Belen set to open recycling facility

December 08, 2009

The City of Belen will open its new recycling facility in January, limiting who can access it.

The city expected to open the facility in September, but setting it up — including the recycling bins, new fencing and a trash compactor — took longer than first thought.

The city is also now limiting who can access the facility.

Originally, the city said the facility, which is located near the overpass on North Main Street, would be open to all county residents, to anyone who had recyclables.

“This is strictly for city residents,” City Manager Sally Garley said last night.

Residents of Rio Communities have discussed the Belen recycling facility for months, working with the city to establish it in anticipation of having a place closer than Los Lunas to take their recyclables.

Garley said the city will work toward allowing everyone to use the facility but the cost to transport the recyclables is too high and the return for the sale of the recyclables too low.

“Every time we fill up these containers we have to pay the cost to transport them,” she said. “There’s no money to be made with recycling at this point. The money isn’t there.”

City residents must have a City of Belen dump sticker or their utility bill in-hand to use the recycling facility.

Belen’s program will accept plastics 1-7, newspapers and other paper, light metals — but no aluminum, since other local businesses offer that service — as well as flattened cardboard. No glass will be accepted.

The facility will be open on the first and third Saturday of each month between 9:00am and 1:00pm.

“That’s four hours. Why so little? That’s pretty restrictive,” Councilor Terese Ulivarri questioned.

“It is restrictive, but that’s just what we’re going to start off as,” Garley said. “If we see a need to increase the hours, we can.”

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