Summer 2024 Newsletter

Public Works’ Resource Conservation Division (RCD) is partnering with Wildfire Partners for their mobile home community clean-ups!

Columbine Mobile Home Clean Up in June

Recycling and more specifically, the purpose of your recycling bin.

Alright, you probably have a little spot near your kitchen to collect recyclables. Then you have a curbside recycling bin or something in the garage to collect and take it all to a drop-off center. And, since you’re reading this newsletter, I’m guessing you do your best to put in what you believe is recyclable.

This concept is great, it gets recyclables to the recycling center. We love that. But lately, I’ve wondered, " Do people understand the purpose of the recycling bin?”

Here’s my take.

Trucks pick up whatever is in your bin and bring it to the recycling center. Then, we use tons of machines and a lot of people to sort through your recyclables. Sorted material gets sent to companies that make new items, which we call “end markets.”

The hope of RCD and EcoCycle (the facility operator) is that whatever is in your bin is what we can sell to companies that will make new products. If there is trash in your bin or things that you may have “wish-cycled,” those get sent to the landfill.

The purpose of your bin is not to get your waste out of sight and out of mind. Its purpose is to recover valuable materials and make them into new items. The recycling center makes money from the material we sell to end markets (yeah!). On the flip side, the recycling center must pay for the material that goes to the landfill (boo!).

When you view the purpose of your recycling bin as a way to transport recyclable materials to our facility, which are then sold to end markets to make new items, will more people recycle correctly?

This insight has a lot to unpack. I encourage you to think a bit more deeply about the purpose of your recycling bin (and compost and trash bins too).

Now that we’ve established that your recycling bin has a purpose, there is one last question to address, “Does it really get recycled?” This question always comes up, and I have a quote from EcoCycle Executive Director Zan Jones addressing it, which I think will give you some peace of mind.

“As one of the first recyclers in the nation, Eco-Cycle was founded nearly 50 years ago for the sole purpose of keeping materials out of the landfill to prevent further destruction of our natural resources – a commitment we bring to our role as the non-profit operator of the BCRC (Boulder County Recycling Center) since it was built in 2001.

The BCRC is a publicly-owned facility that handles recycling ONLY, no trash. Recycling is a revenue stream for the facility; any material that needs to be hauled and landfilled is a costly expense paid by Eco-Cycle, coming out of our operations revenue. So, there is a significant financial incentive to recycle as much material as possible, in addition to the fact that both Boulder County and Eco-Cycle are mission-driven organizations with decades of proven dedication to achieving the community's Zero Waste goals.

We invest significant funds to educate the community to give us only what we can market. The markets that buy our materials to turn them into something new are real—no one is paying to ship stuff to them just so they can pay even more money to landfill it at the final destination.

If a material is listed in the Boulder County/Eco-Cycle recycling guidelines as recyclable, it means there is a solid market for the material – and we thank you for following and sharing our recycling guidelines to make sure you're giving us the stuff we can actually sell so we can keep (the BCRC) trash rate to an absolute minimum.”

Recycle Row

Now that you’ve endured my recycling soapbox, I’ll make this part of the newsletter short and sweet.

If you’ve been on one of my recycling center tours, you’ve heard me say, “Here in Boulder County, we have so many wonderful opportunities for diversion!” And it’s true. You’ve got five facilities in Recycle Row ready to help you divert as much as possible from the landfill.

We’ve updated our Recycle Row webpage. It’s just waiting for you to click on all those links and watch our super fun and informative video.

Other odds and ends:

• Join a guided tour of the Boulder County Recycling Center for individuals or small groups at 10 a,m. on Tuesday, Aug. 6. Please register for tour.
• The Town of Lyons and Boulder County, in collaboration with Anheuser-Busch and O-I, are piloting a glass collection bin. Glass can be put into a specially marked bin at the drop off center.
  • I will be at the Lyons Drop-Off Center with our tent and table to talk with people about this glass collection and answer any other recycling questions they may have.
  • I’ll be there from 9 a.m. to noon on Wednesday, July 24 and Thursday, Aug. 1 Stop by if you are in the area!
  • The Lyons Drop Off is located at 198 2^nd Ave, Lyons. It is open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day.
• Help the Hazardous Materials Management Facility (HMMF) improve! Take this 3-minute survey and let them know about your experience.
• Check out the HMMF’s Reuse in Action Contest. You could win a gift card when you use an item from their Free Reuse Area and make something pretty!

Thanks for reading. If this resonated with you in any way, I’d love to hear from you. You can email cvalenza@bouldercounty.org.