Zero waste, recycling and plastics

Recycling of aggregates is business as usual for contractors. It lets them save on landfill disposal costs.

must divert 75% by weight and three material types from the landfill. That's usually done through recycling and reuse.

the team has been really instrumental in in trying to help community remove, you know, potentially flammable materials

I've had some questions about the circular economy um efforts and also the um naturebased solutions work.

I just would love to hear a little bit more about the circular economy um work as well as the na naturebased solutions

this ordinance mandated uh bear resistant trash carts for most everything west of Broadway

So, we are taking some policy options to Council in November, so we'll be bringing that to you in advance

I'm assuming, like, for the circular economy, it would be, like, EcoCycle, the Resource Hub

plan to involve kids in updates to, our, policy around plastics and single-use materials

into the, you know, recycle bin, because we recycle these buildings piece by piece in Boulder.

In fact, in 2015, we helped the congregation become a zero-waste facility.

the new regulations on the extended producer responsibility legislation that took effect this last month

It was really wonderful to see their efforts around circular economy.

Trash recycling compost and simple ways to save energy and water.

In those places, the trash, recycling, and compost system can be confusing or just new.

why are we putting all this plastic in 50 years from now, if we can generate energy?

including composting and other alternatives to make sure it's as efficient

it was basically just a personal interest to become more familiar and learn about the composting and organics system

Boulder has had one of the longest-standing organics collections programs in the country

trash is on my mind and composting and recycling for some reason

whether that be for composting or housing

the trash tax uh that funds most of our circular economy zero waste programs that are deeply embedded in our climate work.

Not just, like, oh, let's recycle cups, but how do we create a festival that is the model for how you do sustainable festivals?

it's all made with recycled materials, so that's what it is

And the trash and recycling is in a roofed enclosure, is that… that's correct?

the trash and recycling areas are enclosed and roofed, and a planting plan would be

from an environmental sustainability perspective and zero-waste perspective

I think these were really cool and brought a lot more access to trash and recycling for those on the hill.

I didn't see anything around waste and waste management

how do we start shifting our economy away from a linear model which you're probably very familiar with, even with the recycling that happens

we have been working on 0 waste since 1994 here in Boulder

he's even written a paper on achieving a zero waste program.

you talk about the or electric or energy codes recycling materials nature based climate solutions, circular economy

trying to divert some of like brick and other materials

said that 75% of the demolished building materials will be recycled

have someone come through and collect those trash for you and take the recycling out and put your trash can back

a lot of the Plastics and packaging work where um the financial burden of recovering and recycling packaging material onto producers

I did have a question about um the environment section which I appreciated having the recycling component mentioned

uh recycle materials throughout construction and Beyond uh and to maintain policies and procedures

and how we recycle and and take care of the um not just the Earth but also the people

we're working on a system to get the the the the recycling out of that alley

those are ecycle it's recycling it's glass plastic cardboard

dumping recycle from 55 gallon containers into the recycle we hear it in our bedroom

we haven't talked about waste at all in waste management and so I just want to lift that up

make sure that the trash and recycling bins are clean and well appointed.

We do have recycling containers in the alley, and we are working to.

in the case for dealing with that increased volume of trash and recycling, with the new addition.

everything they bring is disposable plastics. It's tongs. It's the metal hangers.

how do we start to kind of move in direction of dealing with some of the single use plastics working with vendors

we are invited this year to share our work in plastics, reduction, and in circular economy.

I'd almost like to do a little study if you had a recycling bin outside the the places that are selling concentrates.

Maybe there is an opportunity to move trash and recycling to being closer to the the street itself.

they will be stuck full of little plastic tongs and plastic

Minimum wage, right, so no plastic, you know, all the usable

the default is to start to move towards no single use plastics

building materials are required to be broken down, taken to recycling centers and other.

We have serious regulations regarding the disposal of materials, recycling and materials, separation of materials, etc.

Why do we need this stuff in our landfill? Whatever happened to reuse instead of recycle.

we do try to use recycled materials where possible

It's shocking to me that we have single use. Plastic silverware over here, wrapped in plastic

I notice there's not recycle bins consistently at all the parks. we're like half recyclables.

our climate initiatives department has evolved their work into three key action areas Energy Systems circular economy and the nature-based climate Solutions

I'm gonna use the dword demolition, not removal. I say, reuse. not recycle.

designing and conducting on ongoing City engagement with businesses regarding circular economy initiatives

Maybe it's okay to burn a lot of energy, and we just plugged a bunch of plastic in our buildings to insulate them.

There's a lot in the energy code that's banking on plastics that are like loading up our houses with what we were at.

Do you know if there's a if there's recycle gear there?

again waste recycling energy green buildings that's their expertise

I am especially interested I haven't heard anything about waste recycling

do they have an actual deconstruction plan, where they will be reclaiming and recycling rather than tipping everything

in terms of recyclability of anything that that foam touches basically can't be recycled in deconstruction.

I think that this waste recycling piece oh is, is not as as direct as it could be.

So there is that chapter 36, which is about waste recycling that we didn't wasn't really included in your presentation

bike lane basically doubles as the place where residents are expected by the trash company to leave their trash cans and recycling and compost

I think we're doing really good job on through ways when it comes to our composting program.

at Alpine balam we've gone to Great Lengths to demolish the buildings in a way that that we can recycle most of the materials

We talked about this in terms of like waste like we're always dealing with the waste on the back end.

we have significant issues with our compost um and just waste in general so I would be very much be interested in um serving than you

this is about waste so right waste diversion yes it is it um um you know over the past two years has been a lot about the changes in recycling capabilities

It's just not like the recycling center where we can sort it out like it all gets ground

plastics manufacturing both bags and also the black plastics that food comes in a lot and the toxicity embedded

Go down the path of exploring what other things we want to do for other single use. Plastics.

you try to recycle you know every piece of concrete and every piece of wood

I would prefer if we've been this a little bit enough recycling metals as possible

she requested anything that'll be recycled artwork and request recycled if possible

helping meet some of our climate goals like zero waste businesses

the majority if not all of the steel used in the building is recycled content

we have a strong history of recycling Furniture through the building reuse of that

we've been able to reduce waste by about 60 percent with the processes on hand

this idea about thinking about now how we can be building in a way that anticipates future dismantling or reuse or recycling

they're doing some some good working groups right now around the deconstruction

making the wood products that would otherwise be recyclable not recyclable anymore

But is that actually deconstruction? Yeah, we we anything to be recycled? We use repurposed.

that could be reused, donated, or recycled, consistent with some of the city's adopted policies and ordinances

our circular economy team has a focus on reusable containers and supporting innovation and companies around around those

we bring in the kind of circular economy what is being reused, recycled, kind of.

making sure that we can fully recycle items here, and making sure that we're producing fully recyclable items for us to use that

are there large pick up zones on campus during this or during those times, for like hard to recycle items.

and they will come to your house and pick up your furniture for you

to promote reuse by developing and implementing a system through which outgoing students can easily

I would also love to advocate for placing an industrial composting facility on our open space land

I'd also like to raise the issue of needing public education on proper waste stream sorting

thinking about energy Equity now and getting rid of single-use plastics there's so much good in here

we're in a place right now where we have material restrictions within the the composting streams.

I also know that ecosystem is also changing their requirements for what goes in compost to only food

and also talking about how there's been a lot more contamination in the waste stream and composting requirements for businesses

but not flowers that were going to compost, and a group of artists worked with the city of Boulder to gather those organic materials separately

helping small bowl small stores implement the Disposable bag fee

in the area of circularity and zero waste we plan to continue the conversation

education program around all of our zero waste commitments in Boulder

6-3-3 accumulation of trash recyclables and compostables prohibited and 6-3-9 special trash service requirements on certain residential rental properties

the analogy that was coming to mind for me was um the plastic bag fee

if you can't compost in a healthy way. you can't have healthy results

contamination and composting streams, and and kind of a lot of switching from compost to to trash services

So I can tell you after trying to start a recycling program for them a couple years ago.

So the small piece of plastic, with a tiny little piece of metal on it that you smoke a half a gram from

I think the disposable of a pen should be banned from the earth.

so single use plastic the dynamics, of the compost economy, right now, which is is very interesting

expanding Boulder's bag feed to include all businesses creates an incentive to skip plastic bags city-wide

nothing we use for just a few minutes should pollute our environment for years and years

now more than ever we have to implement systemic change to turn off the faucet and the stem the flow of plastic

It talked about. How many devices or scooters, I guess were recycled.

Speaking of a single use class? Yeah, but at least we recycle those specialty recycling.

This is really in our circular economy between. Say, we use plastic.

Climate aligned, purchasing and procurement resilience, kind of broadly and single use, plastics

there's a ninety, ninety, six percent uh recycling rate for the scooters as well

the vision is that every every Coloradan should have recycling access that is as good or better than their

those packaging choices are going to result in higher fees for the producers

that very top bullet the producer responsibility bill I don't know how much you all followed that but I want to mention it

I've also heard that it's not the most recyclable material when it's used on a house.

they're a toxic material they have to go in the landfill

push for local ordinances mandating that all retail and food businesses in the city use only compostable packaging

I'm here to voice my support for continued action and focus on composting Recycling and circular economy initiatives in Boulder

getting rid of plastic bags just completely as well as single-use plastics

reducing disposable plastics remains a community priority we continue to get emails and petitions occasionally to ban certain plastic items

this discussion was really triggered by last year's passage of house bill 1162 known as the plastic pollution reduction act

you do nothing about cleaning up the trash and the plastic and the human excrement

it would provide funding for local governments for recycling and waste disposal services

let's make sure to put somebody on there who's interested in the recycling and materials subject

mainly focusing around topics of conserving resources so recycling uh zero waste um composting all those types of things

the lack of recycling and trash bins in obvious site is making it difficult for any citizens

due to chromium and nylene and 13 possible other petrochemicals and metals used in the preservation of fur only suitable disposal of fur is indefinitely in a landfill

one of the most comprehensive plastic pollution reduction bills passed in the country

house bill 1162 phases out single-use plastic bags polystyrene cups and containers

by focusing on circular economy and buildings and repair and reuse of goods

such as energy usage or um waste materials and trash Recycling and compost and another project

that sort of looks like your zero waste program is like yep that's our zero waste program

for zero hunger zero waste that was really inspired by when we first started looking at plastic bags in boulder

prescribe the amount of recycled material that we need through deconstruction

we will be holding several auctions to direct the reuse of materials

to prioritize reuse of building materials over recycling and then prioritize that recycling over landfilling

the next is around materials and resources and this is really building on the circular economy work

drives a sustainable process by recycling many of the building components and materials to ensure they don't end up in the land pill

when did they have this can drive who was involved how many cans were collected where were these cans recycled

so to recycle cans here BPD would have to have bring them to a private recycling facility who pay by weight

to what goes into trash and what goes into a recycled bin even at my own residential complex

increase in food holding use of single use materials and plastic bags

I always think of as the city moves to zero waste where, you know, Yeah, you can take out a few times on Pearl Street

So the first one is a project that the zero waste team has been thinking about for some time and working on

the big murf there which you know was run by ecycle

why is it just we reverse reduced to like the um the landfill type issues and like composting

to advise city council and the city manager which therefore includes all of staff concerning waste management recycling energy efficiency environmental risks

the authority to ban the use or sale of plastics

why must we imagine mass-produced gas vehicles plastics and dyed clothing just to discard them later

these plastics and trash are bio accumulating in the ecosystem as well as hindering water flow

IN THE LANDFILLS POSSIBLE WE'RE HOPING TO DIVERSION RATES ABOVE EIGHTY FIVE PERCENT ON THE PARTICULAR PROJECT

INCREASE LANDFILL DIVERSION RATES AND WE'RE INCREASING THE ENFORCEMENT AROUND THAT AS WELL

moving from not just a zero waste application of recycling and composting but also how do we start

when the city was like should we put compost bins on the sidewalks you guys are doing compostable cups already

all our to-go wears are compostable um we barely throw out trash um we have one small trash can like this

we're asking for a local authority to ban Plastics but there's also going to be a bill

we'd like to give local governments the authority to go further the connection to Plastics is that

repeal the prohibition local government bans on the use or sale of specific types of plastic materials or products

supporting zero waste goals including acquisition of the 6,400 Arapaho site for repurposing and recycling hard to repurpose materials

reflected in the city's current zero waste ordinance ambitious climate goals energy efficiency standards and strong positions

I know this is my day job so I'll just say this real quick that just like there's a lot of unique assets that exist throughout this area like the hospital like recycle row

we're thinking about how we can take advantage of this concentration and work with area businesses to improve their sustainability efforts

we have a concentration of waste and recycling and recycling facilities in this area so including eco cycle and resource

THESE ALL GO IN THE LANDFILL AND RECYCLING BINS FOR PAPER CONTAINERS TO KEEP OUT PLASTIC BAGS

THESE BOTTLES TUBS JUGS AND JARS ARE ALL RECYCLABLE THE NUMBERS ARE FOR MANUFACTURERS

TURNS OUT NINETY PERCENT OF WHAT WE THROW AWAY COULD HAVE BEEN RECYCLED OR COMPOSTED

we're addressing some of the loopholes with demolition permits and fees associated with recycling around demo

I think in changing we're not exactly where we'd like to be in waste diversion

they're not using recycled materials and all their materials are going to the landfill

it is concerning from the durability and the zero waste approach so appreciate that suggestion

including it within the framework of the zero waste right I think that's a really important component

our gold which is recycling as much of the building as we can

a hundred percent of recyclable concrete and asphalt be recycled but that also 75% of total waste tonnage

I WANTED TO JUST BRIEFLY MENTION ABOUT A SINGLE USE PLASTICS

DEFINITELY WANT THE OUTCOME THAT THEY ARE RECYCLING TO SEAM THE RACE

IMPOSE THE SAME DEMOLITION WASTE DIVERSION AND TRACKING REQUIREMENTS THAT ARE IN PLACE FOR RESIDENTIAL PROJECTS

RECYCLING BINS FOR PAPER CONTAINERS TO KEEP OUT PLASTIC BAGS PLASTIC COATED PAPER LIKE TO GO BOXES AND COFFEE CUPS.

AT LEAST TWICE A DAY JAM BAGS HAVE TO BE REMOVED FROM THE RECYCLING CENTER EQUIPMENT.

TURNS OUT NINETY PERCENT OF WHAT WE THROW AWAY COULD HAVE BEEN RECYCLED OR COMPOSTED.

the recycling bin is for paper and containers but keep out plastic bags plastic coated paper

keep anything plastic lines like to go boxes out of the compost

the county with the trash tax in the sense that we went from everybody on the recycling and composting authority

how do we really become a zero waste Society and this slide here shows how successful

we can as a city identified the materials that flow in and out of our region and identify what waste is created

we've gone from about 15 to 20 percent waste diversion to just over 51% but we are really starting to recognize

we would support the repeal of the prohibition contained in state law um on use or sale

while it's a small relatively small volume it does a lot of damage and contamination to our groundwater

under the recycling another one that we've tried to bring up before but have not because of the current state prohibition against Banning styrofoam

WITHIN THE ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY CATEGORY WE HAVE DASH BOARDS FOR BOTH THE GREENHOUSE GAS INVENTORY REDUCTIONS AND ZERO WASTE AS WELL

you agree to engage in a recycling program you agree to donate to local charities

WE WERE WORKING WITH PLASTIC ORCHID LOT OF THINGS WE CAN DO WITH THESE WALLS TO MAKE IT LOOK NATURAL.

AND THAT MIGHT HELP IN SOME OF OUR COMPOST ISSUES RIGHT NOW

THAT HAS TO DO WITH COMPOST. AND DEALING WITH CARBON SEACREST RATION CAN BE ENHANCED BY PUTTING COMPOST AND SOIL AND MIXING IT IN.

AS WITH ECO CYCLE ONCE ONE GETS INTO THE PRACTICE OF DOING THEY'RE KIND OF THING

I'm just gonna put a pull again for us being a model as we deconstruct to have a great recycling and reuse program for those materials

I think I understand zero waste could you talk a little bit about what is division