Hey, Colorado!
Let’s Join Together to Erase the Waste
Coloradans enjoy our outdoors. We care about our neighbors. And we want our communities to thrive. We can help keep them thriving by recycling, refusing single-use items when possible, and learning how to reduce the amount of waste we create in the first place.
Many of us already know about the benefits of recycling, but another impactful way to reduce our footprint is by using fewer materials and generating less waste from the start. This can be as simple as printing on both sides of a sheet of paper, drinking coffee out of a mug instead of a disposable cup, turning down plastic utensils when ordering to-go, buying items in bulk instead of individual packages, and bringing your bags while shopping.
Shop Smart and Reuse: 6 Simple Steps to Waste Reduction
· Fight Food Waste. According to the USDA, did you know that between 30-40% of food is wasted? Planning meals, proper food storage techniques, freezing leftovers, and composting are effective ways to reduce the amount of food and packaging that end up in our landfills.
· Buy Big, Buy Less. Buying frequently used household items like coffee or toilet paper in bulk reduces unnecessary packaging waste and saves trips to the grocery store. And when shopping online, choose multiple items to be shipped all at once.
· Make Smart Purchases. Selecting items with little or no packaging means less to throw away, which is less material that goes into landfills. Also, try buying previously used goods (like at a local thrift shop). And when buying new, seek products that are more durable and long-lasting. Look for the following: Durable. Repairable. Refillable. Reusable.
· BYO (Bring Your Own). Small decisions like bringing a reusable bag to the grocery store or reusable water bottles and coffee cups to work/school can significantly impact and reduce the amount of waste you create.
· Skip the Plastic Utensils. If you don’t need disposable straws, plates, plastic silverware, or napkins with your takeout, don’t take them.
. Opt Out. Convert to electronic billing and remove yourself from catalogs and mailing lists.
Recycle the Waste You Do Create
Colorado’s recycling rate has improved in recent years, but it is still far behind many other states. There’s so much more we can do and so much to gain!
The small actions we take to keep recyclable materials —like glass bottles—out of our landfills actually make a big difference. When we recycle glass, aluminum, paper, and plastics, we improve both our environment and our economy, since recycling sustains thousands of jobs here in Colorado. So let's keep at it, each doing our part to erase the waste in our beautiful state.
Find Your Local Recycling Center
Kids! Help us Erase the Waste at Home!
Recycling is simple enough for the whole family.
Kids, here are five things you can do to help your family become recycling rock stars.
Show your parents how to separate and rinse recyclables.
Find extra trash cans, or cardboard boxes, and set them up as recycling bins in bedrooms, the family room, home office and kitchen. This will make it easier to collect recyclables.
Start a weekly contest with your family members to see who can recycle the most cans, bottles, metal, aluminum, glass, and cardboard.
Help your parents with their shopping list, and think about what you already have before buying new. Turn your old T-shirt into a rag to wash the car or wipe the dog’s feet, and use old yogurt containers to keep leftovers instead of buying new food storage containers.
When you’re out shopping with your family, try to buy products in glass or aluminum containers — those things are valuable to recyclers!
The Road to Recycling: 3 Tips to Get Started
Rinse it first!
Putting just one food-crusted container into the recycling bin can contaminate the entire load. So, remember to empty and rinse your containers first.
Don’t bag it
Bagging recyclables makes things difficult at the sorting facility. Plastic bags get caught in the sorting facility machinery and can cause the whole recycling facility to shut down until the jam is removed. Keep recyclables loose unless your local recycling company tells you otherwise.
Don’t be a wish-cycler
With good intentions, you might be tossing your empty potato chip bags, squeezable food pouches, or frozen veggie packaging into the recycling bin, hoping they can be recycled. From paper towels to straws, items that seem recyclable —but aren’t — can contaminate an entire load, forcing it to the landfill.
Learning which items can and can't be recycled can help put an end to wish-cycling. Go online to find out what items can be recycled in your community.
Recycle Glass in Three Easy Steps
Know
Learn what glass is recyclable in your curbside bin.
Recyclable: Soda, beer, wine, and other drink bottles; pickle, jelly, sauce, and or baby food jars. Clear, blue, green, and brown bottles are all recyclable.
Recyclable only through special programs: Windows, ovenware, lightbulbs, Pyrex, and crystal.
Not sure? Grab your phone, go online, and check.
Rinse
Make sure to clean out any food or drink residue.
Place
Put your recyclables in your recycling bin or take it to a drop-off center.
What Else Can You Recycle? So Many Possibilities
Find places in your area to recycle electronics, batteries, lighting and other types of waste.
Glass That’s Recycled
Stays in Colorado
Colorado is unique in that we have a closed-loop recycling system for glass. That means we can collect, process, and transform glass into a new product right here in our state.
It works like this:
You recycle your glass bottle or jar in your curbside recycling bin or at a drop-off center.
Your recycling is picked up and sorted.
The recycler cleans the glass and sorts it further.
The cleaned and sorted glass is sold to local bottling companies where it is remanufactured into new beer bottles, ready to repeat the cycle.
In addition to being a wise use of resources, your recycled glass creates jobs here in Colorado. It employs not only the people who work in glass recycling facilities, but also those who ship it and who work for companies that use recycled glass for their products.
Go big with glass.
It’s true that by choosing to recycle your used glass containers, you make a huge difference.
Glass containers are 100% recyclable. That means your used glass can be recycled over and over, forever, with very little material lost in the process.
Making sure your used glass lives on in useful ways, rather than getting dumped in a landfill, saves natural resources and energy. Your choice also powers local businesses that take your used glass and turn it into new products — like food containers, bottles, and road construction materials.
Spread the word!
Download and share this PDF to tell your friends and neighbors how easy it is to recycle in Colorado.
In the News
In an interview with Mile High Living, our team talked about how easy and important it is to recycle glass – and other materials too!
Take the "No Glass in the Trash" Pledge!
Join your neighbors to cut down on what we send to the landfill!
Your pledge to take a few small steps to recycle your glass bottles and jars makes a big difference to our environment and our economy.
I will be part of the solution. I will help erase the waste in Colorado by doing my part to recycle all of my used glass bottles and jars. I pledge that in my home, there will be no glass in the trash!