Recycle Train is back for electronics waste (E-Waste) only! We have partnered with Gunnison County and the City of Gunnison for monthly E-Waste drop-off events.
THANK YOU TO THOSE WHO HAVE RECYCLED WITH US! With your support, we have diverted over 41,000 lbs. from the landfill. This is a huge milestone accomplishment for community!
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Our Impact
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Recycle Train has prevented
Metric Tons of Carbon Dioxide Equivalent (MTC2DE) Greenhouse Gas emissions from our landfill
This is equivalent to:
Eliminating the annual emissions from 7 Passenger Vehicles
Conserving 3,560 Gallons of Gasoline
Conserving 1,318 Cylinders of Propane Used for Home Barbeques
Items we cannot accept and where they can be disposed of within Gunnison County
The following items can be dropped off free of charge at the Gunnison County Recycling Center at 195 Basin Park Drive in Gunnison.
The following items can be dropped off at the Waste Management Transfer Station at 467 Riverland Drive in Riverland for an $8 fee. Hours M-F 9am-3:30pm. Cash or Check only.:
Batteries. The Gunnison Post office will accept used batteries.
Pharmaceuticals. The Gunnison County Sheriff’s or Crested Butte Marshal's office will accept unwanted or expired prescription drugs.
Recla Metals at 136 S Maple in Montrose also accepts electronics that are made of metal, such as laptops and computer towers for $0.02 per pound. They cannot accept plastic electronics like televisions or printers.
- #1 and 2 plastics
- Aluminum
- Tin
- Corrugated cardboard (boxes)
- Paperboard
- Glass (brown, green and clear)
- Newspapers and magazines
- Paper that has not been shredded
The following items can be dropped off at the Waste Management Transfer Station at 467 Riverland Drive in Riverland for an $8 fee. Hours M-F 9am-3:30pm. Cash or Check only.:
- All materials listed above that Gunnison County Recycling Center takes
- #3 through #8 plastic
- Blue Glass
- UNwaxed Paperboard (cereal boxes, cracker boxes, any box that contains dry goods, no paperboard used for refrigerated or freezer items) NO Pizza Boxes, NO milk or juice containers.
- Phone Books
- Catalogs
- Junk Mail
- Brown Paper and Brown Paper Bags
- Paint and paint cans
- Lightbulbs
- Fertilizers
- Glue
- Herbicides/pesticides
- Motor oil/gasoline
- Metal, including appliances that are primarily metal, lawnmowers, scrap metal, etc.
- Refrigerators and Freezers
- Mattresses
- Vehicle tires
Batteries. The Gunnison Post office will accept used batteries.
Pharmaceuticals. The Gunnison County Sheriff’s or Crested Butte Marshal's office will accept unwanted or expired prescription drugs.
Recla Metals at 136 S Maple in Montrose also accepts electronics that are made of metal, such as laptops and computer towers for $0.02 per pound. They cannot accept plastic electronics like televisions or printers.
About Recycle Train
For a small, rural community, we actually have good recycling infrastructure. Between Waste Management, the City of Gunnison, Gunnison County, and the efforts of local businesses and organizations to provide recycling and disposal of many items, we’re in decent shape.
However, there are tons of materials that cannot be recycled at facilities here and that is a big problem. The Gunnison County Energy, Materials, and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory from 2015 forecasts landfill greenhouse gas emissions will grow 21% between 2015 and 2030, a greater percentage growth than every other sector studied except ground transportation. Luckily, many big institutions in the Gunnison Valley are invested in finding a solution to our waste problems. With those institutions, including Western Colorado University, Vail Resorts, and the Town of Crested Butte, we hope to facilitate the building of an industrial composting and hard-to-recycle materials facility here in the Gunnison Valley.
Like many small organizations in the Gunnison Valley, we’re good at figuring out interim solutions as we work towards our bigger goals. We have come up with a few programs to help us meet the demand for recycling while we partner with others to solve the bigger problem of how to build a composting and recycling facility in Gunnison County.
For now, we’ve partnered with local businesses and volunteers to recycle materials that would otherwise go to the landfill in Doyleville. The Crested Butte Rotary Club gave us grant funding to pilot the program with local retailers. We call it the “Recycle Train.”
Participating local businesses, including The Alpineer, Flatiron Sports, Dragonfly Anglers, and Chopwood Mercantile, collect all of their hard-to-recycle items. Our volunteers pick them up from the participating businesses and take them to a Sustainable CB storage facility. Then, volunteers who are driving to Boulder for other reasons agree to take the items in their vehicles to the Eco-Cycle CHaRM (Center for Hard to Recycle Materials) Facility. Individuals can participate as well. Just email us at [email protected] to ask how to get your hard-to-recycle stuff on the Recycle Train.
However, there are tons of materials that cannot be recycled at facilities here and that is a big problem. The Gunnison County Energy, Materials, and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory from 2015 forecasts landfill greenhouse gas emissions will grow 21% between 2015 and 2030, a greater percentage growth than every other sector studied except ground transportation. Luckily, many big institutions in the Gunnison Valley are invested in finding a solution to our waste problems. With those institutions, including Western Colorado University, Vail Resorts, and the Town of Crested Butte, we hope to facilitate the building of an industrial composting and hard-to-recycle materials facility here in the Gunnison Valley.
Like many small organizations in the Gunnison Valley, we’re good at figuring out interim solutions as we work towards our bigger goals. We have come up with a few programs to help us meet the demand for recycling while we partner with others to solve the bigger problem of how to build a composting and recycling facility in Gunnison County.
For now, we’ve partnered with local businesses and volunteers to recycle materials that would otherwise go to the landfill in Doyleville. The Crested Butte Rotary Club gave us grant funding to pilot the program with local retailers. We call it the “Recycle Train.”
Participating local businesses, including The Alpineer, Flatiron Sports, Dragonfly Anglers, and Chopwood Mercantile, collect all of their hard-to-recycle items. Our volunteers pick them up from the participating businesses and take them to a Sustainable CB storage facility. Then, volunteers who are driving to Boulder for other reasons agree to take the items in their vehicles to the Eco-Cycle CHaRM (Center for Hard to Recycle Materials) Facility. Individuals can participate as well. Just email us at [email protected] to ask how to get your hard-to-recycle stuff on the Recycle Train.
“Sustainable CB has been great for Chopwood Mercantile! In the past we have spent considerable money and resources shipping our plastic to California for recycling. Now that we can recycle locally, I feel much better that we are doing our best to support our little valley and a local charity.”
Lisa Cramton, Owner, Chopwood Mercantile