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The environment desk at Aspen Public Radio covers issues in the Roaring Fork Valley and throughout the state of Colorado including water use and quality, impact of recreation, population growth and oil and gas development. APR’s Environment Reporter is Elizabeth Stewart-Severy.

Summit in Snowmass Tackles Challenges of Local Recycling

Elizabeth Stewart-Severy
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Aspen Public Radio

Colorado’s top recycling experts are gathering in Snowmass Village this week to discuss solutions for Colorado’s recycling challenges.

 

The theme of the Colorado Association for Recycling’s annual meeting is “Who needs China’s markets? Creating solutions in Colorado.” There are 12 roundtable discussions, and executive director Laurie Johnson said the goal of each is to identify one action project for the next year.

Much of the discussion focuses on creating a circular economy for each material that is recyclable in Colorado. For example, when you recycle a glass bottle, it’s not only processed at a regional facility, it’s also turned back into a bottle that is sold locally.  

“While we can collect and process a lot of the materials, we don't have the end markets for them," Johnson said.

Colorado does have markets for glass and steel. Experts are discussing how to create them for material like plastics and construction waste.

There will also be tours of the Rio Grande Recycling Center, Pitkin County Landfill and Aspen Skiing Company micro-hydro plant.

 

Aspen native Elizabeth Stewart-Severy is excited to be making a return to both the Red Brick, where she attended kindergarten, and the field of journalism. She has spent her entire life playing in the mountains and rivers around Aspen, and is thrilled to be reporting about all things environmental in this special place. She attended the University of Colorado with a Boettcher Scholarship, and graduated as the top student from the School of Journalism in 2006. Her lifelong love of hockey lead to a stint working for the Colorado Avalanche, and she still plays in local leagues and coaches the Aspen Junior Hockey U-19 girls.
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