2022/2023 community household recycling season – welcome! We’ve been operating since 2009 and are happy to welcome you to RECYCLING in Los Barriles & the East Cape, Baja California Sur, Mexico.
Bring CLEAN & CRUSHED & SORTED recyclables on the 1st Thursday of every month, from 9.00am – 11.00am to Baja’s Resort at the East Cape.
Please do not bring recyclables any other day, only the 1st Thursday morning.
LOCATION: Baja’s Resort at the East Cape
- The entrance is across from the Modelorama on Calle 20 de Noviembre, next to the bike shop & Caleb’s Cafe
- Go over the cattle grate and you will see the Recycling Center ahead on your left.
- To drop off, follow the driveway to the right, pass the office, then make a sharp left and go to the end, you’ll find us.
Recycling days for the 2022/2023 season:
November 2, 2022
December 1, 2022
January 5, 2023
February 2, 2023
March 2, 2023
April 6, 2023
May 4, 2023
June 1, 2023
July 6, 2023
August 3, 2023
Recycling is closed during September and October during hurricane season.
Remember! Please organize your recyclables at home.
- Clean
- Crushed
- Separated
Remember! Please make your donation – $6 US/$120 pesos minimum suggested to cover transportation to La Paz. All excess funds support “Cursos de Verano” an environmental education summer camp in Los Barriles
Volunteer – be part of the magic! It’s fun! One hour a month, either 9-10 or 10-11 on recycle day – just show up! The job is easy. You’ll greet community recyclers and monitor a “big bag” making sure folks put the right thing in the right place as they DIY their own recyclables.
What to recycle in Los Barriles, Baja California Sur, Mexico:
You can recycle the following CLEAN & CRUSHED & SORTED recyclables.
- PLASTIC
- PLASTIC BOTTLES & JARS: Separate into 3 categories
- 1) Milk and milky style containers
- 2) Clear plastic including plastic bags (not black bags)
- 3) Colored plastic and lids
- PLASTIC BOTTLES & JARS: Separate into 3 categories
- METAL
- ALUMINUM CANS: Rinsed and crushed
- ALUMINUM FOIL: Clean and with the cans
- TIN METAL CANS: Rinsed and crushed, separate from the aluminum
- MIXED METAL: Any other metal, together with the tin cans
- ALUMINUM CANS: Rinsed and crushed
- CARDBOARD
- : Only cardboard – no other paper, no loose paper – Cardboard flattened and tied in bundles.
- : Only cardboard – no other paper, no loose paper – Cardboard flattened and tied in bundles.
- EXPANDED POLYSTYRENE 6 (EPS 6): packing foam from electronics and appliances. Not to be confused with Styrofoam. EPS No. 6 is white foam commonly used to package TV’s, home appliances, computers, etc. It is composed of white beads compressed together. If you break up EPS No. 6, unlike Styrofoam, it becomes little round pieces/beads. Some of the foam will be marked with the recycle symbol with a 6 inside it. What do they do with this? So glad you asked! They make awesome insulated energy efficient building materials!
Remember: Clean, Crushed, and Sorted
It’s a “DIY” system, you crush your clean items then sort into the categories above. We recommend doing it at home and bringing them on the 1 monthly recycle day already processed. Alternatively you can process (crush and sort) the clean recyclables at the drop off.
Unfortunately we DON’T accept:
- Compostable bags: put them in the trash
- Batteries or any electronics: take them to Best Buy in the US or Canada
- Tetrapac containers (coated paper/plastic food and milk packaging)
- Consider packaging – buy recyclable/compostable packaging if possible
- Consider packaging – buy recyclable/compostable packaging if possible
- Styrofoam To-Go Containers (take out food containers)
- Bring your own container when ordering take out – or to bring a “doggie bag” home with you.
- Bring your own container when ordering take out – or to bring a “doggie bag” home with you.
- Paper, paperboard, any paper that’s not cardboard
- It breaks down quickly and is post consumer recycled. Bury it in your yard to amend your soil!
- It breaks down quickly and is post consumer recycled. Bury it in your yard to amend your soil!
- Glass
- All local markets accept SOME brands of glass beer bottles to return them to the manufacturer. Check with your favorite retailer, hopefully they recycle the beer you like!
- Our neighbors in La Ventana with the organization No Mas Basura recycle glass, if you’re headed that way connect with them to drop off glass – they’ll turn it into construction and landscape materials. The La Ventana recycling happens weekly, next to the farmers market on Thursdays from 8-10am.
- The welder on the bypass road (Camino de Ancon) takes glass to use for sandblasting. Location HERE
- All local markets accept SOME brands of glass beer bottles to return them to the manufacturer. Check with your favorite retailer, hopefully they recycle the beer you like!
- Household goods
- Donate! Bring books to the bookstore (watch the BPE for dates, it’s Friday mornings at the storage unit place on the highway just past the gas station and the school). Give to the Caps for Cancer annual garage sale in December, they use the money to buy wool for cozy items for children undergoing chemo in La Paz – email Annette Kaiser: iikaiser (at) frii (dotcom). Bring things to the DIF office, next to the concha and across from Tio Pablos, they will find good homes for unwanted items with less fortunate families in the East Cape. Or donate to the churches, your housekeeper, gardener – just don’t throw away your used items!
What happens to our recycling?
- First we collect household recycling from awesome folks like you on the first Thursday of each month (except Sept/Oct during hurricane season)
- Then we load the recyclables into a gigantic truck and take it to the recycle buyer in La Paz, one of the largest in our state of BCS, a family business run by Mario Pena. It’s called “Centro De Reciclaje La Paz S. De R.L. De C.V.”
- Finally – depending on what it is – they truck/ship/truck it to either Tijuana or mainland Mexico to the processing plants (see video below)
- In the end new packaging and products are made!