A New Home for Eco-Cycle and a New CHaRM Center
In the year 1979, Eco-Cycle opened a groundbreaking new facility in the recycling industry called a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF). It was here that newspapers, bottles and cans found a second life instead of death in a landfill.
In the year 2001, Eco-Cycle opened a groundbreaking new facility in the recycling industry called the Center for Hard-to-Recycle Materials (CHaRM). It is here that computers, TVs, book, tennis shoes, plastic bags, and other discarded items are finding a second life instead of death in a landfill.
Both of these facilities have been at 5030 “old” Pearl Street on land leased to us from the City of Boulder. Soon we will have to move since the City needs their land back. This is both a problem and an opportunity.
The Problem: The cost of a new facility is estimated at $3 million.
The Opportunity: We are going to build a wonderful new, more advanced CHaRM for the community and modern, environmentally-friendly offices for Eco-Cycle staff. |
Plans for the New CHaRM
Many of the materials we accept at CHaRM are very weather sensitive. For example, plastic bags must be kept absolutely dry to be of any value for their second life as plastic lumber. If moisture is present during the manufacturing process, the heat needed to remold the recycled plastic will turn the moisture into steam. The steam then becomes a “hole” inside the lumber, thus creating a defective product. Most recyclers in America have done a poor job of keeping plastic bags dry, which is why Eco-Cycle’s CHaRM became the nation’s first public drop-off center for post-consumer bags to meet the factory specs. The factory buyer was so impressed he flew in from Nevada to see how we had done it.
 We struggle at our current facility since it is completely outdoors. What is needed is a 10,000 square foot building to process and warehouse the hard-to-recycle materials so we can keep our end markets happy with the materials we send them. The building must be large enough to house processing equipment such as balers and densifiers, so we can get maximum value out of each material by meeting industry specifications for shipped materials.
New Eco-Cycle Headquarters
Eco-Cycle's staff continues to grow as we expand our services and seek to implement our vision of a Zero Waste society. If you’ve ever been to our offices, you know we've found many creative ways to house our staff. Now we need office and meeting space to meet our current and future operations.
A Model of Green Building for Boulder
Throughout our 30-year history, area residents have looked to Eco-Cycle to set an example of environmentally-sound practices. We are very excited to see the green design for our new site become reality. Our conceptual design includes passive solar heating and cooling principles for the entire layout, natural storm water filtration, a living "green roof" for the CHaRM warehouse, natural lighting in both buildings, solar panels, and recycled building materials just to name a few existing green building features.
Return to the Zero Waste Center |
