Five Decades of Community Partnership

Eco-Cycle has worked in partnership with residents, businesses, schools, farmers, and local governments who were ready to go out on a limb and innovate, build the infrastructure to make solutions stick, and share what works so it can spread beyond Boulder County.

Here are just a few examples:

• Together, we launched the first curbside recycling program in Colorado

It’s hard to imagine now, but in 1976, most of the nation, including Colorado, had no curbside recycling. Glass bottles, aluminum cans, office paper, and cardboard all went straight to landfills. A group of Boulder activists decided to change that. They created a drop-off center for recyclables. But that recovered only a small fraction of materials. So in 1979, Eco-Cycle organized volunteer “Block Leaders” to notify their neighbors to put out their recyclables on street corners, and Eco-Cycle co-founders Pete Grogan and Roy Young, staff, and volunteers collected them in retired school buses. That innovation made Boulder one of the first communities in the nation to provide curbside recycling.

What began as a small act of community activism grew into fifty years of impact—protecting natural resources, reducing waste, creating circular economies, and building systems that support future generations and reflect our shared values.

• We created the region’s first recycling center 

In 1979, we opened the first Materials Recycling Facility in the Rockies—proof that bold ideas can take root when a community stands behind them.

Fifteen years later, Eco-Cycle organized a ballot campaign, and residents stepped up and voted for a tax to fund the Boulder County Recycling Center, owned by Boulder County and operated by Eco-Cycle since its opening in 2001. This local recycling solution—grounded in public support and community investment—generates some of the cleanest recyclables in the nation today.

• We tackled what others wouldn’t

Once we created a facility for traditional materials like glass, paper, aluminum, and plastic, we moved to the next frontier: “hard-to-recycle” items like electronics, mattresses, and appliances. And once again, our community stepped up. In 2001, Eco-Cycle and the City of Boulder partnered to open the Center for Hard-to-Recycle Materials (CHaRM), the first facility of its kind in the nation.

What began as a local solution quickly became a national model. Today, replicas of our hard-to-recycle system have popped up across the nation, often with Eco-Cycle’s guidance.

Systems Change in Action: Making Recycling Accessible and Free

Colorado’s recycling rate had stalled at just 15%, leaving mountains of valuable materials headed to landfills. In 2022, Eco-Cycle mobilized residents, businesses, municipalities, and state legislators to pass landmark Producer Responsibility legislation, requiring packaging producers to fund and expand recycling programs across the state—ultimately making recycling free for communities. 

When the law is fully implemented, Colorado will be on track to double its recycling rate by 2030, while setting a national example for fairer, more equitable systems.

These  innovations are just a glimpse of what’s possible when a community takes action together to build systems that last, with each breakthrough paving the way for the next. Explore a full history of Zero Waste “firsts” and see how far we’ve come—and where we’re headed.