Things I learned this week: a Redworm has five hearts; I own a recycling center and so do my fellow Boulder County residents; and our county has an organization that is the largest environmental educator in the U.S.
Where did I learn all of this fascinating information? On a site visit with The Community Foundation to Eco-Cycle, one of the largest nonprofit recyclers in the country.
We toured the CHaRM (Center for Hard-to-Recycle Materials) Facility that takes everything from old tube TVs—which can leach up to 5-10lbs of lead—
to yoga mats. CHaRM is the first of its kind in the nation. Objects are broken down, recycled and reused in other ways. For example, ceramic and porcelain toilets dropped off at CHaRM will be crushed and used for road-fill.
Next to CHaRm is a large composting system with Redworms and Rolly Pollies that work together to create Microbe Brew Compost Tea. Folks, you need to stick to Lipton, but your trees and plants will love and thrive from the Compost Tea, “the best natural soil amendment on the planet for our local soils.” Jugs of Compost Tea can be purchased at Eco-Cycle.
Finally, we toured the Boulder County Recycling Center. The center is owned by Boulder County (all of our tax dollars help pay for it) and run by Eco-Cycle.
The center processes over 45,000 tons of materials a year, and the building is made with all recycled and reused materials.
While Eco-Cycle does generate some income from selling recycled materials, there are still gaps in funding. The Green Star Schools program, for example, has 40 schools in Boulder Valley and St. Vrain currently enrolled, with 20 schools on a waiting list. Green Star is a multi-year program that educates schools on all aspects of recycling and composting in an effort to move them towards Zero Waste. It takes resources to start and maintain Green Star Schools, and Eco-Cycle’s goal is for every school in the county to be a Green Star.
According to the 2015 Trends report, despite Boulder County aiming for and enacting Zero Waste measures, our rate of waste diversion (garbage that could avoid ending up in landfills through composting or recycling) is worse than the national average in some municipalities. We all need to do our part to help protect our environment now and for future generations, and Eco-Cycle is there to help us.
For more information about Eco-Cycle, visit www.ecocycle.org
