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Recycle Colorado's 17th Annual Poster Contest: Trash to Treasure!

Recycle Colorado's 17th Annual Poster Contest: Trash to Treasure!

Students are encouraged every year to incorporate the theme of our poster contest into their artwork. This years theme was “Trash to Treasure”. Students were encouraged to either create a poster demonstrating the possibilities of upcycling or develop a creative innovation out of upcycled materials and take a picture of it for submission.

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Closed Landfill Remediation Grant Program - Proposed Rulemaking

During the 2023 legislative session, the Colorado General Assembly passed HB 23-1194, creating the Closed Landfill Remediation Grant Program. The program will provide grants to eligible local governments to help with the costs of environmental remediation efforts for, and management of, closed landfills owned by local governments. 

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Pitkin Solid Waste Center takes part in donation of bikes to Dine’ Bike Project

The Pitkin County Solid Waste Center and its Motherlode Mercantile shop were involved in a collaborative project where 126 bikes, bike parts, and wheels were donated to the nonprofit, NavajoYES, according to a Pitkin County press release. 

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Colorado Compost Regulation Revisions

As of March 30, 2024, revisions to Section 14 of the Solid Waste Regulations are effective.  The primary aim of these revisions was to address a lack of mid-tier food waste composting options within our regulatory structure.  The following is a summary of changes to increase food waste composting opportunities:

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Avon Awarded Grant to Launch Styrofoam Recycling Program for Eagle County

The Town of Avon is thrilled to announce that the proposed “Avon Community Styrofoam Recycling Program” has received a significant boost with the approval of a $111,105 grant from the Recycling Resources Economic Opportunity (RREO) program provided by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE). This grant will empower Avon to implement an innovative Styrofoam recycling program that will benefit all of Eagle County and is the first of its kind in the Colorado mountain regions.

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2024 Rocky Mountain NAHMMA Conference

Register for the NAHMMA Conference

Applications are open: 2023 RREO Recycling Rebate

The intent of this rebate program is to assist free public recycling drop-off sites by offsetting a portion of the transportation costs incurred by shipping recyclables to market or to a processing center. The rebate period covers costs incurred by drop-off sites from January 1, 2023, through December 31, 2023.

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Producer Responsibility is Good for Business and Good for Colorado

Colorado is poised to have one of the nation’s best recycling programs as it implements its best-in-class Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) program. The newly released Circular Action Alliance (CAA) report charts a course towards raising the recycling rate to as high as 50% by 2035. This is all possible because the state passed HB24-1355, creating a producer responsibility program for recycling in Colorado.

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US Composting Council Young Professionals Mentorship Program

The US Composting Council Young Professionals Mentorship Program is an annual initiative designed to connect aspiring professionals with seasoned experts in the composting industry. 

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Coming Soon! Recycling Resources Economic Opportunity (RREO) Recycling Rebate for 2023

The purpose of the upcoming RREO rebate is to assist free public recycling drop-off sites by offsetting a portion of the transportation costs incurred by shipping recyclables to market or to a processing center. The rebate period covers costs incurred by drop-off sites from January 1, 2023, through December 31, 2023. To be eligible for the rebate, each public drop-off site must have collected a minimum of 10 tons of qualifying recyclables during the rebate period and must continue to be operational and open to the public today. Additional eligibility requirements will be provided within the application.

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Sustainability and Waste Diversion Analyst opening at Denver International Airport

DEN is looking for a sustainability professional who is excited at the prospect of supporting and improving our diverse and complex waste reduction and diversion programs. The successful candidate will be ready and able to get their “boots on the ground” at one of the busiest airports in the world with the ambitious goal of becoming the most sustainable airport in the world. 

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Revised Producer Responsibility Needs Assessment Scenarios

Based on feedback, Circular Action Alliance (CAA) revised the three proposed recycling scenarios to:

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Grant Support for Foam Recycling - Webinar

Foam polystyrene (PS) is part of our everyday lives - from egg cartons in the grocery store, to protective cushioning in shipments, to takeout containers from our local restaurants. Because PS foam is over 90% air, it can be costly to transport for recycling. However, when the foam is densified - compacted into dense blocks - is can be transported more cost-effectively. For example, a 48-foot truckload of baled PS foam weighs around 16,000 pounds, whereas a truckload of densified PS foam weighs approximately 40,000 pounds. The Foam Recycling Coalition (a part of the Foodservice Packaging Institute) is hosting a webinar that will provide more information about foam recycling and end markets for densified foam. Additionally, the webinar will provide information on the FRC grant program that provides up to $50K per grant to public, private, or non-profit entities that are engaged with drop-off centers, curbside programs, or MRFs and looking to increase foam recycling for their communities. Grant applications will be accepted between March 18 – April 22, 2024.

2024 Recycle Colorado Policy Resources for Legislators

Thank you for meeting with us!

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2024 Lobby Day Volunteer Resources

Thank you for volunteering to support Recycle Colorado on Lobby Day. We are so glad you are here!
This page will have all the Lobby Day resources that you need for the day. Since there is a ton to cover, you can use the buttons below to navigate to the resource on this page that you need. If you ever lose this webpage, you will be provided with a QR code that has all of this information on it to access it again. 

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Glass Recycling Survey Findings Released

Consumer Expectations for Glass Recycling Remains High

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Recycling Operations Manager

As a Recycling Manager at the City of Fort Collins Streets Department, your primary responsibility will be to manage the Timberline Recycling Center and Hoffman Mill Crushing Facility.

The Timberline Recycling Center is a public recyclable drop-off center owned by the City of Fort Collins. It includes the unstaffed Everyday Recyclables Yard and staffed Hard-to-Recycle Materials Yard. Hoffman Mill is a crushing facility that processes concrete and asphalt aggregate, dirt and also conducts composting operations. This crew also maintains alleys, road shoulders, and coordinates mowing efforts. 

Onsite staffing and hauling at the Timberline Recycling Center are currently provided by a contractor, but transition is underway for the City to provide these services within the next year. Given that transition, this is a new position within the City, and will start off supporting and helping manage the in-house transition. 

The Manager position is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the Timberline Recycling Center and Hoffman Mill. This includes managing employees, volunteers, contractors, and some hands-on work. In addition to managing the day-to-day, this position manages the site budgets, engages in mid and long-term planning, tracks materials collected at the site, and engages in overall site management. It requires on-site work year-round as well as computer-based work. 

View the full job description & Apply

Circular Economy Models are Evolving in Southern Colorado

The Circular Economy Development Center’s recent stakeholder meeting explored concrete examples that show how circular models are evolving in southern Colorado, highlighting several businesses that derive their success from recovered plastics. On February 7 at Microchip’s Colorado Springs facility, business owners, government representatives and elected officials heard from Front Range Transload, a Pueblo-based material-handling company that provides the opportunity to aggregate less than full loads of material until there is enough volume for a truck or rail carload to go to market. Direct Polymers, a recycling services provider, uses the space to aggregate plastics. The company is preparing to close the loop on plastics by launching a manufacturing business in Colorado. The CEDC is helping coordinate these projects as part of circular economy development and showing other recyclers how materials could be stored for combined transport by rail or truck.

Read the full article on Waste Advantage

Colorado shares needs assessment, modeling draft

"In another step toward implementation of extended producer responsibility for packaging, Colorado regulators published a report laying out which materials would be covered and exploring different options for how the program could operate.

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Analyst Position Opening with RRS

RRS is seeking applications for a Full Time Analyst to work collaboratively with staff consultants and engineers on a variety of projects including zero waste planning, collection system management, data entry, and program best practices. Projects may include:

  • feasibility studies;
  • waste minimization plans; 
  • waste characterization and waste reduction studies; 
  • economic, technical and/or risk analysis; 
  • stakeholder engagement processes; 
  • resource management consulting services to provide guidance in support of resource-related data collection; 
  • policy analysis and/or risk analysis; and 
  • planning and support for the development, planning, facilitation, coordination, and documentation of and/or for waste reduction, circularity, or zero waste initiatives. 
Read the full job description & Apply!