Platinum Sponsor

Gold Sponsor

City of Loveland

Silver Sponsor

Altogether Recycling

Host Committee

A special thank you to the Summit for Recycling Host Committee:

Pueblo City and County Health Department

Questions?

Contact Tim Towndrow for more information.

Recycling Awards

The recycling industry awards in Colorado recognize excellence in recycling or promotion of recycling

Each year, Colorado Association for Recycling seeks nominations for our annual Recycling Awards. These prestigious awards recognize governmental entities, individuals, companies, and organizations for their excellence in recycling.

The 2011 awards were presented at the Summit for Recycling on Tuesday, June 7.

2011 Awards:

Outstanding Outreach - Educational Institution

Eco-Cycle's Green Star Schools Program

One of Eco-Cycle’s most successful, innovative, and inspiring model programs is the Green Star Schools Program. This unique and comprehensive program emphasizes waste reduction and teaches students and staff to recycle and compost waste from ALL areas of the school (cafeterias, classrooms, bathrooms, and offices).

Through Eco-Cycle-led activities and projects, students, staff, and families learn to reduce waste and make better choices about what they do consume. All Green Star Schools discontinue the use of disposable, non-recyclable Styrofoam and plastic food service items (including trays, cutlery, bowls, and cups) and instead substitute washable tableware. Students, staff, and teachers are retrained on recycling guidelines and motivated to increase their recycling rate.

As of March 2011, the Green Star Schools program is impacting 10,300 students (ages 3-14) and more than 1,510 school staff in 27 Boulder County public schools.

Outstanding Business Diversion Program

SBM Management

SBM Management has been an environmental leader in the facility maintenance industry for nearly 20 years. In 2010, SBM diverted nearly 86,500 tons of materials from landfills through its corporate sustainability initiatives and supported 130 major recycling locations for its customers, with recycling and reuse programs providing $16.2 million in client savings.

SBM managed several large-site recycling programs in Colorado in 2010, recycling a wide variety of materials. The impacts for Colorado were significant: SBM recycled 8,745,000 pounds of materials and reused 2,731,000 pounds; the average diversion rate was 85 percent; program revenue (rebates) was $51,839; and reuse savings totaled $137,179.

To increase customer diversion rates, SBM educates end users about how to contribute to increased diversion through educational booths and lunchtime “chats” hosted by SBM employees who provide recycling resources. SBM’s waste-stream audit process provides a sample of a client’s current waste stream and shows how it is impacting their solid waste program and environmental footprint.

Outstanding Government Diversion Program

City of Golden

The City of Golden’s Residential Pay-As-You-Throw Waste & Recycling program utilized partnerships between the community, local government, and private industry to create a successful wastecollection model that addressed a community need and created a win-win-win for residents, the economy, and the environment.

Golden’s program is the result of a two-year process started in 2008 with the adoption of seven sustainability goals, including a solid waste goal, followed by unprecedented public outreach efforts, more than one request for proposals, neighborhood block parties, and a “Let’s Talk Trash” public open house. After thousands of public comments collected from emails, phone calls, internet submissions, and written comments, the Golden City Council approved a single-hauler contract with a tiered-pricing system.

Rolled out in September 2010, now almost half of the total residential units within the city participate in the program. The average household now recycles 50 pounds of material each month, diverting more than 2.5 million pounds from the local landfill each year.

Outstanding Media Coverage

Kristin Jones, Rocky Mountain Investigative News Network

Two years ago 60 Minutes did a story on e-waste in Colorado and found clear evidence that a local recycler was allowing Colorado e-waste to be exported to China and developing nations. Kristin Jones thought there was more to the story and began digging deeper, and in her investigation she found out more than 60 Minutes did, with just a fraction of the budget.

Her story covered some issues that had never been reported before in the national and international dialogue on e-waste―such as backyard aqua regia recovery right here in Colorado, where practitioners claim to responsibly dispose of the toxic chemicals they use to extract gold but may be sending these chemicals down the drain. The story represents something new in the way of coverage of recycling issues: an investigative approach by the I-News Network intended for distribution via many channels. The story likely reached millions of Coloradans, thus increasing muchneeded awareness of the e-waste problem here.

Outstanding Elected Official

Randy Fischer, State Representative

In the past three years, Rep. Randy Fischer has worked tirelessly to pass electronic device recycling legislation in Colorado. In 2009, he sponsored legislation creating the Electronic Device Recycling Task Force and led the task force in bringing together electronics manufacturers and recyclers, community leaders, and other stakeholders to discuss how best to move e-waste recycling forward in Colorado.

Based on the results of this task force, the following year Rep. Fischer introduced a recycling collection program bill, which was defeated. Rep. Fischer again worked with recyclers and manufacturers in 2011 to develop a new bill to require electronic device recycling in Colorado, spending hours in meetings and acquiring an even better understanding of the challenges of electronics recycling and the nature of the recycling industry. Unfortunately this year’s bill was also defeated. But Rep. Fischer has vowed to continue to work on this issue because he believes it is necessary to public health and the environment and beneficial to job creation in Colorado.

Outstanding Volunteer of the Year

Cary Bush, Recycle-Creede

Cary Bush runs Recycle-Creede, a non-profit recycling operation dedicated to taking all possible recyclables from the residents of Creede and the San Luis Valley. Initially, a lack of recycling services and facilities anywhere near Creede forced residents with a desire to recycle to drive 1-3 hours. In 2007, operating out of her garage, Bush began taking recyclables from residents of Creede and Mineral County and from tourists and residents of adjacent counties.

Run on 100% volunteer labor, the project has grown steadily. Last summer, Bush put more than 100 volunteers to work, including herself. She does not get paid for the countless hours she spends writing grants, putting on fundraisers, coordinating volunteers, performing all of the bookkeeping and administrative duties, and sorting, loading, and hauling recycling materials.

In 2007, Recycle-Creede recycled almost 42,000 pounds of materials, and in 2010 that increased to more than 103,000 pounds. In its fifth year, Recycle-Creede has diverted a total of 366,816 pounds of recyclable materials, all largely due to Bush’s unprecedented ability to provide recycling in a seriously under-served portion of Colorado.

Recycler of the Year

Bill Morris, Blue Star Recyclers

Bill Morris has consistently distinguished himself as a passionate and articulate advocate for recycling in Southern Colorado. As president of Blue Star Recyclers, an electronic recycler in Colorado Springs, Morris has developed and implemented innovative program models that have significantly increased the level of diversion of recyclable material in the region and helped to raise the public’s understanding of the many benefits of recycling. Over the course of 2010, Blue Star collected over 700,000 pounds of electronic waste and is on pace to collect over 1,000,000 pounds in 2011.

The mission of Blue Star Recyclers is to use the ethical processing of electronic waste as a mechanism to create jobs for individuals with developmental disabilities. Individuals in this population are currently facing 88% unemployment in Southern Colorado. The company now has 10 individuals with disabilities working at its facility. In a region where environmental concerns do not always resonate with the general public, the unique mission developed by Morris has rebranded recycling as fuel for job creation.

Lifetime Achievement

Kelly Ohlson, Mayor Pro Tem, City of Fort Collins

Kelly Ohlson has been a dedicated, effective, and persistent voice for recycling and other environmental and social issues in Fort Collins for the past three decades. Ohlson sets high standards for recycling in his personal life and has worked constantly to improve recycling opportunities through the political process.

Serving as a city council member, mayor, assistant mayor, and on several city advisory boards, Ohlson played a key role in creating the first community recycling drop-off site in Fort Colllins, convincing the Larimer County Board of Commissioners to support building the Larimer County materials reprocessing facility, pushing the city to build a full-service recycling center, and banning the disposal of electronic waste in Fort Collins’ waste stream. Ohlson has also supported “Green Purchasing” standards for the City of Fort Collins, the creation of the highly successful Climate Wise program, funding local household hazardous waste collection events, and implementing land use planning tools such as recycling enclosures that must now be built into multifamily construction.

Ohlson’s style is to research issues, meet with affected parties, and forge effective coalitions to change public policy. Whether addressing a short-term need or a systemic issue that requires years of work, Ohlson brings the same thoughtfulness, diligence, and hard work.