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Zero Waste Picnic KitRelax, snack and enjoy the view without leaving a trace with Eco-Cycle's new Zero Waste Picnic Kit! It costs a mere $15 and can make your picnic waste-free for up to 10 people. Order yours today!

Hosting more than 10 people? Check out our Zero Waste Event kit.

Donate your retired but adored, your huddled possessions yearning to be free for our SHABBY CHIC ECO-AUCTION!

We're looking for one-of-a-kind, cool but unwanted stuff you know someone else would just LOVE. Items can include small antique furniture, vintage jewelry and more. The auction will run at the end of August so learn how to participate and support this reuse project and donate your stuff today! »

Want to do more for the environment but don’t have time and aren’t sure what you can do?

Join the Eco-Buzz Network!

We’ll notify you each month about a topic related to Zero Waste and climate change with actions you can take to minimize your
impact and spread the word to your friends. THIS MONTH'S CAMPAIGN: How kicking the plastic bag habit protects our oceans and resources. Learn more and sign up! »

click to read our cover storyThe summer 2010 Eco-Cycle Times is here!

Do you know the dark stories lurking behind our culture's everyday products? Part 1 of this issue's cover story shows how just four basic products impact our global society. Check out part 2 for how these stories change for the better in a Zero Waste world. Also in this issue: how to dispose of pharmaceuticals, how folks living in bear country or in apartments can compost, why asking whether we should ban plastic bags is the wrong question, and more. Read and share the issue online »

CHaRM's Earth Day gift to you: yoga mat recycling!

Standard yoga mats made from plastic foam, rubber foam or jute will all be accepted in the program. We will charge a $1 per mat recycling fee to cover overhead costs (in addition to the $3 facility fee), and we ask that all mats be cleaned and free of major stains before you bring them to the CHaRM. Learn more about why yoga mat recycling is important.

Compost teaMicrobe Tea is Back!

Made from worm castings and brimming with millions of living microbes, our microbe brew is the best natural soil amendment on the planet. Use it regularly to grow more pest-resistant plants and lawns, retain water during hot summer months and replenish depleted soils. Pick up a gallon or more at the CHaRM on Wednesdays or at the Farmers' Market on Saturdays, and water your soil with life!

What happens to your single-stream recycling?

Ever wondered how we sort your recycling, especially now that it's all collected in one bin? Watch this 15 minute video on the Boulder County Recycling Center and follow all your materials through the sorting process as we prepare to send them off to be made into new products. You'll see why we created our single-stream guidelines and why it's important to keep plastic bags and shredded paper out of your curbside recycling bin.

Single-stream recycling is here! Do you know your Dirty Dozen contaminants?

Download the latest single-stream recycling guidelines, which include plastic bottles, jugs and tubs #1—#7. Help us keep the recycling stream clean by learning The Recycling Bin's Dirty Dozen, Most Unwanted Materials, like plastic bags and shredded paper.

Watch our video about plastic bag contamination »

Support Eco-Cycle and the environment with Eco-Inspired Birthday Parties for Kids! Eco-Cycle's Party with the Planet Birthday Parties combine fun activities with green values. They also support a good cause: The proceeds go to Eco-Cycle’s School Recycling and Environmental Education Programs. (A portion of the cost is tax deductible.) Now take $50 off the regular price! Learn more »

Building a Zero Waste Community

We've changed our mission to reflect a new era of resource conservation in our community. We are now "Working to Build a Zero Waste Community." Eco-Cycle is partnering with individuals, schools, businesses, governments and event organizers to make ours a model Zero Waste community for the world.

Read more about Zero Waste • Watch our Zero Waste video

See our plans for a new Zero Waste Center and a new CHaRM

Check out the Boulder Farmers' Market: Zero Waste in Action

Our Zero Waste community partners & how you can get involved
Look for these clings around Boulder and Broomfield Counties at participating businesses, schools, municipalities and in the homes of our volunteers to know who is helping us create a Zero Waste model for the rest of the world. Click on each cling to find out who is involved and how you can get involved.
800 area businesses recycling, composting, and buying for Zero Waste
Nearly 800 volunteers who serve as ambassadors for Zero Waste in their neighborhoods, offices, and groups
What is Zero Waste?

Rather than looking at our production systems as one way and linear, we can redesign them to be cyclical, as in nature, where there is no such thing as “waste” and materials are kept in the production cycle. Zero Waste is emerging as a paradigm shift, a new, comprehensive socio-technical system that addresses our resource use from product design to disposal.

There are four central concepts to the Zero Waste system:

  1. Changing the Rules to support resource recovery;
  2. Producer Responsibility to hold industry liable for creating less toxic and more efficient products;
  3. Purchasing for Zero Waste to use our buying power as our voice for Zero Waste; and
  4. Resource Recovery Infrastructure to build the processing and recovery systems to move us toward Zero Waste. Learn more about all these aspects and the Zero Waste System.

More Zero Waste Resources

Take Action
Declare your independence from chemicals. Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families. Chemicals are a part of our lives. But when they threaten our health and safety, we have a right to know. Every day we are unknowingly exposed to toxic chemicals where we live, where we work, and where our children play. If this truly is a time of change, this is something that needs changing - now. Join the thousands of people signing on to make a change.
While we work toward longer-term, challenging solutions like shutting down coal-fired power plants and taking cars off the road, the easiest, first step that can produce significant climate results RIGHT NOW is to STOP landfill-produced methane. Simply by getting COOL — Compostable Organics Out of Landfills — by 2012, we can prevent potent methane emissions AND build healthier soils. Taking the COOL step replenishes carbon stocks and supports sustainable agriculture, yielding healthier foods for our population. The technology exists, the need is certain and the time to act is NOW. Get involved>>

It’s time to hold TV manufacturers responsible for their discarded products, just as they are in other countries of the world—including Japan, Taiwan and throughout the European Union. Learn which manufacturers are being responsible and which are not--and tell these ones to "Take Back My TV."

The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever. Watch The Story of Stuff and then share it with a friend.

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