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From Town Tools. For the current version, visit https://www.towntools.org/bisbee-arizona-us/recycling
(today)
Every centre is closed now
Next open at 7:30 am
Bisbee has no curbside recycling box. Everything you recycle, you carry — and the three places that take it keep different hours and different lists, which is the part that catches people out. The City's two stations are free but open eight hours a week between them. The County's transfer station is open six days a week, but it weighs and charges every load and takes no glass, no plastic and no paper at all. This page puts the three side by side: what is open now, what each one takes, and where the things none of them take actually go.
The centres
Old Bisbee recycling station, Sowles Avenue
Closed now
Closed now — opens Wednesday at 7 am.
Old Bisbee, on Sowles Avenue just above Main Street, by St. John's Church — walkable from the canyon core.
Residents only. A free household drop-off, run by the City with its own recycling staff. There is no charge, no permit and no sticker — turn up inside the hours with the materials on the City's list. The City publishes no residency check either way; these are stations its Sanitation Fund pays for.
Limits
Charge
None
Open
Eight hours a week — Wednesday and Friday mornings only
What it takes
Household recycling in the nine materials on the City's list, and nothing else
This is the only recycling station inside Old Bisbee, and it shuts at 11am — there is no afternoon window here on any day.
The City's flyer gives the station as "Old Bisbee, Sowles (St. John's Church)" with no street number, so the pin is Sowles Avenue itself.
Opening hours
Monday
Closed
Tuesday
Closed
Wednesday
7 am – 11 am
Thursday
Closed
Friday
7 am – 11 am
Saturday
Closed
Sunday
Closed
What it doesn't take
Aluminum foil and foil trays — the City's list excludes them even though it takes aluminum cans. The County transfer station does take foil.
Cat-food cans, which the City singles out from other food tins.
Plastics other than #1 and #2.
Household trash, yard debris and bulky items — those are the City's curbside round and its call-out services.
Residents only. Free, like the Sowles station — no charge and nothing to show, and no published residency check. Full recycling is staffed on Saturday mornings only; the cardboard dumpster in the park is there the rest of the week.
Limits
Charge
None
Full recycling
Saturday 9am–1pm only
Cardboard
Cochise County Bisbee Transfer Station
Closed now
Closed now — opens at 7:30 am today.
South of the Lavender Pit on Tovreaville Road, below the Warren turn — a drive rather than a walk.
Residents, and others who pay. Open to anyone, and everything is weighed. The County charges $68.00 a ton with a $5.00 minimum per load under the fee schedule in force since 1 July 2026, and that applies to recycling as well as trash. Household hazardous waste is the exception — it is free.
Limits
Charge
$68.00 a ton, $5.00 minimum per load
Three stations, three different lists
The City and the County publish separate lists and they disagree in both directions. The City takes glass, plastics #1 and #2, newspaper, magazines and white paper; the County takes none of those. The County takes aluminum foil, brass, copper, sheet metal and wire; the City takes none of those and singles out foil and cat-food cans as not accepted. Only cardboard, aluminum cans and clean food tins go to all three. Check the list below for the thing in your hand before you load the car.
The County station charges by weight; the City's two are free
Cochise County weighs every load at the Bisbee Transfer Station and charges $68.00 a ton with a $5.00 minimum, recycling included — its own sheet says "standard charges apply" to the materials it accepts. The City makes no charge at Sowles or Vista Park. So a small bag of cardboard costs $5.00 at the transfer station and nothing at either City station.
Curbside is trash only
Where does this go?
Material
Accepted at
Note
Cardboard
Every centre
Flatten it. This is the one material you can drop at any hour — the Vista Park dumpster is open round the clock, every day.
Aluminum cans
Every centre
Drinks cans. Foil and foil trays are a different answer — see below.
Food tins
Every centre
Rinsed. The County asks for labels removed; the City does not say either way.
Glass bottles and jars
Every centre except Transfer Station
The City's two stations only. The County marks glass non-acceptable at every one of its sites, so a weekday trip to the transfer station with glass is a wasted one.
Plastics #1 and #2
Every centre except Transfer Station
The number is inside the triangle on the base. #1 and #2 only — the City takes no other number and the County takes no plastic at all.
Newspaper, magazines and white paper
Every centre except Transfer Station
Shredded paper
Every centre except Transfer Station
Bag it so it does not blow around the station.
Aluminum foil and foil trays
Every centre except Sowles, Vista Park
The one material the County takes and the City will not — its flyer puts "NO aluminum foil or trays" in red under the cans.
Scrap metal — brass, copper, sheet steel, wire
Every centre except Sowles, Vista Park
The County station only, weighed and charged like anything else.
Five passenger tires up to 20 inches free a year; after that, charged by weight
Nothing here is free except household hazardous waste: even one sack of cardboard meets the $5.00 minimum, where both City stations would take it for nothing.
An unsecured load costs $2.00 extra for a household and $10.00 for a business — tie the load down before you set off.
This is the only one of the three open on a weekday afternoon, and the only one that takes scrap metal, but it recycles metal and cardboard only.
The City's own flyer gives this station as 892 Tovreaville Road closing at 2:30pm. The County runs it and publishes 100 S Tovreaville Road and 3:00pm; those are the figures on this page.
Opening hours
Monday
7:30 am – 3 pm
Tuesday
7:30 am – 3 pm
Wednesday
7:30 am – 3 pm
Thursday
7:30 am – 3 pm
Friday
7:30 am – 3 pm
Saturday
7:30 am – 3 pm
Sunday
Closed
What it doesn't take
Glass — the County's acceptable-materials sheet marks it non-acceptable at every County site.
Plastic of every number.
Paper, newspaper, magazines, cartons and paperboard — all crossed off on the same sheet.
The City's weekly route takes household trash, not recycling — this town's "Which Day Is My Trash Collected?" page covers that. Yard debris and bulky items are separate call-outs to Public Works on 520-432-6002, not something to bring here.
The City publishes no date on its flyer
The City posts its recycling stations as an image on the Sanitation Division page with no revision date on it, and says itself that locations and hours change. Public Works, 520-432-6001, is the number to ring if a station is dark when this page says it should be open — and please use the correction link at the foot of this page so we can fix it.
The County's Free Dump Program window has closed for 2026
Cochise County took applications for its Free Dump Program between 1 July and 30 September 2026, with a sign-up morning at the Bisbee Transfer Station on 5 September. That window is shut. The County keeps a voicemail line for the programme on 520-432-9655; nothing published yet says when the next round opens.
Every centre except Sowles, Vista Park
Free, and the one thing at the transfer station that is. Commercial quantities are not covered.
Cat-food cans
Not on the City's list — its flyer singles them out in red, apart from other food tins. The County's sheet asks for clean food tins with labels removed and does not name cat food either way, but everything there is weighed with a $5.00 minimum.
Plastics #3 to #7
Nowhere in Bisbee. The City takes #1 and #2 only and the County takes no plastic at all. For items off the list the City's flyer points people to Tucson Clean & Beautiful, a two-hour drive — so for most households these go in the curbside bin.
Yard debris and branches
The City collects it free, on Wednesdays — up to two cubic yards with branches no longer than three feet. Ring Public Works on 520-432-6002 to arrange it.
Christmas trees
The City picks these up — ring Public Works on 520-432-6001.
Appliances and furniture
The City collects used appliances and furniture for a $30 fee — Public Works, 520-432-6002. The County transfer station will take them weighed at $68.00 a ton, $5.00 minimum, which is cheaper for one small item and dearer for a houseful.
Ordinary household trash
Every centre except Sowles, Vista Park
Or leave it on your curbside day — this town's "Which Day Is My Trash Collected?" page has the route and the date.