CHaRM’S New Earth Day Offering: Yoga Mat Recycling!
by Dan Matsch
We’re accepting another new material at the CHaRM, and this one comes not a moment too soon for maintaining the eco-karma of thousands of area yogis and yoginis: Beginning Earth Day, April 22, 2010, the CHaRM will accept yoga mats for recycling! (It wouldn’t be Boulder if we didn’t recycle yoga mats, now would it?)
It’s Eco-Cycle’s mission to accept at least one new hard-to-recycle item each year, and while we haven’t let our current cramped quarters keep us from fulfilling our pledge, we are excited to report that we are continuing forward with plans to move the CHaRM from our storage-challenged location on “old” Pearl St. to 6400 Arapahoe Ave. There we’ll be erecting the warehouse we have always envisioned for the CHaRM and joining ReSource on that site.
Why recycling yoga mats matters
Though it may be modest in scope, yoga mat recycling represents an important step in working with local manufacturers to build local recycling markets for materials that would otherwise be bound for the landfill. As with our bicycle inner tube recycling program, the yoga mats we collect will be used as “textile” material by local companies to make new products like messenger bags, laptop covers and totes.
You can expect to see more partnerships between Eco-Cycle® and local manufacturers in the coming years. In the past, the standard formula for recycling most materials has been to sort and consolidate loads locally before shipping to large processors, sometimes located in distant states. But, as the cost of transportation continues to rise, we see local enterprise as the key to finding new life for many of the CHaRM’s “non-traditional” materials. We are fortunate to live in an area with an abundance of entrepreneurs who recognize the value of “recycled content” in the products they make. So, please support local recycling partners (visit
www.ecocycle.org/charm for a list) and stay tuned for more local processing and manufacturing partnerships in the near future!
© Copyright 2010 Eco-Cycle, Inc. All Rights Reserved
No part of this publication may be transmitted or reproduced in any form without the express permission of the publisher. |
