Recycling correctly is the best way to support your community’s recycling program.

Clean, uncontaminated recyclables retain more value, are easier to sort and process, and save time and money!

Eco-Cycle has been Boulder County’s recycler since 1976. Throughout our history, we have maintained a reputation of providing markets with consistently clean recyclables. The key to this success? A community of engaged recyclers who are educated on the what, why, and how of recycling and committed to following guidelines!

About Curbside Recycling in Boulder County

Curbside recycling is available in the larger communities within Boulder County. If you live in a community with access to curbside recycling, your city or town will have one or more haulers that provide curbside recycling services to you. Pickup schedules will vary based on your hauler and location, but it’s generally a good idea to put your materials out before 7 a.m. on your pickup day.

Once your hauler picks up your recyclables, they are taken to the Boulder County Recycling Center (BCRC), owned by Boulder County and operated by Eco-Cycle. If you live in Boulder County, please follow these curbside recycling guidelines to ensure your materials are accepted for recycling and have been prepared correctly (more on this below!). All haulers using the Boulder County Recycling Center follow these guidelines. Note: If you live in a smaller Boulder County community with no curbside recycling available, click here to learn about drop-off recycling programs near you. The same acceptance guidelines apply to all Boulder County drop-off sites, since the recyclables collected at these transfer stations are brought to the BCRC for processing.

Recycling Guidelines for Boulder County

Here’s a list of what can be recycled in your curbside recycling bin in Boulder County:

  • newspapers
  • magazines
  • paperback books
  • notepads and spiral-bound notebooks (no need to remove spiral bindings)
  • junk mail (please open and remove stickers and other non-paper items)
  • paper envelopes (plastic windows OK)
  • printer paper
  • paper bags
  • cereal boxes, flattened (liners discarded)
  • cardboard boxes (flattened)
  • single-use glass beverage bottles (such as beer and wine bottles)
  • single-use glass food jars (lids removed and recycled separately)
  • empty metal spray canisters
  • cartons (such as milk, juice, and non-dairy milks—NO POUCHES)
  • aluminum trays, pans, and pie plates
  • aluminum foil (rinsed of food residue and NOT FLATTENED—please ball into at least two inches in diameter)
  • aluminum beverage cans (empty and rinsed)
  • steel food cans (empty and rinsed)
  • plastic bottles, tubs, jugs, and jars (such as soda and juice bottles, laundry soap jugs, yogurt tubs, peanut butter jars, shampoo bottles, and vitamin/supplement containers—plastic screw-top lids can be replaced on EMPTY containers)
  • plastic tub lids (such as lids from margarine tubs)
  • “souvenir” drinking cups made from #2 or #5 plastic (NO #1 plastic drink cups, such as for iced coffee)
  • plastic clamshell containers* (such as for berries or greens—remove any liners, NO styrofoam)
  • plastic prescription bottles (empty, caps reattached)
  • plastic takeout containers* (rinsed of food residue, NO styrofoam )
  • plastic flower pots (rigid)
  • rigid plastic four- and six-pack holders
  • plastic crates
  • plastic buckets (metal handles may remain attached)
  • plastic lawn toys (all metal parts must be removed, and all materials must fit inside curbside bin)

What NOT to Recycle: The Dirty Dozen

What stays OUT of the recycling bin is just as important as what goes in.

Contamination in recycling bins is a huge problem. Do your part by recycling right! Below are items to keep out of your recycling bin—and how to properly dispose of them.

Food waste is a problem for several reasons: 1) it results in mold that can pose a health hazard to our employees in the plant, 2) it attracts rodents, another health hazard, and 3) it can ruin materials such as recyclable paper by encouraging it to decompose.

Instead: Compost your food scraps and give your recyclables a quick rinse before they go in your bin!

Flattened cans and containers are difficult for the sorting lines to separate from paper. Liquids left in bottles or containers attract rodents and stinging insects to the recycling plant—not to mention they ruin paper.

Instead: Don’t flatten containers (except for cardboard boxes), and be sure to empty containers of liquids completely before recycling!

This includes motor oil and solvents, syringes/needles/sharps, paint, and fluorescent lightbulbs.

Instead: Take these and other hazardous waste items to the Hazardous Materials Management Facility. 

Instead: Contact your local sheriff’s office.

This includes scrap metal (which damages sorting equipment), plastic bags (which get caught in our sorting machinery, requiring a time-consuming, dangerous, and costly shutdown to remove the blockage and/or repair equipment), ceramics and drinking glasses (which create flaws in new glass bottles when they end up in single stream), white block foam, and bubble wrap.

Instead: Bring them to the Eco-Cycle CHaRM to be recycled! See “What We Accept” to learn more.

This includes nonrecyclable plastics (unfortunately, no stable markets exist for these items), food-grade foam products such as to-go cups and clamshells, and plastic-coated paper products such as paper to-go soda or coffee cups, frozen food boxes, and ice cream containers (the plastic coating renders them nonrecyclable).

Instead: Put these items in the trash. See our Landfill guidelines for more items that are not recyclable in Boulder County.

Here’s a list of more items that should NOT go in your curbside recycling bin:

  • NO medical waste, diapers, or other biohazards.
  • NO shredded paper (it is too small to sort, and gets stuck in the sorting machinery).
  • NO flattened containers (automated sorting equipment separates two-dimensional “flat” materials—like paper—from three-dimension “round” materials—containers, and the equipment will mistakenly sort flattened containers as paper).

Don’t Wish-Cycle

We’ve all been there. We stand in front of a recycling bin with something that we’re not sure is recyclable, but we HOPE it is. So with all the best intentions, we toss it in the recycling bin.

We have a name for this in the recycling biz—we call it “wish-cycling”—putting nonrecyclable items in the recycling bin with the hope it will be recycled. While we appreciate the intent behind it, when you try to “recycle everything,” you may be doing more harm than good.  You may unwittingly be contributing to an increase in recycling contaminants that can damage recycling equipment, pose health and safety risks to our workers, and devalue the materials that are actually recyclable. 

Please be sure to follow the recycling guidelines for Boulder County and recycle only those items. If you’re not sure if an item is recyclable, take one of the following actions:

  • Check the free Eco-Cycle A–Z Recycling Guide app (available wherever you download apps) or on our website.
  • When in doubt, give us a shout! Call us at 303-444-6634 or email us at [email protected].
  • As a last resort, “When in doubt, throw it out!” It’s better than adding contamination to the recycling stream!

Related Resources

See All Resources