Recycling bins available for “check-out” at public events

AUGUST 7, 2015 BY ANDY

Recycling  – A Community Effort!

The Yampa Valley Sustainability Council (YVSC) is happy to announce the arrival of twenty-five 60-gallon beverage recycle bins.  In May, YVSC received a grant from the Dr Pepper Snapple Group and Keep America Beautiful.  After a short delay, the new, blue bottle recycling bins have arrived and are ready for use in our community.

Now in its third year, the Keep America Beautiful Park Recycling Bin Grant program has awarded more than 2,500 recycling bins to local governments and community organizations across 33 states to expand the availability of recycling in a variety of park settings, including neighborhood and larger regional parks, beaches, athletic fields and walking trails.  YVSC received the grant to provide recycling for large scale community and sporting events.

“We’re pleased to see the momentum of our recycling bin grant partnership with Keep America Beautiful continue to build in its third year,” said Vicki Draughn, vice president of corporate affairs for Dr Pepper Snapple. “Efforts like these are helping make recycling more convenient in our communities, reducing the waste going to landfills and making our public spaces cleaner and more enjoyable for everyone. It’s a win-win.”

“We’re excited to again partner with Dr Pepper Snapple to award these grants,” said Brenda Pulley, senior vice president, recycling, Keep America Beautiful. “With lack of convenience being one of the biggest obstacles to recycling, the bins we’re providing will have a direct impact to increase recycling in these communities.”

The recycle bins have been in Steamboat for just over three weeks and already the community effort for increased waste diversion has begun.  The Yampa Valley Electric Association has allowed us to store them at their centrally located storage facility.  The bins have been used by the Steamboat Springs Arts Council at their annual Art in the Park festival at Elk Park on July 10-12, where they diverted more than 13,300 gallons of bottles and cans, and by the Steamboat Springs Youth Soccer Associations at their Mountain Soccer Tournament on July 17-19, where they diverted over 3600 gallons of recycling.

These recognizable, universal bins for bottle recycling are available for large-scale event coordinators, organizations, and businesses to borrow.  The only requirements for use are servicing the containers during the duration of their use, tracking of the quantity of recyclables collected, and cleaning the bins after use. A refundable deposit will be taken to ensure these requirements. YVSC is a small, non-profit organization that focuses on being a resource and catalyst for building a sustainability community.  In this capacity, we strive to provide the tools necessary to expand recycling/waste diversion.  We rely on collaboration with community partners to use these tools to help reduce the landfilling of valuable resources and to keep our valley beautiful.

These new bins are a great method for such waste diversion, and we are happy they can be shared with our community for this purpose. If you would like to borrow them for your event, or have a suggestion for an event where they should be present, please contact our Waste Diversion Director, Emilie Rogers, at 970-871-9299 extension 103 or email her at emilie@yvsc.org.

Please help care for these bins by putting only recyclable glass or plastic bottles in them, keep their lids intact, and notify us if you see them being abused in any way.