How do you top recycling 40,000 pounds of electronics Steamboat?

MAY 8, 2018 BY YAMPA VALLEY SUSTAINABILITY COUNCIL

Article adapted from Steamboat Today

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS – After 624 households showed up in a cold rain for the fall 2017 recycling drop-off day and left behind 40,000 pounds of dated electronics, the organizers knew they needed to spread out the event.

The May 12 spring recycling drop-off, organized by the Yampa Valley Sustainability Council, will add the Steamboat Ski Resort’s Knoll parking lot to the larger Meadows parking lot, and the latter will be devoted exclusively to recycling  electronics.

“We’ve been trying to listen to the community and hear what they want,” said Cameron Hawkins, YVSC waste diversion director. “People don’t want to wait hours and hours to recycle, and just about everyone who comes to the event has electronics.”

If this is the year you finally recycle that old computer tower, stereo components or flip phone, head for the Meadows lot and look up BlueStar Recyclers, which hires people with disabilities. You’ll pay 65 cents per pound to recycle your stuff. However, if for some strange reason you still have a rear projection TV and a console television, expect to pay 75 cents a pound.

Everything that isn’t electronic by nature, from box springs and mattresses, to scrap metal and skis, is destined to be dropped off at the Knoll lot.

And all of the details of the recycling event can be found at the Sustainability Council’s website.

But if you are wondering how skis get recycled, they will be accepted at the YVSC tent and transported to Manitou Springs to Colorado Ski Furniture, where your old boards will get a second lease on life as one-of-a-kind chairs.

And like many recyclables, skis don’t require a fee.

The organizers suggest citizen recyclers may want to strategize and plan the most efficient way to pack their vehicles if they plan to visit both parking lots.

Hawkins added that the use of the two parking lots this spring is a bit of an experiment. If it doesn’t speed things up, it can be tweaked for the autumn event.

Among the recycling companies that are partnering with YVSC for the event are: Spring Back Colorado Mattress Recycling; Brite Ideas lightbulb recycling; Axis Steel of Craig; Ski Haus for bike tires and tubes; Twin Enviro Services for lumber, doors and cabinets; Eco-Cycle for books; Advance Auto Parks for oil and antifreeze; Aces High for single-stream recycling and cardboard; LiftUp of Routt County for clothing; Funding Factory for ink cartridges; Safeway for plastic bags; PostNet for packing peanuts; and Stagecoach State Park for fishing line.

To reach Tom Ross, call 970-871-4205, email tross@SteamboatToday.com or follow him on Twitter @ThomasSRoss1.