Boulder
County, Colo. – The Boulder County Board of County Commissioners
awarded $49,040 to nine waste reduction programs on Jan. 12 as part of the
Resource Conservation Division’s Community Outreach Program for 2017.

Established in 1997, the Boulder County Zero Waste Funding program has awarded more than $1 million for education and infrastructure initiatives which promote waste reduction and diversion. This year, the funding program received a record 22 applications with more than $140,000 in funding requests.

Programs funded for 2017:

Planet Bluegrass - $8,500
Planet Bluegrass is expanding their sustainable, re-useable plate program. They hope to revolutionize large event food service by introducing reusable dishes rather than single-use articles.

Center for Resource Conservation - $3,500
The Center for Resource Conservation will replace tools in their Tool Library that have reached the end of their useful lives.

Community Cycles - $5,000
Community Cycles will expand their work county-wide through the use of a trailer, modifications to their van to allow them to haul a trailer with the van, and additional sorting bins for use in their bike shop/bicycle recycling and re-use center.

Town of Nederland - $5,000
The Town of Nederland will deconstruct its old Town Shop as a pilot for construction and demolition recycling, and showcase the town’s zero waste efforts.

City of Longmont - $3,000
The City of Longmont will conduct a waste sort and survey in the fourth quarter of 2017.
The data collected through the sort and survey will provide valuable information on the success of the first six months of the new curbside composting program.

Boulder Valley School District - $10,000
BVSD Food Services will implement the LeanPath 360 Tracker System, a food waste reduction system, in their three production kitchens. Implementing this system will allow them to actively monitor the food being thrown away by each employee and the reason for its disposal. Through the compiled data, they will be able to target waste reduction strategies among their employees and reduce their pre-consumer waste amounts and food costs.

Fruit Rescue - $8,500
Fruit Rescue is organizing the planning and delivery of Volunteer Harvest Coordinator Trainings, so that the number of harvests they can organize is not limited by paid coordinator time, thus allowing for more neighborhoods to be reached in 2017 and food waste from fruit trees to be minimized.

Earth’s Table - $2,540
Earth’s Table will purchase prepared compost and a shredder to allow them to improve garden soil and develop their own sustainable composting pile.

Bridge House - $3,000
Bridge House will make their Community Table program as close to zero waste as possible by developing processes that ensure materials are disposed of properly, educate and train Community Table staff and volunteers on the zero waste program, and implement metrics to measure compliance.