Posted inCOVID, Energy, Environment, News, Politics and Government

Coronavirus has led to a boom in single-use plastics. NREL is launching a new effort to upcycle them.

GOLDEN — In the coronavirus era, where germs present a deadly risk, people aren’t taking any chances.  They’d rather be sterile than sorry. The result has been a boom in single-use plastics — gloves, bottles, packaging — reversing a yearslong trend of trying to reduce waste wherever possible. Demand for flexible packaging is expected to […]

Posted inBusiness, Environment, News

Colorado has two years to hit its 28% recycling goal. A new report shows we’re nowhere close.

With all the campaigns and eco-guilt heaped on Coloradans to recycle, the state just released new data showing that we’re still not where we want to be. The state’s recycling rate for 2018 landed at 17.2%, which is below the prior year’s 20.5%. But before anyone gets all judgy, the state’s Department of Public Health […]

Posted inBusiness, Energy, Environment, News

Colorado trash companies invest millions to speed up recycling. Now they just need more people to recycle.

Alpine Waste & Recycling shut down its Denver recycling facility for a month to retrofit the plant with new technology and equipment. When it reopened in the middle of March, the $2.5 million investment proved to be 33 percent faster at sorting paper from cardboard, aluminum cans from yogurt containers and juice cartons from plastic-lined […]

Posted inNews

Why Styrofoam — amid all of Colorado’s recycling struggles — is being targeted for extinction

Styrofoam is the bane of any environmentalist’s leftover lunch. But even as some Colorado cities have tried to ban and food stores — including McDonald’s — have ditched polystyrene foam in favor of more sustainable containers, it hasn’t gone away. It’s time, said Sen. Dominick Moreno, a Democrat in Commerce City who is pushing a […]

Posted inBusiness, Environment, News

Forget plastic bans: Mountain towns try volunteerism, bootcamps as solutions to single-use

The sister towns of Telluride and Mountain Village bagged plans to ban plastic straws after learning about an arcane Colorado law preventing municipalities from doing so. But that hasn’t stopped the resort communities from searching for alternatives to single-use plastics — or even recycling. The two towns, separated by a free gondola ride, feel the […]