Dear Eartha,

I am a Breckenridge resident and heard through the grapevine that the Recycling Center will be moving. Can you tell me more about the changes? Thanks!

Sally

Breckenridge

Dear Sally,

You heard right! The Breckenridge Recycling Center, located at 450 County Road across from 7-11 will be moving on Tuesday, Jan. 26, in order to clear the way for a new workforce housing development called Huron Landing. The development is a partnership between Summit County government and the town of Breckenridge and will provide 26 two-bedroom rental units priced for local workers at 80 percent AMI. The Breckenridge Recycling Center will be relocated to a new and improved site at 284 Coyne Valley Road, just north of Colorado Mountain College and the Breckenridge Community Gardens.

If you’ve been to the Breckenridge Recycling Center recently, you may have had some parking troubles, especially if it was busy and the trucks were loading and unloading containers. It wasn’t a terribly visible location and there was limited space for all the different containers. The new Recycling Center located on Coyne Valley Road will be much more accommodating. It’s been designed to have pull through parking for the public and a separate area for haulers to be able to pick-up and replace containers safely. It’s fenced in to prevent litter problems to the surrounding areas and will have more capacity for materials.

Besides the improvements to optimize traffic flow and capacity, not much will change. The site will continue to collect plastic No. 1 and No. 2 bottles, mixed metals, cardboard, mixed paper, scrap metal, colored glass, clear glass and batteries. In addition, food scrap containers will also move to the new site for food scrap composting. The FoodSCRAP program is a membership based program run through the High Country Conservation Center. Members can drop off food scraps for as little as $10/month where it’s composted at the High Country Compost Facility and made into a nutrient rich compost for lawn and garden use.

One major change to all recycling centers in Summit County is that antifreeze, motor oil and oil filters will no longer be accepted due to water quality issues. These materials can still be taken to the Summit County Resource Allocation Park (SCRAP) located on Landfill Rd. and properly disposed of for free! The SCRAP is open Monday – Friday 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturdays until noon. Other hard to recycle materials such as electronics, household hazardous waste, and appliances can be properly recycled at the SCRAP. Please avoid dumping hard to recycle materials at the drop-centers. It’s illegal to do so and creates problems for collection. Illegal dumping can result in costly fines if you’re caught!

Finally, let me provide a quick reminder about glass recycling. The new Breckenridge Recycling Center will collect colored glass and clear glass. Glass is one of the rare materials that is infinitely recyclable if it’s properly recovered. Our glass in Summit County goes to Rocky Mountain Bottle Company in Golden where it’s made into new bottles. Known as bottle-to-bottle recycling, this is the highest and best use for glass but it requires residents to separate glass from other materials. If you’re using the drop-off center, you’re already separating materials, so keep up the great work! If you happen to have curbside recycling, glass is not accepted. It breaks and contaminates other materials, devaluing all of the products and could ultimately end up in the landfill. To truly recycle glass and help keep the value of other materials high, please use the free recycling centers and source separate your glass. For business solutions to glass recycling, you can contact the High Country Conservation Center. They might have some new programs for you in coming months, so stay tuned!

Eartha would like to thank everyone for your participation in the county’s recycling program. The state of Colorado falls drastically short of the national average for recycling and we can do better! Tell your neighbor, educate your friends, and help spread the word on recycling.

Ask Eartha Steward is written by the staff at the High Country Conservation Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to sustainable food, waste reduction and resource conservation. Submit questions to Eartha at eartha@highcountryconservation.org.