Eco-Cycle’s

Eco-Cycle

going to waste in landfills. They launched Eco-Cycle to create an opportunity for Boulder residents to preserve

resources. Eco-Cycle school buses loaded with volunteers rumbled through neighborhoods to pick up recyclable

materials, making Boulder one of the first communities in the nation to implement curbside recycling. Now one of

the oldest and largest nonprofit recyclers in the United States, Eco-Cycle has broadened its efforts—both locally and

internationally—to pioneer the next revolution in resource conservation: Zero Waste. Zero Waste replaces our current

one-way system of resource exploitation, pollution and landfilling with a cyclical system in which better design,

reuse, composting and recycling prevent environmental degradation.

more than a decade. In collaboration with the nonprofit Imagine!, Eco-Cycle also provided employment opportunities

for eight adults with developmental delays and cognitive disabilities through our book shearing/recycling program.

Eco-Cycle

solicits and receives funding from individual contributions, corporate sponsorship and grants from private

foundations and governmental agencies. Other funding sources include the sale of recycled materials, fees for

services and contracts with municipalities. All funds are used to advance recycling and Zero Waste programs in the

schools, businesses and communities Eco-Cycle serves.

curbside programs, businesses, government offices and schools. In

2010, Eco-Cycle processed and marketed more than 55,000 tons of

traditional recyclable materials, including glass, aluminum, steel,

newspaper, white and colored paper, junk mail, magazines, catalogs,

envelopes, phone books, corrugated cardboard, milk cartons and drink

boxes, paperboard boxes, plastic bottles, plastic tubs and scrap metal,

which prevented 135,920 metric tons of carbon dioxide (MTCO2e) and

saved the greenhouse gas equivalent of taking nearly 26,000 cars off the

road for a year.* By recycling instead of landfilling these materials, Eco-

Cycle created 70 local jobs and helped our community avoid 551 tons of

air pollution, 2.2 tons of water pollution, 146 tons of toxic herbicides, and

pounds of paper from books not suitable for reuse. By recycling such vast volumes and variety of materials through

the CHaRM last year, Eco-Cycle prevented 1,800 metric tons of carbon dioxide (MTCO2e), the equivalent of

conserving 204,000 gallons of gasoline.

Reuse is a primary tenet of Zero Waste, and Eco-Cycle

possible. For each type of material collected for recycling at the CHaRM, Eco-Cycle works to add a reuse component.

Newer computer equipment is repurposed through two nonprofits: the Community Computer Connection (C3)

program, which refurbishes and distributes them to underserved children throughout Colorado, and Boulder

Community Computers, which teaches Boulder area residents how to build their own low-cost computers and use

supplies and plants, and more than 12,536 pounds of materials have been kept in productive use and out of the

landfill.

For the past five years, Eco-Cycle

Services package to businesses. This program is helping businesses

keep 90% or more of the discards they produce out of landfills and

offers a new approach to resource management and environmental

sustainability. More than 65 large corporations, hotels, restaurants,

offices and other businesses are working with Eco-Cycle to reduce the

amount of trash they create and increase their diversion from the

Since 1987, Eco-Cycle® has coordinated the Boulder/Broomfield County School

Recycling and Environmental Education Program, which integrates environmental

education with established school curriculum, ensuring that students in Boulder and

Broomfield Counties learn about their environment and what they can do to care for

it. The program provides for the collection of recyclables from all 54,000 students

Eco-Cycle

reduction, encourage recycling and composting, and advance our community’s—and the nation’s—progress toward

Zero Waste. In 2010, Eco-Cycle answered an average of 900 phone questions each month and gave 45

presentations and recycling facility tours to community groups. Eco-Cycle also published several print pieces on a

variety of topics including 71,000 copies of the Eco-Cycle Times newsletter, 80,000 single-stream recycling

Waste living, reducing our climate impact and waste reduction. Eco-Cycle’s network of “Eco-Buzzers” now includes

A critical element of Eco-Cycle's outreach and education is

educated 138,900 people at 26 large Zero Waste events

throughout the community, such as festivals and triathlons,

the needs of this community and provide education about the benefits of reducing waste, recycling, and decreasing

the amount of materials sent to the landfill. To reach this community, all Recycle it Right! materials were translated

to Spanish, and Spanish-speaking canvassers went to Latino neighborhoods to explain guidelines and answer

questions. As a result of Eco-Cycle’s Latino Outreach program, more than 13,000 people were educated about the

importance of recycling and how to Recycle it Right!

role in our outreach and education efforts. This group of 844

dedicated recyclers donated close to 3,000 hours of their time