New Mexico trash pickup is run by cities, counties and private haulers, not by the state, and your pickup day comes from your city’s or hauler’s own lookup. Among the largest cities, Albuquerque and Las Cruces collect curbside themselves; Rio Rancho contracts a private hauler. New Mexico has no statewide bottle deposit, PaintCare paint or mattress program.
Find your city
The largest New Mexico cities and their official collection pages:
- Albuquerque: City of Albuquerque Solid Waste Management Department. Trash is collected every week on your designated trash day, and green waste is accepted in the normal trash cart. Official page ↗ Look up your collection day ↗
- Las Cruces: Las Cruces Utilities, Solid Waste Collections. Trash is collected once a week on a designated pick-up day, and the recycling bin is picked up every other week by the South Central Solid Waste Authority. Official page ↗
- Rio Rancho: City of Rio Rancho, with curbside collection provided by WM (Waste Management). Rio Rancho residents may dispose of up to 1,000 lbs free at the Rio Rancho Landfill once per month, with a driver’s license and a recent WM bill. Official page ↗
Missing your city? Suggest a City.
Who collects in New Mexico
- NMED says recycling programs vary from community to community, and residents should contact their municipal, county, solid waste authority or tribal recycling program for what and how to recycle. Source ↗
- NMED says used household needles sealed in a rigid lidded plastic container may go in the regular trash, but must never be put in recycling bins. Source ↗
National haulers (Republic Services, WM, Waste Connections) hold contracts in many places; the city or county names the hauler for each street.
State-level rules
- Container deposit: No statewide container deposit law. NCSL’s state beverage container deposit laws page reports that only ten states and Guam have a deposit-refund system for beverage containers, and New Mexico is not one of them. Source ↗
- Paint: Not a PaintCare state. PaintCare’s own site names the states where paint stewardship laws have created its programs (California, Colorado, Connecticut, D.C., Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington); New Mexico is not among them. Leftover paint goes through the local household hazardous waste program; see paint. Source ↗
- Mattresses: No statewide mattress take-back program. The Mattress Recycling Council says its Bye Bye Mattress program runs only in California, Connecticut, Oregon and Rhode Island. See mattresses. Source ↗
State agency
- State agency: New Mexico Environment Department, Resource Recovery Bureau (formerly the Solid Waste Bureau). It permits and registers solid waste, recycling and composting facilities, runs recycling and illegal-dumping grant programs, and directs residents to their municipal, county, solid waste authority or tribal program for local recycling rules. Official website ↗
- Find your local program: NMED lists of permitted and registered facilities and haulers ↗
- Contact: 505-827-2855
Flag of New Mexico. Public-domain artwork. Source. Resized to 480 pixels wide.
Materials with their own rules
Paint · Lithium-ion batteries · Household hazardous waste · Mattresses · Pizza boxes · Christmas trees
Neighboring states
Arizona · Colorado · Oklahoma · Texas
Sources
Official pages used: env.nm.gov · env.nm.gov · cabq.gov · cabq.gov · lascruces.gov · rrnm.gov · ncsl.org · paintcare.org · mattressrecyclingcouncil.org.
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