentally safe and responsible way to drop off the waste.

The Gilbert Household Hazardous Waste Facility is located at the South Area Service Center, 2224 E. Queen Creek Road, on the northwest corner of Greenfield and Queen roads. Queen Creek residents must obtain a voucher from the town to use the Gilbert facility. The town offers about 32 vouchers per month.

In fiscal year 2025, 310 vouchers were used by Queen Creek residents who disposed of more than 12,000 pounds of hazardous waste. That compares to fiscal year 2024 when 266 vouchers were given out and more than 10,000 pounds of hazardous waste was collected, the report continued.

“That’s all hazardous material that we don’t want in recycling or down the drain,” Simpson said. “We really encourage that and we’ve worked with the town of Gilbert this year to increase the number of vouchers that they’ll take per month. We’re hoping to get more people to be able to use that system.”

Speaking of hazardous materials, the town has recently launched an outreach effort to educate residents about not using recycling or trash carts to dispose of medical waste, particularly needles, sharps and prescription medications.

Also not allowed in the trash and recycling carts are batteries. The town is now accepting batteries at its QC Recycles events.

“This last event was the first where we took batteries, household batteries, lithium, alkaline — not the wet batteries, not like car batteries — and we took in three 55-gallon drums worth,” Simpson said.

The next QC Recycles event is set for April 18.

The town’s recycling efforts are not going unnoticed. The town received the 2023 Recycling Excellence award from the Arizona Recycling Coalition. The Environmental Services Department was recognized for “initiatives to put recycling and sustainability at the forefront of their municipality,” according to the Arizona Recycling Coalition’s website.

Janet Perez can be reached at jperez@iniusa.org. Please send your comments about this article to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.