Denver Recycles, a program of the Department of Public Works/Solid Waste Management, has launched an expanded residential recycling program.
The new residential recycling program employs single stream collection and includes seven new materials: corrugated cardboard, junk mail, paperboard, office paper, magazines and catalogs, phone books and brown paper bags.
The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 35 percent of trash generated by the average family is paper that can be recycled,” Gary Price, director of solid waste management for the city of Denver, says. “We wan to increase diversion from the residential waste stream, so we’re adding seven new types of paper to the recycling program.
“This new expanded program will be the first of its kind in Colorado, and we are hopeful that it will make it possible to divert almost twice the amount of materials from the landfill,” Charlotte Pitt, recycling program manager for Denver Recycles, says.
Residents’ current recycling bins will slowly be replaced with new, larger wheeled recycling carts. According to a release from the Denver Recycles, it will take up to five years to replace the collection bins.
Denver is able to expand the materials it collects as a result of its partnership with Recycle America Alliance (RAA), a majority-owned subsidiary of Houston-based Waste Management, and its redesigned and retrofitted Franklin Street Recycling Materials Recovery Facility (MRF), according to Denver Recycles.
RAA has installed single-stream processing equipment at the MRF to separate the mixed recyclables. Denver Recycles says the MRF is capable of processing an estimated 30 tons of material per hour, with its initial goal being to process about 4,000 tons of material per month, with the hope of growing to 10,000 tons per month by 2008.
“Single-stream recycling offers residents of Denver an easy and convenient way to recycle more,” Brad Heinrich, Western region director for RAA, says. “Cities all across the country who have adopted this system have seen recycling increase by as much as 50 percent.”
Additional information on Denver’s expanded recycling program is available online at www.DenverGov.org/DenverRecycles.