¡Que Linda! Recycling, dumpsters and volunteers beautify Socorro

An effort to clean up Socorro is being realized with the ¡Que Linda! beautification grant secured by the City of Socorro to provide free dumpsters, recycling services and cleanup crews.

“The whole point is to reduce dumping, clean up home areas and get the community involved in a consistent way,” Daryl Ross, co-coordinator of the Que Linda grant said at the city meeting on Dec. 16. “It's not meant to be a one-time cleanup. It's meant to be an ongoing project that you can build on.”

In October, the city was awarded a $125,000 grant from the New Mexico Department of Transportation, setting the stage for the program's launch in December.

According to Marcella Alvarado, co-coordinator, the grant officially kicked off in early December with two 40-yard dumpsters provided for community use at Chaparral and the corner of Blue Canyon West Place.

By Tuesday following their placement earlier this month, Ross said the Chaparral dumpster was 100% filled, and the Blue Canyon dumpsters were about three-quarters filled.

“(It) really shows the level of dumping happening in that area. Going forward, we're going to keep watching how fast these dumpsters fill up. If the location keeps filling up quickly, we're going to monitor them, collect data as much as we can, and we're going to concentrate on that area.,” Ross said

Alvarado said that from January 5 to January 20, two more dumpsters will be made available at the corner of Main Street and Manzanares Street, and at the gravel pits off Newberry Road and Lopezville Road.

She said all community members are encouraged to use the dumpsters for residential household trash only. Trash does not need to be bagged.

"Please do not dispose of metal items or hazardous waste, including oil, batteries, chemicals, or similar materials. The dumpsters are provided solely for regular household waste," Alvarado said.

Recycling

Recycling began on December 20. Alvarado said supervised recycling collection is scheduled for the first and third Saturdays of each month, from 9 a.m. to noon, at 205 California Street, where the old Sand Motel used to be, next to the Pottery Land Store.

“Our goal is to encourage the community to begin recycling and to help divert recyclable and reusable materials away from the landfill,” Alvarado said.

She said accepted materials include aluminum, cardboard, #1 plastics and mixed paper.

In addition to trash and recycling efforts, Ross and Alvarado have recently partnered with Janice Jaramillo, Socorro School District Athletic Director, to involve youth in the cleanup. The Socorro High School Yearbook Club conducted a cleanup at the landfill on December 19, and the Middle School Boys Basketball Team is scheduled to participate in an upcoming cleanup.

“If you guys know of anybody, we're looking for different schools, clubs, teams,” Alvarado said at the city meeting.

She said group clean-ups will be scheduled on Fridays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and they will assign them a place to clean, and we'll give them $300 for their work.

"We appreciate the community's participation and support. Working together, we can keep our city cleaner and move toward a more sustainable future," Alvarado said.

She thanked Socorro Mayor Ravi Bhasker and the Director of the Landfill, Mike Lucero for their continued support. 

“As city workers, we make a great team, and that teamwork has been key to this program’s success,” Alvarado said.