Celebrating Half a Century of Eco-Cycle—and the Future We’re Building Together
This year, Eco-Cycle marks fifty years of turning community vision into real-world Zero Waste solutions, beginning as one of the first recyclers in the country and becoming a national Zero Waste leader. As we celebrate this milestone, we’re honoring the past while setting our sights on what’s possible next.
Five decades ago, a small group of Boulder visionaries looked at what others called “waste” and saw a profound problem in need of a solution. In the mid-1970s, when recycling wasn’t a common word and most materials were simply discarded, founders Pete Grogan and Roy Young, along with fellow conservation activists, imagined something fundamentally different: a community where natural resources were preserved, valued, recovered, and returned to use.
That idea led to the birth of Eco-Cycle and launched the recycling movement, making Boulder one of the first cities in the nation to offer curbside recycling.
The new organization sparked hope that systems change was possible when partners come together. Government leaders, educators, businesses, and residents formed a collaborative, community-based effort to trial and scale bold, practical solutions to the waste crisis.
Over the decades, Eco-Cycle has become a founding leader in shaping what is now known as the “Zero Waste” movement. Our work has advanced sustainability goals across Colorado and influenced how communities nationwide think about the responsibility, stewardship, use, and misuse of our natural resources. What began as a grassroots effort is now one of the country’s largest and oldest nonprofit Zero Waste organizations.
A Legacy of Leadership
Throughout our history, Eco-Cycle, working in partnership with the community, has helped make a series of “firsts” possible—innovations that have gone on to serve as models far beyond Boulder County. Just a sampling of these examples includes:
- 1979: Eco-Cycle opens the first post-consumer, multi-material recycling facility in Colorado, which grows to become the largest outdoor processing facility in the nation, processing 40,000 tons per year.
- 1986: Eco-Cycle creates one of the first school recycling education programs, beginning a long-standing partnership with Boulder Valley School District, St. Vrain Valley School District, and the municipalities they serve.
- 1992: Eco-Cycle staff design and build the state’s first commingled container sorting system in Colorado.
- 2001: In partnership with the City of Boulder, Eco-Cycle opens the Center for Hard-to-Recycle Materials (CHaRM), the first of its kind in the nation.
- 2001: After an Eco-Cycle led campaign to pass a tax to build a publicly owned facility, the Boulder County Recycling Center (BCRC) is built, and Eco-Cycle becomes the operator, allowing us to move our operations indoors for the first time in 25 years. The facility is the first publicly owned and privately operated Materials Recovery Facility in the state, establishing a new model for public–private partnerships in Zero Waste infrastructure.
- 2005: Eco-Cycle is the first hauler to collect organic materials for composting from businesses.
- 2021: Eco-Cycle led a statewide campaign to make Colorado the first inland state to pass a comprehensive Plastic Pollution Reduction Act, banning single-use plastic bags and expanded polystyrene (aka Styrofoam), taking effect in 2024.
- 2022: Eco-Cycle deploys the nation’s first commercial-scale compost collection EV truck.
- 2026: Thanks to an Eco-Cycle-led campaign, Colorado became the second state in the nation to implement Extended Producer Responsibility, requiring brands to take financial responsibility for the recycling and disposal of their products.
Our milestones aren’t just markers of progress. They reflect how significant change can happen when communities commit to bold ideas and stay the course—creating a foundation for the next generation of solutions.
Eco-Cycle Today
We help change the systems by advancing programs, policies, and infrastructure that make recycling, composting, reuse, and waste reduction easier, more effective, and more accessible and equitable across Colorado. Our role is both practical and forward-looking: helping communities responsibly manage their “waste” while designing systems that prevent waste and its impacts on natural resources, climate, biodiversity, and health. That means moving beyond a system based on disposability toward one that is based on circularity, with fewer resources extracted, and products and packaging that are designed to be nontoxic, durable, reusable, and ultimately recyclable.
Looking Ahead: Building the Next Era of Zero Waste
This anniversary is not just a celebration of where we’ve been. It is a launchpad for where we’re going. Eco-Cycle is entering its next chapter with a clear focus: expanding the policy, programs, infrastructure, and partnerships needed to accelerate Colorado’s transition to a circular, regenerative economy. From advancing markets for hard-to-recycle materials, to creating free access to recycling for all Coloradans, to modeling clean energy within the hauling industry, to deepening composting and nature-based approaches, our work is centered on innovating, advocating, and implementing scalable solutions for both people and planet.
The Next Chapter Starts Now
Eco-Cycle’s story has always been about what happens when communities believe change is possible—and work in partnership to make it real. YOU are an important part of the story, and we thank you for everything you do. As we celebrate fifty years of impact, we invite you to imagine the next fifty alongside us.
The future of Zero Waste is already taking shape. Together, we can build it.
Stay tuned throughout the year! We have many programs, new tools, and events planned to celebrate all that we’ve achieved together.
