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All plastics MUST be clean and free of food.
Nothing larger than 2-1/2 gallons is permitted. All plastics
must be marked #1 to #7. The numbers are usually enclosed
in the “chasing arrows” recycling symbol.
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By Cheryl Kolus, Larimer County
It’s finally happened: Residents can now
recycle most plastic containers #1-7 — much more than just bottles
and jars.
Area recycling drop-offs now accept #1-7 plastics in the “commingled”
bins and most curbside recyclers will take them, too. (If you live
in unincorporated Larimer County and have curbside recycling, call
your trash hauler and ask if it will accept the new plastics.)
The following list explains recyclable plastics under the new guidelines.
Acceptable Plastics
- Narrow-necked bottles #1-2; remove caps
- Any container stamped #1-7 (except those listed under Unacceptable
Plastics below)
- Wide-mouth containers (e.g. butter and cottage cheese tubs)
- Yogurt containers
- Clear clamshells (like deli/bakery sandwich or cookie containers)
- Personal care/prescription bottles
- Pails
- Flower and garden pots
- Nalgene bottles
Unacceptable Plastics
- Frozen entree microwave trays
- Food trays or party platters even if stamped with #1-7
- Shrink wrap or Saran wrap
- Plastic bags
- Automotive chemical containers, including motor oil and antifreeze
bottles
- Pesticide containers - Styrofoam containers
- Compostable bottles or cups marked “compostable”
By Bruce Philbrick
Anyone new to gardening along the Front
Range is horrified the first time they attempt to get a shovel into
the ground, only to find that our “soil” is more like pottery
clay. Besides enlisting this wet, sticky goo to build an adobe hacienda,
one wonders what our soil is any good for. And cultivating this heavy
stuff is physically exhausting.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that these same soils tend
to be fairly high in minerals. And with a generous addition of compost,
you can grow just about anything. Compost that is properly incorporated
into your soil helps break up clay and creates small pockets among
the soil particles for air and water. These are both critical elements
for your plants’ roots and overall growth. In addition, compost
helps balance your soil’s pH, thus allowing your plants to more
readily draw up the nutrients that are already present in the soil.
Composting at home is relatively simple. The amount of work you put
into it depends on how quickly you want the finished product. The
sooner you need it, the more you’ll have to turn it to keep the
degradation process going. It’s a bit like baking; to get a quality
product takes the right proportion of materials, specifically those
high in carbon (like wood chips, dried leaves and shredded paper)
and nitrogen (grass clippings, green vegetation and food scraps).
Ideally, when building a compost pile, you should first chop up some
of the larger materials, like corn and sunflower stalks, berry vines
and that mushy jack-o-lantern. This gives the microbes responsible
for degradation more surface area to work with. Then, as you build
the pile, add matter at a ratio of two parts carbon-rich items to
one part nitrogen-rich items. Wet the materials so they feel as damp
as a wrung-out sponge. The ideal pile is about one cubic yard square.
Too small and it won’t heat up. Too big and it could become anaerobic,
meaning that it will smell like sewer gas and your neighbors will
raise cane. Then, give those micro-organisms time to multiply. Within
a few days, stick your hand into the center of the pile. It should
feel quite warm. This is the result of the body heat of all the millions
of bacteria now feasting away. Think of a small room packed with people…it
gets rather warm. By turning the pile once every two weeks, you’ll
add essential oxygen for the bacteria, and you could have finished
compost in about two months. Leave it alone, and it can be much longer.
Finished compost should appear dark brown, crumbly, and smell sweet.
Run it though a screen, returning the larger pieces back to the pile
for another round. The last step: Add it to your soil.
Search online for more composting resources. Keep in mind that the
materials you compost are not being entombed in a landfill for eternity,
but instead will become a resource that you’ll put right back
to work at home.
By Susie Gordon, City of Fort Collins
 When
we recycle our glass jars and bottles here in Larimer County, they
start on a journey that leads to the Rocky Mountain Bottling Company
in Wheat Ridge, where they’re made into new beer bottles for Coors
Brewing. But because glass is so fragile and breakable, many jars
and bottles may not reach that destination. Broken pieces of glass,
difficult to sort and keep contaminant-free, are considered “rejects”
from the bottle manufacturer’s perspective; optimally, the manufacturers
are looking for clean, intact bottles and jars (especially brown glass)
to recycle.
Unfortunately, a significant amount of glass gets so badly damaged
it’s not fit for recycling. The broken shards of glass must be taken
to landfills where—at best—it may be used as an alternative to the
dirt that is spread over the landfill at the end of every working
day.
To further complicate the situation, single-stream recycling—whereby
all recyclable materials are mixed together in one container—has arrived
in Larimer County. Single-stream is great because it makes recycling
more convenient and increases overall recycling rates, but the roughness
of the handling process takes a toll on the glass. As a result, many
communities around the country have stopped accepting glass. Not only
is it difficult to process, but it also has the lowest economic value
of the conventional recyclables.
Larimer County officials are not ready to give up on glass just yet,
however, and it will continue to be collected at curbside and drop-off
collection bins. But a pilot project is being rolled out this summer
to give citizens the option to recycle separated glass in designated
“glass-only” bins placed at various locations. While it may sound
like déjà vu—a return to the early days when we were asked to separate
everything—this approach creates a clean stream of high quality glass
that will be shipped directly to the bottling plant.
For residents who want to be sure that their recycling efforts will
pay off, it’s a simple solution to keep the glass out of their commingled
recycling bins and take it to a drop-off location instead. So far,
three sites have glass-only containers:
- Rivendell Recycling Center 1702 Riverside Ave, Fort Collins
- Larimer County Recycling Center 5887 S. Taft Hill Rd, Fort Collins
- City of Loveland Drop-off 400 N. Wilson Ave, Loveland
More will be set out over the next few months as feasible host sites
are identified. Know of a good potential site? Call Susie Gordon (970-221-6265)
in Fort Collins or Bruce Philbrick (970-962-2609) in Loveland..
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You
can now recycle your burned out compact fluorescents (CFLs) at the
following Fort Collins locations: 
