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Denver: Recycling roll-out completed
Cherry Creek News
October 31, 2006
Mayor John Hickenlooper announced Monday the completed roll-out of Denver's expanded residential recycling program – three years ahead of schedule. The Mayor used the opportunity to challenge Denver residents not currently participating in the program to "ReThink Recycling" and sign up for service by calling 3-1-1. A component of the Mayor's Greenprint Denver sustainability initiative, the expanded recycling program's goal is to increase recyclables collected, thus decreasing landfill use and helping to preserve the environment.
"These programmatic enhancements have made it easier for residents to recycle and, to date, we've seen a 24 percent increase in the amount of recyclables collected," said Mayor Hickenlooper. "Our Greenprint Denver goals call for even greater increases in recycling in 2007, so today, I challenge Denver residents to do their part by participating in the recycling program. Recycling is one of the easiest ways in which each of us can play a role in protecting our environment and making our community more sustainable."
The expanded residential recycling program consists of three key components. The two changes launched in June 2005 included the addition of seven new recyclable materials and the ability to mix the recyclables rather than sorting them, known as single-stream recycling. The third and final change involved the citywide replacement of the old recycling bins with larger wheeled recycling carts. Occurring in five phases from September 2005 through October 2006, this replacement was expected to take up to five years to reach all residents. As a result of the positive response from residents and the ability to fund the expedited purchase of the carts, however, the replacement is complete three years ahead of schedule.
"This new expanded service is just another example of how the Public Works Department is doing more with less," said Bill Vidal, Manager of Denver Public Works. "I'm proud of the staff at Solid Waste Management/Denver Recycles. They have designed a simpler, easier-to-use service that will allow us to recycle more than ever before. Now that we've put the program is in place, it's up to Denver residents to use the service and help reduce waste in our city."
The City of Denver was recently recognized by the Solid Waste Association of North America with the 2006 Innovation Award and by the National Recycling Coalition with the 2006 Outstanding Recycling Public Education award.
Denver Recycles is a program of Denver Public Works/Solid Waste Management. It provides recycling collection services to residents of the City and County of Denver who live in single-family homes and multi-family buildings of seven or fewer units. There is no charge for the service. Once requested, the City will deliver a recycling container along with all the necessary information to begin recycling. Residents wishing to sign up to participate in the recycling program may simply call 3-1-1 or online at www.denvergov.org/DenverRecycles.
Article URL: http://www.thecherrycreeknews.com/content/view/855/2/
