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DM Recycling Center

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Katelynn Kennedy
  • 355 Wing Public Affairs

On Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, at the cross streets of Yuma and Casa Grande, the Recycling Center is part of an essential service, waste disposal for all mission activity on base. It’s currently run by Joseph Goyathlay, service contracts core for the refuse program at Davis-Monthan AFB and U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Arturo Rosales, 355th Civil Engineer Squadron non-commissioned officer in charge of work management, whose shop provides personnel to the recycling center.



“The purpose of the program is to assist the city in maintaining a good clean environment,” Goyathlay said. “It makes our base look nice, and it makes us a contributing partner for the community … We can actually get earnings back from them on certain types of recyclables that would just be disposed of at the landfill here in Tucson.”

No matter what kind of waste your mission generates, the recycling center offers ways to contribute to waste reduction and recycling. Rosales encourages workspaces to find what suits them best.

“Maintainers obviously work with metal, but if you're just in office space, everything counts,” said Rosales. “Our office is set up where we have a bin just for aluminum, paper, plastic and then our regular trash.”

“The best practice is to have people come here. We can educate them on what they can and can not recycle,” said Rosales. “It provides them other avenues on how to dispose of whatever it is they're trying to dispose of.”

Once your materials are collected and sorted, they are ready to be dropped off at the center. When you arrive, drive through the gate Airman Wyatt Steel Dale, 355th CE Operations Manager will be ready to check you in and guide you to the correct bins. The center has bins available for general metal, copper, brass, wood, and many bins for general common recyclables.

The common recycling is processed by Tucson’s recycling center, and follows the same rules; clean items larger than a tennis ball that are made of cardboard, paper, hard plastic, and aluminum or tin can be recycled.

“Unfortunately, if there are things that we cannot take [in the recycling bin], they won't take the whole dumpster,” Rosales added.

Glass, styrofoam, plastic bags or other flimsy plastic, and food or yard waste cannot be placed in the recycle bins.

If you have additional questions about what can be recycled or how to sort them, call the recycling center at (520) 228-2296. It can be helpful to let them know ahead of time for large amounts of material, or visit them from 0900 to 1200 on Tuesdays and Thursdays.