Changes to Tucson’s hard to recycle plastic program in effect

Overwhelming participation in Tucson’s pilot plastic recycling program has prompted significant changes to the process, including requiring participants to buy more plastic, to recycle their plastic.

Tucsonans hoping to recycle plastic items that can’t go in the curbside bins now must purchase and place their items in Hefty Renew brand orange bags before dropping them off.

The city has been partnered with tech startup Byfusion since 2022. They take plastic that can’t normally be recycled in municipal programs, like snack packaging, straws, foam egg cartons, and grocery bags, and process them into building materials.

Former council member Steve Kozachik began the program two years ago with just a single roll-off container in front of the Ward 6 office, but it soon spread throughout the city as the amount of plastic donations quickly overwhelmed city staffers.

The recent expansion and partnership with Hefty is also due to more plastic than ByFusion can handle, according to the City of Tucson’s website.

At a town hall about the new program changes, ByFusion CEO Heidi Kujawa said they’re hoping the new requirements with Hefty will cut down on Tucson’s high contamination rates.

“The contamination that we’re seeing is primarily a lot of food waste…we also see a lot of metal parts, a lot of electronics. It's slightly higher than what we're typically used to seeing. A lot of the work that we're doing now with the city and with Hefty Renew is going to help just with that education,” Kujawa said.

The company reports they have processed 77 tons of materials from Tucson, but 20 tons of collections were contaminated. Kujawa says other cities with similar partnerships see about 15% contamination, and Tucson’s level is above average.

ByFusion is also opening a $2.4 million recycling location at the Los Reales Landfill this fall. Representatives said the facility will process a minimum of 2,400 tons of plastic annually.