Next time you’re out listening to live music in metro Denver, and you take that last swig of tasty beverage while thinking about an encore, take a look at the cup before tossing it carelessly on the floor. At some of the most popular concert venues around the city, the throwaway plastic that littered dance […]
recycling
Posted inClimate, Environment, News
Colorado’s trash bins are so full they’re fa-la-lalling over. Here’s why.
If it seems there is more cardboard and wrapping paper spilling out of your neighbors’ recycling bins in the next week, it’s not just confirmation bias for our assumptions about the excess of the holidays. It’s science. By about 23%. Household waste increases by nearly a quarter nationwide between Thanksgiving and Christmas, according to studies […]
Posted inBusiness, Environment, News
Colorado has a dismal recycling rate. Could a fee on manufacturers turn things around?
In Boulder, where every resident automatically receives access to recycling and composting services, more than half of the city’s waste is diverted from landfills. But in many Colorado cities and towns, residents who want to recycle must pay extra, or make a trip to recycling centers. The discrepancy between the relative ease of recycling in […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Recycling and composting can reduce greenhouse gasses
With the release of the United Nations’ most recent climate report, a code-red warning is yet another striking reminder that the impacts of climate change are worsening. Severe weather events and natural disasters that once were rare are now intensifying throughout the world—we can no longer chalk it up to another “bad year.” We know […]
Posted inCartoons, Opinion
Jim Morrissey: Colorado’s got this one in the bag
More cartoons from The Colorado Sun.
Posted inBusiness, Environment, News, Politics and Government
Get ready for plastic and paper bag fees in Colorado — and say goodbye to styrofoam
Colorado lawmakers on Tuesday sent Gov. Jared Polis House Bill 1162, which would establish a fee for single-use products, like plastic and paper grocery bags, and let retailers keep some of the proceeds. The bill would also ban the use of styrofoam by restaurants starting in 2024. The measure has long been a priority of […]
Posted inBusiness, Climate, Environment, News
Colorado will likely miss its recycling goals again this year. What will it take to change the tide of waste?
Colorado is struggling to improve its stagnant waste-diversion rates, and environmental advocates say making progress is crucial in the effort to battle climate change and the effects of population growth. The state diverted just under 16% of its waste to recycling or compost in 2019, down from a 17% diversion rate in 2018 and well […]
Posted inBusiness, Environment, News, Politics and Government
How bad are Coloradans at recycling? Chaffee County contractor closed its free sites over bad actors, slim profits
Angel of Shavano Recycling spent 15 years sifting through Chaffee County’s trash collecting its treasures — plastics, cardboard, paper, newspaper, tin and aluminum. But slim profits and bad behavior by customers led the owner, Mickey Barry, to close the gates on the four free community recycling sites. “In the recycling industry the drop sites have […]
Posted inClimate, Energy, Environment, News
Colorado’s tire dumps were supposed to be gone by now. They grew instead.
As tire fires go, it was a real dumpster fire. At about 5:30 p.m. on July 22, about 30 miles northeast of Denver, near Hudson, an overworked shredder got too hot and the largest tire dump in North America went ablaze. A dense black plume, like a Kuwaiti oil fire, soared east and plunged responding […]
Posted inColoradans, News
I just spent a year picking up bottles. Here’s what I learned.
We can do better, Colorado. In fact, I just spent a year doing exactly that. Deb and I try to go for a jog most days. We once called these outings a run, but jogging is a more accurate description as the years roll past and our pace slows. It helps clear my head, and […]