Boulder Zero Waste For Zero Loss

"'We accept as much as we can authentically and responsibly market. Aluminum manufacturers are very happy to receive it. It’s a great closed loop because the market for it is going right back to aluminum manufacturing. Plastics can only be recycled once or twice, but aluminum or steel can be recycled infinitely.'
Eco-Cycle also operates the Center for Hard to Recycle Materials at 6400 Arapahoe Ave. in Boulder. Items recycled at the so-called CHARM center include books, mattresses, box springs, electronics, scrap metal, vegetable oil, cables, wires, printer cartridges, plastic bags, pallet-wrapping film, clothing, textiles, bicycles and bike parts, bike tires and tubes, freon-fueled appliances, other small appliances, fire extinguishers, ceramics, sinks, toilets, concrete, plate glass, white foam packaging, and large plastic items such as laundry baskets and children’s wading pools.
'The books often go to schools or dentist’s offices,' Matsch said, 'and we have a book collector that looks for valuable old ones.' CHARM partners with Denver-based Springback to take mattresses and box springs, and Blue Star Recyclers, which she described as a 'fellow social-enterprise nonprofit that hires 80% employees with disabilities.'”

Recycling’s ‘Amazon effect’: Boulder County waste companies awash in cardboard, but market recovers for some materials According to the latest virtual pandemic-related humor, Americans who are staying home because of COVID-19 are buying so many items online that when a household doesn’t receive a package for a coup…

"As part of this zero-waste commitment and to keep takeout containers out of the landfill, too, the city has teamed up with repEATer to offer a sustainable alternative: reusable takeout containers.
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'We invite all Boulder-area restaurants to consider joining the repEATer program,' said Senior Sustainability Coordinator Emily Freeman. 'Not only is repEATer a great way to reduce takeout waste, but it can also help restaurants reduce their bottom line by minimizing the costs associated with single-use containers.'”

Fill Your Stomachs — Not the Landfill — with repEATer Reusable Takeout Container Program | City of Boulder City of Boulder partners with repEATer to offer local businesses and diners zero-waste dining Did you know that Boulder residents generate an average of nearly three pounds of waste each day, with more than one pound of that waste headed directly to the landfill? The City of Boulder has set a goal o...

"A bill banning single-use plastics and foam polystyrene food containers with exceptions received final approval from the Colorado General Assembly on Tuesday and is going to Gov. Jared Polis' desk for signature.
Under HB21-1162, stores and retail food establishments will not be allowed to provide the single-use items to customers, but 'a retail food establishment that is a restaurant and not a store or convenience store may provide single-use plastic carryout bags,' the bill reads."

Colorado single-use plastic ban passes, 'small stores' with 3 locations or fewer exempt The state legislature sent the bill to Gov. Polis' desk for signature after giving final approval on Tuesday.