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| News & Upcoming Events |
Recycling markets are struggling and your support is needed more than ever. The global financial meltdown has hit recycling market prices hard—we’re experiencing the biggest and fastest price drop in our 33-year history. Our revenues from the sale of materials have dropped 50% in 60 days! That equals about $200,000 per month that has just evaporated.  We’ll survive—we always have and always will—since the Zero Waste approach is the cleanest, most efficient and most economical way forward for the 21st century. We will continue to find markets for our recyclable materials and are committed to keeping these materials out of the landfill. Your year-end donation is especially appreciated this year.
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 Are you keeping the Most Unwanted Materials out of your recycling bin?
Plastic bags, shredded paper, plastic caps and lids... these are all contaminants in the curbside recycling stream. They are also our top 4 materials in our Dirty Dozen list: Curbside Recycling's Most Unwanted Materials. Look for Dirty Dozen ads and new single-stream recycling guidelines in the Camera in the next few weeks, or print them here and post them in your home or office. Thank you for helping us keep the recycling stream clean! |
 Shop green this holiday and support Eco-Cycle. Trash volumes tend to increase 25% during the holidays, but don't fret! You can do your part to reduce the waste this holiday season, and Eco-Cycle is here to help you through the process. Start with our Eco-Cycle eStore where we've researched and chosen the gifts and everyday items you need to lead a Zero Waste lifestyle.
After purchasing green, check out our 2008 Zero Waste Holiday Guide. It's packed with ways to avoid waste in the first place, tips for eco-entertaining, recycling collections for items special to the season, ideas for eco-friendly gift giving and much more! View our guide and watch video demonstrations of the do's and don'ts of holiday recycling>> |
Local Electronics Recycling Scandal Exposed by CBS "60 Minutes"
On Nov. 9, "60 Minutes" featured a segment about a Denver recycler that illegally shipped containers full of electronic scrap to a small village in China. The items and their toxic components (lead, mercury, cadmium, chromium, PVC, etc.) were being dismantled in horrific conditions, poisoning the town's water supply, scarring the workers and filling their lungs with toxic fumes.
Do you know where your electronics are being recycled?
If you bring them to our Center for Hard-to-Recycle Materials (CHaRM), you can be sure they will be recycled domestically and responsibly. Eco-Cycle is a proud signer of the Basel Action Network's (BAN) Pledge of True Stewardship. Read about BAN's e-Steward's Initiative and find out if your recycler is a true "e-Steward."
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 Now accepting #1 - 7 bottles & tubs!
You asked for it, you got it! #1 - 7 bottles, tubs and screw-top jars are now accepted in your curbside recycling bin. Learn more about our new plastics guidelines >>
Also: Download our "Pocket Guide to Plastics" and end the confusion about which plastics are safer to use and which should be avoided. |
 Single-stream recycling is here!
Depending on where you live in Boulder County, sometime this year recyclers will be able to combine mixed paper (newspaper, junk mail, etc.) and commingled containers (bottles, cans, etc.) together in one bin. Learn more about single-stream and when it's coming to your home or business >> |
 Eco-Cycle wins another award—the sixth one this year! In November, Eco-Cycle won the Camera's Boulder County Gold People's Choice Award for best non-profit organization. Thank you Boulder County! Earlier this year, our Zero Waste Services program for businesses, Zero Waste Event Kit and Green Star Schools program also won awards. Visit our awards page to learn more >> |
 Zero Waste Event Services
Eco-Cycle has a variety of tools to help you host a green event:
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 Zero Waste is the fastest and most effective first step toward reducing climate change.
According to a national report co-authored by Eco-Cycle, reducing waste disposed in landfills and incinerators can have climate benefits equivalent to removing 21% of U.S. coal-fired power plants. Download the report or learn more about Eco-Cycle's work on Zero Waste and climate change.
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Catch up on the latest Zero Waste progress!
Our community is making strides toward Zero Waste through new recycling programs, innovative initiatives in schools and creative collection programs at local businesses. Read more in our fall/winter newsletter >> (PDF)
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 Receive free online newsletters and recycling alerts of your choice.
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| 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. |
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| 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:
- Changing the Rules to support resource recovery;
- Producer Responsibility to hold industry liable for creating less toxic and more efficient products;
- Purchasing for Zero Waste to use our buying power as our voice for Zero Waste; and
- 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
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| Take Action |
 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."
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 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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