ALAMOSA — The plane banked to reveal an ocean of sand, rippling beneath the jagged Sangre de Cristo mountains. “Right here,” said hydrologist Amos Mace, pointing to a copse of spruces near the home where he grew up about a mile from the border of Great Sand Dunes National Park. “They could drill right there. […]
Environment
Posted inBusiness, Environment, News, Outdoors
Where does our poop end up? Probably spread on farmland in eastern Colorado
This story starts with a flush, not here in Colorado, but all the way across the country — in New York City sometime in early 1992: The flush that changed history. Picture it — well, OK, don’t exactly picture it. But imagine the network of subterranean sewer pipes through which the flush travels to reach […]
Posted inBusiness, Environment, News, Outdoors, Politics and Government
Colorado was ready for California to join states with outdoor recreation offices, but its governor just vetoed it
In the years since 2013, when Utah forged the first office championing outdoor recreation, a deluge of states has followed. Last year, the number of states with an outdoor-recreation office or task force doubled to 11, and more are forming, building momentum for an industry that is flexing its burgeoning economic and political might. And […]
Posted inBusiness, Environment, News
Meet the robots and other contraptions making Colorado’s recycling more efficient
Clarke may be a little stiff, but he picks out milk and juice cartons from a pile of moving trash better than any man or woman at the Altogether Recycling plant in Adams County. The discriminating robot, named after sci-fi icon Arthur C. Clarke, can also work all day and night, if necessary. In another […]
Posted inBusiness, Environment, News
Colorado’s largest recycling company — finally — will be able to recycle Starbucks and other coffee cups
Alpine Waste & Recycling, Colorado’s largest recycling company, has figured out what to do with the perfect cup of coffee: Recycle it. Starting as early as Oct. 1, the company will begin picking up paper cups from coffee shops and household customers and transport them to a Wisconsin mill for proper recycling. The deal makes […]
Posted inBusiness, Environment, News
Recycling in Colorado is tedious, cost-prohibitive, voluntary — and evolving
Brent Hildebrand, a vice president at Alpine Waste & Recycling, sets on a table a mangled piece of metal. In a previous life, it was a horseshoe. “That little piece of metal caused our equipment to be down for a couple of hours. That’s huge for us. We just couldn’t find it, it was so […]
Posted inBusiness, Coloradans, Environment, Health, News, Politics and Government
Recycling can be a hard sell in rural Colorado. That hasn’t discouraged a resourceful nonprofit effort in tiny Swink.
SWINK — Dee Hostetler walks through the quiet, cavernous brick building past pallets stacked high with translucent, kaleidoscopic bales of recycled plastic that filter the morning light like stained glass. The hollowed-out remains of this former Holly Sugar factory, all 27,000 square feet of it, stands just a block off the short strand of U.S. […]
Posted inColoradans, Environment, Growth, News
Coloradans generate 9.6 pounds of trash per person, per day. Where does it all go?
In seven years, the mounds of earth growing toward the sky west of Fort Collins will fit in with the landscape that surrounds them, foothills dotted with sagebrush and wild grasses that wave in hot summer wind. No trees are allowed to grow in these hills, though. That’s because their roots could penetrate a thick […]
Posted inColoradans, Environment, Health, News, Politics and Government
Rural southeast Colorado loved its landfills. After a health department deal, some will finally close
Over the past few years, as the state health department told small landfill operators in southeast Colorado that it would be more closely enforcing environmental regulations — probably pushing some of them toward closure — locals pushed back with a familiar refrain: Urban rulemakers didn’t understand rural communities and burdened them with unfair expectations. “I […]
Posted inEnergy, Environment, News, Outdoors, Politics and Government
U.S. House coalesces at 11th hour to try to save Land and Water Conservation Fund
A rare instance of bipartisanship in Washington, D.C., on Thursday yielded legislation that would permanently support a 54-year-old fund that has invested more than $268 million in Colorado’s outdoors. And the new bill could spur a sizable increase in federal support for recreation and access in the state. The Natural Resources Committee — helmed by […]