NOVEMBER 16, 2016 BY
Written by Anne Mudgett, YVSC Program and Marketing Director
November 15 was America Recycles Day. Recycling is one of the easiest actions to take every single day—at home, at work, at school and on the go—to protect the environment. Americans recycle and compost 87 million tons annually, which is the Greenhouse Gas equivalent of taking 39 million passenger vehicles off the road for a year (186 million metric tons of CO2e).
In observance of America Recycles Day and to encourage our community to reduce, reuse and recycle, Yampa Valley Sustainability Council gave out free reusable shopping bags at City Market and Safeway.
Students at Soda Creek Elementary, Strawberry Park Elementary and the Steamboat Springs Middle School took the pledge to recycle as part of their America Recycles Day celebration. People of all ages are encouraged to take the “I recycle” pledge online at www.americarecyclesday.org/pledge.
In honor of America Recycles Day and to help make recycling the norm in our community, Yampa Valley Sustainability Council shares the following resources for hard-to-recycle items:
- Political signs: Plastic bag-like signs can be recycled with plastic grocery bags at Safeway, City Market or Walmart. Steamboat’s Sears Hometown Store located at 1755 Central Park Drive has generously offered to collect the metal political sign frames for recycling as scrap metal. Please remove all plastic or cardboard signs from the frames before recycling.
- Scrap metal: D & D Enterprises and Waste Management accept scrap metal and appliances without Freon for a fee. Axis Steel also plans to collect scrap metal in Steamboat Springs for free, but their public collection facility is not open yet.
- Paint: Ace Hardware and Sherwin-Williams accept 5 gallons of paint per customer per visit at no charge.
More information available about additional hard-to recycle items on the A – Z Recycling Location Guide (in Spanish or English).
