Queen Creek has received the 2023 Recycling Excellence award from the Arizona Recycling Coalition.

The  town’s 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.

Queen Creek has had a residential trash and recycling service since 2010. The rates for the service have remained the same for 10 years at $16.22 per account, according to a press release.

Staff with the Environmental Services Department was honored at the Wednesday, April 5 town council meeting.

Along with its recycling program, the town also provides customers with:

• additional blue recycling carts;
• disposal of household hazardous waste with a free voucher provided through a partnership with the town to the Gilbert HHW Collection Facility;
• and a discounted rate of $10 for customers to take up to 1,000 pounds of materials to the Waste Connections Transfer Station in Apache Junction.

Town residents without trash and recycling curbside services can:

• Dispose of extra recyclable materials at the QC Recycle Center, 22638 S. Ellsworth Road, for free.
• Use the Cooking Oil Recycling Program to safely dispose of used cooking oil and grease at the QC Recycle Center, and Fire Station 2, 24787 S. Sossaman Road. Collected oil and grease are turned into biodiesel fuel. Learn more at gov/CookingOil.
• Participate in QC Recycles events held four times per year to dispose of and recycle materials, including appliances, electronics, scrap metal, latex and water-based paints, prescription drugs, textiles, small furniture, and shredded paper. The next event is on Earth Day, Saturday, April 22.

The town also uses technology and communications to encourage as much recycling as possible and to keep costs low. Some examples include:

• Conducting cart inventory with radio frequency identification tags and scanners, reducing staff time spent on inventory processes.
• Conducting annual recycling audits to determine contamination rates, with outreach practices to decrease contamination over a short period.
• Providing education programs to K-12 schools in the trash and recycling service area, including “Too Good to Throw Away!” and “Blue Cart Smart.”
• Adding messaging to the QC Recycle Center bins, which has led to a decrease in the center’s contamination rate.
• Integrating scanner technology and Fast Passes at QC Recycles events to help residents drive through the event in less than five minutes.

In addition to ongoing efforts, the town has the upcoming projects:

• Celebrating Earth Month throughout the month of April. Find resources and activities at gov/EarthMonth.
• Introducing glass-only recycling containers at the QC Recycle Center to produce higher-quality recycled materials and increase revenue from recycling efforts (coming soon).
• Piloting Bigbelly trash and recycling containers at Founders’ Park (coming soon).
• Introducing paperless, mobile inspections via software integration with the town’s new utility billing system (coming soon).

For more information about Queen Creek’s recycling program visit QueenCreekAZ.gov/Recycle.